Do you agree with cultural stereotypes of gender?

I don’t care – I don’t gender my children (in my home and in my parenting) and it therefore doesn’t matter to me. To elaborate, I don’t parent in any one particular way because my sons are sons and not daughters. There is no time when I think ‘oh this is because they’re boys or I should do this because they’re boys’. My husband and I are adamant about raising people not men.

I would choose a healthy child. Really. Gender determines very little about personality and the kind of child they’ll be.
The idea of having a bunch of sons is great. The idea of having a bunch of daughters is great. The idea of having a mix is great.

A healthy child.

I want a daughter.
I’ve always wanted to be a menacing father holding a shotgun telling his daughter’s date to have her home by 10.

I agree with the other comments. It dosn’t matter as long as they are healthy. There are things about the two which can change your preferences later on. But they are pretty much the same for the first couple years. That is actually a really hard question! I guess having one of each would be cool

@Sarcasm why don’t you just ask your neighbors if you could do it to their daughter’s dates and skip the rest of it. ‘cause you know the rest of it is a lot of work.

Yes.

One of each would be nice. I could be the dad that teaches my son how to play foot ball, and then turn around and help fix my daughters broken heart .

I’m convinced I’d be a horrible dad, but I still wanna try. I know my kids would be good people.

@Sarcasm Shotgun is good…. But this is better

@Shield_of_Achilles how are you going to fix your son’s broken heart?

I never cared what gender my children would be. However, having one of each at this point, I must admit that I vastly prefer the girl. But then her brother has a mental illness that makes living with him quite challenging.

In any case, in our family we hyphenate last names upon marriage, so neither name dies out.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I can’t believe I didn’t think about that. Thanks!
I change my answer! I want a bouncing baby boy. Because I want to play baseball with him and, as we all know, girls aren’t allowed to play sports ever.

It’s somewhat strange that people think a boy costs less to bring up. I mean, a girl is more likely to settle down at a younger age and not rely on her parents income. Whereas a boy will likely spend longer at home and pursue further studies, which the parents will probably have to contribute money to.

Also, a woman can keep her last name and continue on the family name. My aunty has done that and now her son will carry it on (unless of course he decides not to have kids). If the parents care so much about their family name they should at least try and convince their daughter to keep it, but it shouldn’t be a deciding factor to having a girl or boy.

@HTDC Wait, what? A boy gets an education while a girl makes a nice little home for herself?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Read my answer again. You seem to have missed a word. =p

@Sarcasm By the way, you look really different in that photo.

@HTDC I agree with you. But after a woman get married her last name will follow her husband last name,so it’s become invalid.

@Doctor_D Not always true in the US. A woman can keep her last name, hyphenate, create a new one, or take her husband’s. And some husbands take their wife’s.

@Doctor_D My aunty and uncle are married and her last name is still the same as it was when she was born.

When we were expecting our first baby, my husband and I both hoped it would be a boy. I had a lot more experience with caring for little boys, and the very few little girls I had known weren’t very pleasant. My husband wanted a boy because he felt a boy would be easier to relate to, play with, and understand.

We went to the ultrasound appointment very excited to find out the sex of the baby. Of course, the baby was positioned so the sex was unclear at first, but by the time the baby moved neither of us cared anymore about the sex. It was a girl, but neither of us was disappointed. She, of course, turned out to be an awesome kid. By the time her brothers were born, she had us well-trained. ;)

My husband’s family constantly asked us when we were going to have another baby so we could “try for a boy.” His grandfather, in particular, reminded us several times that it was up to us to have a boy to carry on the family name. Like that’s my biggest priority in life… We did have a boy, which was great because everyone got off our backs and because we would get to experience having a son as well as a daughter. However, my husband said, “We could having nothing but girls and I’d be perfectly happy.” I felt the same way.

We had one more baby, a boy again, and we’re done. Sometimes I have a brief moment of insanity when I think that having another baby wouldn’t be so bad if I knew it would be a girl. My daughter is turning 11 soon, and I miss her baby and toddler days.

I don’t care what I have. A boy would be nice and a girl would be nice. All babies need love caring and kindness, and somebody to be there to clean them up when they make a mess. So to me it doesn’t matter.

I always thought I wanted girls. I had 2 and they were amazing, then… surprise…... I had a boy! Nothing compares. When my son was little he would say, “your so beautiful mommy,” and mean it like no other man in the world ever would.
I love all my kids and could never choose, but I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed being a boy mommy!
As a grandma, I had boys first and I am just blown away!! The girls haven’t bonded so closely with me yet, (They’re still babies,) but those little boys! WOW! They are SOOOOO perfect!

