Parents,
How did you teach your kids to identify 'boys' and 'girls'? I mean, my parents used to tell me (this was about 30 yrs back...) that boys are those who have short hair and who wear shirts and trousers. Girls were those who had pony/pigtails and who wore little dresses. Well, that concept hardly means anything today... :D
I was trying to figure out how to introduce this concept with DD, and we started with daddy is a boy. M. is a girl. DD is a girl too. She said, no I like being a boy, so I'll call myself a boy.
??!! What do you say to a response like that?? :))
BTW, would you mind sharing your funny experiences of teaching your kids to tell between boys and girls?
PS: She's 30 mos old. She does recognize men and women, but the terms are like play words to her...:)
I never taught that to our son.
It's something he picked up in daycare/preschool.
He went through a stage where he thought girls were yucky (he was about 4 yrs old) and boys were best.
I told him that I'm a girl.
He got this horrified look on his face and said " M. is NOT a girl! M. is M.!".
My husband almost fell over laughing!
I told my son about age 3 that boys and girls had different parts and he knew what they were called. When he was 5 1/2 his baby sister was born. The first time he saw me changing his baby sisters diaper he looked confused. Finally he came to me and asked "M. why does Harlee Quinn have 2 butts?" O_o clearly even though he knew boys and girls had different parts he didn't know what they looked like lol
Updated
I told my son about age 3 that boys and girls had different parts and he knew what they were called. When he was 5 1/2 his baby sister was born. The first time he saw me changing his baby sisters diaper he looked confused. Finally he came to me and asked "M. why does Harlee Quinn have 2 butts?" O_o clearly even though he knew boys and girls had different parts he didn't know what they looked like lol
I never taught, actually. He just kind of figured out and noticed. He still gets ma'am and sir mixed up a bit, but I figure he will work that out.
What she is saying, is totally normal :) I wouldn't worry too much about it. Pretty soon, it will be "eeew, boys!"
By that age we had a son in the house, so sister naturally saw the differences between boys and girls. You could simply say to her that boys and girls have different "privite" parts, this is assuming that she already knows that certain areas of her body are privite.
I just wanted to share a silly story with you about short hair etc. My kids (8yo dd, 5 yo ds) retold a story to me in the car one day that I was not really prepared for. Their cousin (9yo Girl) told them about this girl who looked so much like a boy that she HAD to merry another girl and they both had babies! It was a great teaching moment for me to try and explain that she didn't HAVE to merry a girl BECAUSE she looked like a boy. But that also adults make their own choises. Then my DS wanted to know if two boys got married would they both have babies. I said no, they don't have the right parts for that. To which he replied, "oh we do, they are just too small for holding babies!" WHAT??? LOL
They are so sweet and innocent. I love that they are realizing that people are different in lots of different ways and that adults get to make choices for themselves without labeling them one way or another.
I never taught it, it was just something they naturally understood in time.
Her reaction is normal.
My son seemed to naturally grasp that he was like Daddy and M. was different. He was about 2 1/2 and the only thing I could think of was to tell him that boys have a "dinky" and girls have a "hoo-hah". But as far as who is what, he knows it naturally.
Her response is really cute. At her (presumably very young) age, I would just say, "Okay, you can call yourself a boy if you want." There's really no point in forcing the issue. When she needs to sort it out, socially, she will.
