Dinners have become trickier in this household. Once upon a time, the four of us ate dinner as a family, with placemats and napkins and glasses of water. One kid set & cleared the table, one kid did the dishes. There was an orderliness, and we all knew it.
Earlier this year I finally had to face the fact that family dinners just didn't happen any more. Josh was in Atlanta, Ian was working at Starbucks, often at nights. I got home from work at 7pm to find that Lauren had been snacking all afternoon and had no interest in dinner at that hour. The fact that I am vegetarian and she is not made it even less likely that we were going to sit down and enjoy a meal together.
So, very reluctantly, I changed tactics. Now, I make several (veg and non-veg) re-heatable meals on Sundays. People can eat them when they are hungry. I've had to let go of my attachment to family dinners, and just stock the fridge, and hope that the love comes through regardless.
Today's efforts resulted in Macaroni and Cheese, Chicken and Spinach Casserole, and Ratatoille.
My other 'output' today was a bunch of flannel burp cloths. Josh requested a couple of sets to give to workmates who have recently spawned.
I usually strive for 'gender neutral' patterns/colors when I make generic baby gifts. Which leads me to a new rant: why on earth are some colors and patterns considered 'boy-suitable' and others taboo? Why is a caterpillar OK for a boy, but a butterfly is not? What about flowers? And shades of pink? The spotted flannel above contains several pinks; does that make it a 'girl' fabric? Does anyone care? If so, why?
Also, why is it more acceptable to give a girl "boy" stuff, than give a boy "girl" stuff?
I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Because it's for sure getting me a bit agitated.
8 comments:
some responses from some of my friends
:
James
apparently my mum dressed me in pink sometimes and never had an issue with it. Probably best gettin details directly from her though
Tony Hepburn
I think it's the same as any other stereotype imo, I'd be interested in finding out where it started and why though.
Pink has been referenced to femininity for as long as I can remember too. When it's been like that for so long there's a pretty strong association between the colour and the sex.
In the end, a colour is just a colour though, and I think it's pretty silly how society labels certain colours like that :)
Tony and James, thanks for your input.
James, what's your mum's email?
Tony, in Victorian times boys were dressed in pink, and girls in blue. And I find in interesting that a Norwegian sewing magazine to which I subscribe has the girl-babies' clothes in predominantly blue colourways.
But it's not just colours I'm talking about. Who says that boys can't wear flowers? Or birds? Or butterflies? Monkeys ... are the gender neutral? What about robots? Or unicorns? WHO MAKES THESE RULES GODAMMIT?
Hashi, I read some time ago that it used to be the other way around, boys were pink and girls were blue. The royalty of the time (cant remember the era) were expecting their firstborn, and being royalty were expecting they would have a son, so decorated the nursery in pink. When the child was born a girl, and they put their daughter in the pink nursery, a trend was born that is followed to this day!!
And hey - Joe wears flower shirts all the time. But that aside, I think it is because of rhymes like "girls are sugar and spice and all things nice, and boys are dogs and snails and puppy dog tails.
You know we dont follow the rules in our house. Avas bedroom is blue because thats her favourite colour, and when Leia was born her whole bedroom was done like a jungle with jungle plants and stuffed monkeys hanging from them ... but we are not the norm!!
Beck, no you and Joe are not the norm ... and I love you for it!
I AM SO LOVING YOUR SKETCHES!!! and this is what agitates me...I am vegetarian. Matt is NOT. He will eat what I eat, but still wants meat...unsatisfied...so he goes for the PBJ...I cringe at the fat-sugar content he consumes. My friends say..."he is a boy, he needs meat." Bulls&*t. Boys can wear pink, butterflies and eat tofu too. So there.
I think the study that I found was interesting. That boys will go for any colours in the spectrum but GIRLS with tend to pink colours more on the red pink spectrum. CLick here for the link. http://people.howstuffworks.com/gender-color.htm
I so agree with you! who says boys don't enjoy flowers and butterflies as much as girls do. Small girls also love the rumble of large trucks why can't they wear these things on their clothing? I always let my children chose their own fabrics when they were little (they aren't into me making their clothes anymore) and their choices always made me smile. Lovely blog by the way I came over from deb did its blog.
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