@Doctor_D Where are you from? In the US I know women can keep their own name, or take their husband’s, or have a hybrid name (e.g. Smith-Jones). I bet they could make up a totally new last name if they really wanted to.

@Likeradar No!!! Of course not. It’s just that the statistics show girls are more likely to do that.

@HTDC and @Likeradar I see. In my country men will takeover the last name from generation to generation as suggested by religion.

@Shield_of_Achilles maybe it’s cause I haven’t had lunch yet today but I don’t undestand what you mean. sorry

I’d prefer both.

Yes @Doctor_D what is this strange country of yours?

@Doctor_D Most women in the US do take their husband’s last name, but it is a choice. There are plenty of women who don’t.

it’s so interesting how much all of these notions are romaticized in people’s minds even when we know that in reality all these things are not always how they are

@Doctor_D i never took my husbands’ last names and i’ve been married twice

Since the question is “If you could choose”, I’ll actually answer the original question.

I KNOW I want both at least one girl and one boy. If I had it my way, I’d want a boy first.
Older protective brother? Yes, please.

Obviously, I’d be completely happy just to be able to have a child in general. I know and understand that not all babies are healthy and some are born with severe illnesses, but I’d put up the biggest fight that I could just to make sure their lives are as “normal” as possible. Healthy or not, I’d love them all the same.

Girl. With auburn hair and green eyes, medium build, above average intelligence and a good sense of humour if it could be arranged

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I want 2 kids. A boy to be the kick ass dad I never had, ya know, teaching him about cars, and football, and how to make really awesome pinewood derby cars. AND a girl so I can be the dad that she can go to with all her troubles when boys start coming around and such. I think I’d fail miserably, but I also know that my kids would grow up to be good people.

@Lightlyseared I can’t stand natural red heads….

@Sarcasm and @HTDC Oh I live in Indonesia. Many people in my country still follow their own traditional way of earning last name. Even the majority of the country tribe suggest the same way (some minority tribe only allow women to carry their family last name). The religion in my country(Islam) hardly force that anyway (a man is the leader of you and your family,therefore women must accept their husband’s dominance).

@Shield_of_Achilles thats why we need to sort out designer babies as soon as possible

I’ve heard a lot that girls are harder to raise than boys, but I’m not sure where that comes from. I wonder if it’s because they are raised differently according to gender. If that’s the case, then I don’t care, because my kids, regardless of sex, will get as similar treatment as I can give.

In recent years I’ve babysat several young infant boys and girls and I must say that when baby boys cry, they’re easier on my ears. In that regard I’m glad to have a boy and another on the way… lol. Other than that, I’ve noticed that they’re mostly the same, until they get older and the actual physiological differences are more evident.

I read a study (I’m trying furiously to find it) where a group of young chimpanzees were given various toys, including cars, building blocks, baby dolls, etc. The girl chimpanzees gravitated toward the “girl” toys like dolls, and the boy chimps went for the cars. I don’t know what this means for humanity, but I’m sure that nature has its reasons for such differences.

I think I typed more than necessary, so in summary, I don’t have a preference because they’ll be raised the same, and the kid will turn out how he or she will, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

@Shield_of_Achilles right, i got it correctly the first time…you have idealized notions about gender roles for your kids…got it…so to put a little bit of a perspective I asked you how you would comfort your son when he has a broken heart instead of your daughter

Ideally, I would like to have one of each, just so I could have experience with both. Of course, I would be a gay parent, so I couldn’t care less about the last name. I have two brothers that can carry that on. I would not indulge in gender roles or anything (just like my parents didn’t) and I would teach them from an early age equality and such, and thus, hopefully avoid them becoming the typical homophobic teenagers that so many people are at that age (much less common around here; I know it depends on where you live, but I’m not necessarily going to live in the Bay Area my whole life). I would love to have a family, whether the kids are adopted or from a surrogate or whatever. I don’t have any strong preference toward gender, so if I only hadn’t one kid, I honestly wouldn’t prefer one gender over the other.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I really loved that answer, but I don’t think Shield_of_Achilles completely understands what you mean.

