G is for Girl vs. Boy

 April marks the 15th anniversary of my blog, so during the A-Z blogging challenge, I will be sharing previous posts from over 2,000 I have written.

Several years ago, I ran a series of Girls vs. Boys where I presented a scenario, and you had to guess who the girls were and who the boys were.

Here was my intro and three of the stories.

Before I had kids, I thought each child was an individual, and I didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that was the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things, they would have the same tendencies. (Of course, with individual differences.) Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and realized I might have been mistaken. Possibly, there were some differences between girls and boys.

I am going to share some stories with you and let you decide who you think the girls were and who the boys were.

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Wally's Birthday Party

Wally was in fifth grade and turning 11. He had a pool party for his birthday at the local YMCA with both boys and girls. After an hour of swimming, the kids had pizza and soda. However, it took forever before the refreshments could be served. We were kept waiting by one group who were in the bathroom changing and making themselves presentable. Some of the other group changed out of their wet clothes, but many did not. When they finally sat down to eat, all of the boys sat at one end of the table, and all of the girls sat at the other end. One group saw how much pizza they could get into their mouths at once and laughed as they punched each other. The other group talked about who they were “dating.”

You decide. Which were the boys and which were the girls?

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In case you had any doubts: The boys were the wet punchers, and the girls were the well-coiffed ones. It may have been peer pressure, but there was no mixing between the two. I found it very interesting that some of the boys that the girls talked about that they were dating were some of the boys who were at the party. However, the boys were clueless that they were dating anyone.

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Legos

When Theo was six, I was sitting on his bedroom floor with him, playing with Legos. One of us was building a rectangular structure that looked much like a tall building, and the other one of us was building a smaller structure that was "flying" around the room. At first, we were both concentrating on our own creations, but then Theo looked at mine and said, "You build just like a girl." He said all of the girls he had seen play with Legos had built something like I did. That surprised me, but he was quite adamant about his conclusion.

You decide: Which one of us made the building and which one of us made the flying object?
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In case you want to know: I built the building and Theo built the flying object.

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Kindergarten Suns

Wally was in kindergarten, and we were visiting on parents' night. On the wall were pictures the kids had drawn, and we noticed that several of them featured a sun wearing sunglasses. Upon further investigation, we discovered that they were all drawn by one group of kids in the class. We thought this was interesting, but didn't think much about it until Theo was in kindergarten three years later. Then we saw the same thing--sunglasses on all of the suns in the drawings of one group.

You decide. Did the boys or the girls draw the sunglasses on the suns?

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I'm not sure what it means, but the girls were the ones drawing sunglasses on the sun.

 

Until next time...