When I grow up…girls

This post is written in response to the story starter challenge from Leaf Journals (http://leafjournals.com/topic/category/blog­) .

I sometimes wonder if my poor husband feels completely outnumbered in our house. Between myself and the two girls we must have him shaking his head at some of the things we get up to.

Both my girls are very girly-girls in that they are both into dancing and gymnastics, love nothing more than a good fairy dress up session, painting nails and doing hair are regular weekend activities, Barbies are still very popular and any story involving princesses or fairies (or, even better, both) is classified as a “favourite”.

Pink and purple, with splashes of gold and silver, are the colours de jour in our house – if it sparkles, it gets the thumbs up! Heaven forbid that either of them would wear a pair of trackies or jeans (“It’s just not pretty Mum!”). It’s party dresses or skirts at every opportunity, usually accessorised with costume jewellery, dress-up shoes, pretty hair ties and play make up.

And this is just for a trip to the shops! Don’t even get me started on the palaver we encounter when there is a birthday party to attend.

Every toy we have is nominally a girl – even when they are very obviously male. They are all given girl names and most are contracted with an added a “y” on the end to make it more cutsie.

I don’t have a son, so have no means of comparison except that I grew up as one of two children, but I had a brother rather than a sister. Watching the dynamic at play between my two girls, I am struck by how much easier it is when siblings share interests – whether they are same-sex or mixed-sex.

My brother and I didn’t have much in common when we were growing up and, as a consequence, were never close. We had no shared interests so it was much harder for us to play together or develop any rapport.

My girls are separated by a four-year age gap, so it has taken some time for them to get to a stage where they can play together successfully. Even now, my older girl will often forget that her sister is only 4 and, if the game gets too complicated, my younger girl will often de-rail the activity simply to regain some control of the situation.

I’m sure the challenge of raising girls will really hit home once they reach teenage years. Check back with me in five years time and I
might be writing a completely different post!

Do you have girls? Or would you love to have a girl? What’s been your experience?

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