I don’t want one or the other, I want both! Kids are so damn fabulous that I would be happy with any I could get my hands on. :)

@Simone_De_Beauvoir: I’m with you on this. People seem to have this idea that the big stuff doesn’t affect boys as much as girls which is just simply not true. If my son gets a broken heart, or gets someone pregnant, or falls in love, you can bet I’ll be right there to give him all the help, love and advice he needs.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir OOOHHH. My bad. It wouldn’t be the same conversation of course, but I would do it just the same as I would with my daughter. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want to be the parent that neither of mine were. Ya know? I wanna deserve that “World’s best dad” mug.

well now this is a completely different kind of question. and a much bigger one, at that. and my answer is a big fat no. I do not agree with gender norms because they’re placed on all people regardless of relevance or reality. I believe gender norms are uber-arbitrary and unnecessary for all. if a girl wants to be a girly girl, whatever…if a boy wants to be all manly when he grows up…whatever…just you make sure that your notions of gender don’t prohibit my children from doing whatever they want to do (or any other children, for that matter) and we’ll be fine…it’s like this: people can have whatever gender expression they want but DON’T tell others they’re wrong for being one way or another or for having this kind of an outfit or desire or whatever…

@Shield_of_Achilles and I would ask ‘why wouldn’t it be the exact same kind of a conversation?’

@HTDC Where did you get those statistics?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir If my son is anything like me and my brother, he won’t want to talk about it. Plus, in all my experience, ya know, being a guy and having guy friends, I’ve noticed that when guys are down, all we really do is say something about it once, and then go off and do something stupid till we forget about it. I feel that a long drawn out explanation of why boys and girls at his age suck would do less than some go karts.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I know how this is all going to play out. It’s life, you always have to account for variable change, all I’m saying is that I want to have kids and I want to be a big part of their life.

@Shield_of_Achilles all that stuff is socialized…neither you nor your son have to be ‘men of few words’...how you speak to your children, what you model will go a long way

Hm.

Prior to having children, I always thought a boy and a girl would be great. That was when I had never even taken care of children before. When I was a nanny, the boys were the toughest…one refused to potty train, one was a little smartass and helping him with his homework drove me nuts.
And now I’m about to give birth to my second son. ;)

I knew my first was a boy. I wanted a healthy baby, but did want a boy…I would have been thrilled with a girl though. This time around, I think I just assumed it’d be a girl since my pregnancy felt different and I just thought it was a girl. I was wrong, but not upset. I know what it’s like to have a boy…and whoever said boys are easier apparently never had a boy to raise lol.
Also, I disagree about the costs as well. There’s a crap ton of pink stuff to buy, maybe parents do that in excess so it seems like girls are more expensive? But, my son already has a hobby (trains) and I’m sure he’ll do sports or whatever activity he wants to do and we’ll have to pay for that..just as if we had a girl doing sports. We’d send them both to camps and whatnot…same costs.

Oh, and I don’t agree with the stereotypes. It’s annoying. I spent an hour at Toys R Us the other day, just trying to find gender neutral toys (and yes, I’m about to have a second boy but I don’t need blue toys to vomit on my floor). I wanted a doctor kit for my 2.5 year old. I searched ALL over and found a hot pink doctor kit, and a “little mommy kit” Apparently mommy’s give vaccines. Who knew. I finally found a teal one, which was good enough. The fact that they push the pink and that only mommy’s do that sort of thing just frustrates me.

@casheroo ugh, don’t even get me started on the toys…it’s insane in those places…and then when little boys grow up, they don’t want to buy the toys in the ‘pink section’ cause they learn to associate that with girls and learn to associate girls with ‘different’ ‘icky’ ‘other’...whatever…so even though I know he’d want to play with the MyLittlePonies…he’d squirm and say ‘that’s for girls’...I can already hear it…for now though I model to him that he can choose from anywhere and sound equally as excited about all toys and equally as unexcited about toys I find to be ridiculous for ANYONE like toddler manicure and pedicure kits (wtf! is wrong with people) or army stuff…

I think how you raise each child pretty much depends on the personality of that child. My son told me his hurt, one daughter never wants to talk about hurts and the other will sometimes. My son and one daughter could do plumbing if necessary but the other daughter would go stay at someone else’s house. They all had to help with DIY everything in this house. So I don’t think gender is so much involved.

Don’t you find it interesting that in all animals except humans, females are more valued than males? No one wants a pasture full of bulls or stallions, you hope for cows or mares. Humans lost the plot somewhere and decided males are preferable????? And the more primitive the culture the more prevalent this sentiment.

@rooeytoo no reason either gender/sex should be preferrable.

