I told the munchkin there was no such word as tomboy.
She asked me yesterday what a tomboy was.
Someone at school had told her she was one.
It was probably the same child that told her football was for boys and not for girls, that blue was a boys colour and pink was a girls, that there were boys toys and girls toys.
She wanted to know what it meant.
I told her it was an old word used to describe little girls who liked to climb trees, play football, play outside and get dirty.
A word to describe girls who would have grazed knees and bruised legs from having adventures and exploring.
I asked her if she liked doing these things, asked her if she liked adventures.
Yes, she answered, with a big grin on her face.
I asked her if she thought she was a tomboy.
No, she said.
I’m just a girl, girls can do all of those things.
She is spot on! My daughter’s just the same, a girl who like adventures and activities like that. #LoudNProud
I think there’s too much of telling children they shouldn’t play or shouldn’t like because of their gender x
Fantastic! You are both totally right. Why would any of those things be unusual for a girl to do? My little girl loves running around and getting dirty and climbs on everything. She likes playing with dolls and she likes playing Roary the Racing Car. Girls’ toys and boys’ toys make me very angry…
Agreed! She’s exactly the same! Toys should be toys for all!
Fab post and so true! That’s the problem with these stereotypes, even when we try not to let them influence our kids, they come from other kids, parents and even teachers and they are so hard to avoid. Well handled and sounds like she has a fantastic attitude to me! xx #loudnproud
Thank you, she’s getting there, I tell her that there’s no such thing as boys games or girls games, there’s just games! I don’t want her to think she’s any different to other girls, she likes dolls & pink & having her nails painted too! 🙂
Personally I don’t find the name tomboy offensive but I can see that there are better ways of describing girls that like the same adventures as boys.
I don’t find it offensive as such, I just thought it was such an old word to use. Someone at school keeps telling her that the things that she likes ie football and running and even the colour blue are boys things and she shouldn’t do them. We’ve had a lot of little chats about her being able to do anything she wants and that things are for boys & girls equally. She likes princesses & dolls & having her nails painted too, I tell her if they want to boys could play like that too. I don’t want her thinking she’s different to other kids x
What a lovely post!! I was a ‘tom boy’ growing up, I even lived in tracksuits (wasn’t usual for girl back then)..now I’d be described as a ‘girly girl’ ..sighs!