How can anyone believe the stereotypes when there are counter examples everywhere you look?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Sure there is. For example, roosters don’t give us tasty tasty eggs! oh, you’re talking about humans.

@Sarcasm yes but you should respect the cock all the same

I used to think little boys weren’t any different from little girls. Our daughter was always very active and outgoing, loved playing outside and getting dirty, wrestling with Daddy, things like that. I didn’t see how having a little boy would be much different until the pre-teen years.

Then, our boys came along. All three of our kids have similar personalities, in that they are all very outgoing and assertive. Stubborn to the core, determined, and resistant to anything other than what they want to do. However, the boys are much less likely to listen and seem to interpret the word “no” as a personal challenge. We could say to our daughter when she was little, “Don’t touch that,” and she wouldn’t touch it. The boys would be like, “You mean this? This thing I’m going to pick up a hundred times, and if you move it I’ll climb on things and nearly kill myself to get? This thing?”

Now that our daughter is in those lovely “tween” years (what a great marketing term that is), the differences are more pronounced. We’ve always done the same things with the kids, like having all of them help with chores, help with building things, the same toys and games. I can’t imagine forcing things on them or denying them things based on their gender. I think boys and girls are somewhat different, in general, but not in ways that limits either of them or determines what they can/can’t/should/shouldn’t do.

maybe we, as parents, should all remind ourselves that our kids are influenced by many other social forces other than ourselves…so the way they ‘turn out to be’ isn’t actually any pre-programmed way but based on what kind of experiences they’ve had around them, what’s ‘cool’ at the moment, etc….it also depends on the kids themselves…and how much they feel they can stand up to the norms

@All and @Simone_De_Beauvoir Sorry for the inconvenient of this question. I have to change it because the moderator suggest me to do so (I get modded!).

@Simone_De_Beauvoir ; It is awesome that you figured that out while your kids are young. I stressed so much when I was having trouble with my kids as adolescents and preadolescents. (Turns out 2 of them are bi-polar.) Until I accepted and realized that my kids were not little extensions of ME, that they were their own people and had a responsibility for their own destiny, I was mired in guilt, anguish and frustration. Giving them responsibility for their own destiny was freeing for all of us.

@Doctor_D no, no it’s okay…happens all the time…

I’d like a super intelligent and extremely physically gifted child that can win a nobel prize and become a sports super star and shower his/her dear old dad with gifts and such. Other than that… healthy, happy and loved.

@Dr_C I’ll take your kid too.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir you can be godmother or something :P

Gender stereotypes are BS.

Having cared for a considerable number of infants in my life (used to be a daycare teacher), I really wanted to have a boy first. In my experience, girls sleep less, cry more, and are much more finicky eaters. Didn’t want to deal with that on the first kid.

Also, I remember being a kid wishing I had a cool older brother like my friends had. My son gets to be that cool older brother now. ^_^

@Seek_Kolinahr – your description of a little girl is exactly how my little brother was as a baby. Apparently I was the easy one. Go figure.

Im the yougest boy out of 3 kids. I have an older brother and a older sister im 27 my sister is 32 and my brother is 36. none of us have kids so as of right now i would choose to have a boy so the family name can live long and prosper. i say that because my siblings do not seem to want kids anytime soon.

I’d want a girl. But im not stereotyping gender. I’d just rather have a girl :]

I know that people in India would rather have guys though, because they ARE cheaper. With girls theres a “dowry” o.o So old-fashioned.

@Dr_C definitely or something

There are cultural stereotypes of gender which I don’t necessarily agree with. However, there are biological roots to behaviour which are instantiated across a spectrum of behaviours in a range of ways.

Acculturation does not entirely determine sexuality and sexual behaviour. Essentially, a cultural stereotype is a hypothesis waiting to be properly tested.

@the100thmonkey gender and sexuality are not one and the same.

In the US people are beginning to realize that the gender of a person is not a guarantee of the stereotypical view of their behavior. Many tasks that were once only for men or only for women are now just as easily filled by either gender.

Names are the first place that the traditional views have changed. Women and men can choose any name they want. It can be their ‘family’ name, or not, as they choose.

@Seek_Kolinahr My daughter was a far easier baby than my first son. She was very happy and slept well, but he was colicky and seemed extremely pissed off at the world until he learned to crawl (thankfully early). My other son was not quite as easy to please as our daughter, but also not nearly so difficult as his older brother. Not much has changed since they were babies!

Enough parents can provide enough anecdotes about their children and whatever…it’s all like that…point is we should all be more open minded as to what kids should be like

@YARNLADY Regarding names, I often wonder how first names get associated with gender (or how some are socially acceptable and some aren’t at all). Since I’ve been looking at baby names recently, I’ve seen a lot of trends. The most surprising to me was that in the 1800s it was so common to see boys named “Mary” or “Anna” or even “Shirley!” What changed that those are so strictly girl names now? It’s so funny that whatever society tells us is trendy at the time is the only thing that’s acceptable.

Check this out. You can ctl f to find the names I mentioned.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir That was kind of my point, that each baby is an individual and their personalities really don’t change much as they grow. I agree that we should all be open-minded. My only goal for my kids’ futures is that they are happy and fulfilled in life, whatever they grow up to do or be.

@MissAusten exactly

@HDTC – An important historical reason that folks felt it cost more to raise girls than boys was the dowry. Unless there were very unusual circumstances, people in many European and Asian cultures looking to get their daughters married generally had to put up a sum of money or of goods. In essence you would have to pay for someone to take your daughter off your hands. Then she would go to her husband’s household so you would not only be out the money but also down one set of hands to do work. Today this continues in many countries in that the parents of the bride are expected to pay for the wedding and reception.

Women who were not married off in English-speaking countries were called spinsters because unmarried women had the job of spinning wool, cotton and flax into thread.

In Africa and Native American cultures it is often the reverse, in that the young man who comes courting your daughter needs to bring a gift, often of animals such as cattle (the Masai tribe) or horses (the Comanche). If it is large enough, the marriage is made.

@Darwin omg dowry…my toddler has a girl he loves at pre school and she loves him too…anywho, the dad constantly tells me to start putting together a dowry…and I always think please let them just be friends.

I only want a daughter.

UGH to that family name bullshit. The majority of women these days aren’t taking their husband’s last name anyway, so what’s the difference? And who gives a fuck about a name anyway?

@girlofscience then why do you only want a daughter if it doesn’t matter?

^^^^^^^ Wow ^^^^^^^

I was saying gender doesn’t matter in terms of family names.

I only want a daughter because:
(Primarily) I am going to adopt from China, where 98% of the available children are female. I am also excited to encourage the success of my daughter in a world become increasingly more open to female advancement. Additionally, I absolutely love being a female and embracing my femininity, and I want to share life experiences with her from a female perspective.
(Secondarily) I just like little girls better. I don’t like sports, but I love dance/acting/music/art and will love to participate in these activities with my daughter. I enjoy female fashion, hair, and makeup and am excited to share this style-fun with my daughter. [Of course there is no guarantee my daughter will be into these girly activities, but (I believe) there a higher probability that a genetically female person will enjoy these sorts of things than a genetically male person, though I know some would disagree.]

@girlofscience So that’s a “yes i agree with gender stereotypes” then?

@Dr_C: Which gender stereotypes? I love feeling like a woman. I identify with my feminine gender and embrace the desires I have to express my strong gender identity. I love to feel sexy in ways that would be considered somewhat stereotypical for a woman (dresses, makeup, long hair, high heels); however, these are the elements of dress I find most attractive anyway. I love my feminine allure.

At the same time, I disagree with stereotypes that women should be stupid/submissive/unambitious, etc. I am intelligent, assertive, and career-driven and extremely concerned with women’s equality. However, I want to be respected for being the woman that I am. I refuse to sacrifice my feminine appearance to achieve this equality. Though I realize that not all women identify as strongly as I do with this type of feminine expression, since I do, I feel that lessening my feminine appearance would cheapen my feminism because I’d basically be saying, “In order to be treated as an equal, I need to look less like a woman.”

@girlofscience yes, okay but what does that have to do with having a kid of a certain gender or only a daughter?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir: Nothing, which is why I never mentioned any of this in my initial response. The primary question was simply asking about agreement with the cultural stereotypes of gender, yet the details indicated the OP cared more to discuss having a child of a certain gender. I responded to these details. After asserting my rightful opinion to have a daughter, I was rudely questioned about my apparent agreement with gender stereotypes, to which I defended my position on that more general issue.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir It drives me crazy when people try and romanticize my children’s friendships!

@girlofscience well I, for one, wasn’t asking you to defend anything…just probing your responses more…I think the reason why @Dr_C made the comment that they made was because, in answering the OP’s question, you connected stereotypical characteristics to girls…and so @Dr_C was just putting a summary down…because a bunch of stuff that you said is stereotypical to think of girls…whether or not you think that’s problematic is up to you, up to all of us…but I was not being rude, I don’t think

@Simone_De_Beauvoir: No, you were not being rude. I didn’t mean to convey that in my response to you. (Sorry!) When I said I was defending my position, I was defending it to @Dr_C since he questioned me.

@girlofscience okay, I don’t think he was being rude either, but that’s up to him to defend, I guess

@Simone_De_Beauvoir: I believe @Dr_C‘s “So that’s a ‘yes i agree with gender stereotypes’ then?” was meant as a smartass remark.

@girlofscience smartass, yes but not to offend you…I don’t know…that’s how I read it…as tongue in cheek…

@girlofscience Is that true? The majority of women aren’t taking their husband’s last names? And what if your daughter doesn’t like to do the girly stuff that you mentioned? I think China will frown upon you trying to return her.

@ubersiren oh no, don’t return her to China…I’ll take her

Heck, I’d take her, too! I like this imaginary little girl we’ve created. (I was joking about returning her to China, in case that wasn’t clear to someone).

@ubersiren have you ever read Stephenson’s The Diamond Age? do it

@Simone_De_Beauvoir No, but I’m now reading the wikipedia entry on it.

@ubersiren :) oh my god, you will love it

Can I share the little Chinese girl? My mother and I have an unrivaled collection of Pixar movies.

@KatawaGrey lol..oh all right

@KatawaGrey Sure! You can have her on the weekends.

@ubersiren: As I mentioned in my initial post about it, they were just random, secondary reasons that I acknowledged I know are not guaranteed. Geez.

And yeah… the majority of women are definitely not taking their husband’s names. I know probably about 100 married women who have kept their own last name and less than 10 who have changed it.

@girlofscience how do you know so many women? call me

@Simone_De_Beauvoir: The average person has around 500 facebook friends or so. I have more than 800 (and yes, I know them all personally!). So it’s not very hard to imagine that half are women and 100 of those are married…

@girlofscience Asking something in relation to what the OP asked in the original question.. with no added information is not a smart ass remark. Your original post never mentioned whether you agreed or not. That was the original question. I don’t see the smart ass remark in there. But hey.. feel free to be as defensive as you wish.

@girlofscience I guess I’m not an average FB user…have about 130 FB friends, I think…10% are gender non conformant or trans…the rest, hmmm, I’m going to go check..about 100 women friends, I’ll be damned…many aren’t married, though..of the ones that are married, not a whole lot kept their names..all names are changed

I call bullshit.

@ubersiren: On what?

@ubersiren: Me too and so does our Chinese daughter.

Apparently I have 63% female friends on Facebook. Quite a few married, pretty much all of them have taken their husbands name..even women with careers.On FB, you can have your maiden name in parentheses next to your name. I’ve noticed that to be more common lately. I did not take my husbands name and get rid of mine. I just added his onto mine, because I just felt attached to my maiden name. He felt carrying his name on with his children was quite important..it’s more important to some.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Regarding the children’s games….I hate that to do any cooking sort of pretend play, you have to go to the “pink section”. But, I still can’t wait for my boys to be old enough for those easy bake ovens. I loved mine, and I know my oldest will love it when he’s ready for it. He loves to “bake”, but I feel like boys get less pretend play than girls. I hate that.

The last name thing may be confounded by the fact that many of my contacts are in academia, and women in academia do not tend to take their husband’s last name.

@girlofscience Pretty OT here, but where did you get that the average FB user has about 500 friends?

@casheroo This is a bit off topic, but if you want a non-pink cooking related toy, you might be able to find a play sushi set by Melissa and Doug. My kids received one as a gift years ago, and both of my boys love to make sushi and serve it up with the pretend chopsticks! I think they also make a play pizza set.

@Likeradar: The availability heuristic? Most profiles I click on tend to have around that number of friends. It’s by no means a reliable figure.

@girlofscience Thanks. I know what availability heuristic is… just seemed to me like you presented it as an actual fact. :)

@girlofscience: That makes a lots of sense. Thank you for explaining. :)

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – yes, you’re right. I should have included gender, but was distracted by dinner and trying to get a program installed.

According to this recent American Sociological Association study 70% of U.S. women believe that women should take their husband’s name.

sorry too many other posts to read so I am on the tail end! I think some want sons because they carry the name, but daughters are usually better. I only think that because I spent ten years around old age homes, and daughters stuck it out with their elderly parents there was only one son who visited. Unless the sons were paying so thought they didn’t have to show up.