Boys: "i'm a princess"

My ID boy twins are VERY into pretend play. We have lots of costumes, and they spend alot of time pretending to be something else. Mostly super-man or batman.. spiderman or the red ranger. They also like to play doctor or teacher. They make up stories and it's fun to listen to them.. ANYWAY, on the flip side, when we go to our friends house or their cousins house who have only girls.. they dress up as princesses?! Especially at church/awanas-- they say, "i want to go to puggles(which is their awana group) and wear the cinderella dress and flippers (which is slippers). They know some of the princess stories from books or seeing parts of the movies at their cousin's house. I don't really think it is a big deal, but others seem to. They like the disney princess characters! We try to tell them that dresses ae for girls, or only girls are princesses and you can be the prince... but it doesn't work. They say, "no, boys can wear dresses".. you can imagine arguing the point to a 3 year old.. Anyway, what do we do?! Just let them keep playing with them, and assume it's a phase? At home, it's all superheroes fighting crime, but when the opportunity arrises other places to play with dresses/shoes/crowns, they jump right in! Open for suggestions...

 

Personally, I would let them.

My little guy wanted pink crocs...pink is his favorite color. I got him the original color I went there for...blue! I had to draw the line with that!

 

really i think we should go to disneyworld now and REALLY get our moneys worth since they are into the "boys" characters AND the princesses! lol

 

Honestly, it's a stage & they will almost certainly outgrow it. I'm going through similar things with Luke & remember dealing with it when Owen was little as well. Having girls in the house as well, there are tons of girly things around here. I can remember Owen wanting to wear Olivia's tutus, crowns, etc. Luke is going through the same stage now. He likes Lila's clothes (of course he thinks everything she has must be better than his). But really who can blame them? Girls things are bright & shiny & sparkly. Who wouldn't be attracted to that? Boys things tend to be duller colors and never sparkle. Really, in the mind of a 3 year old, that's just not fair! I tend to give in on the dress up clothes when we are around home (take lots of pictures for blackmail later :laughing: ) but when we go out I usually make him dress in his own clothes.

 

Ds loves walking around in heels, he has to have a purse when dd has one, he wants pig tails when she does, doesn't understand why he can't wear pink chapstick, etc! I figure society will quickly tell him how he is "supposed" to dress/act, but right now he is a toddler havign fun.

 

Same thing going on here. We have a lot of girl cousins and when we are at their homes there is only princess things to dress up in. My DS even says I want to go to Aunt Debbie's house so I can wear the princess dress. At home he likes dressing up as a puppy, even though there are girl things here. His favorite color has always been purple (I blame Barney for that one--he was obsessed) By the way DD's favorite is blue.
When we are painting DD's nails I will paint DS toe nails so he can feel included. As pp mentioned girl things are more colorful and fun in general, so I just let him join in the way he wants to. He will have plenty of years to have "peer pressure" of what is accepted and what is not so I just feel like like him have fun now.
Hope this helps!
Tracy

PS On a totally other note: we were at a party a couple of months ago at yet another girl cousins' house and of course my DS had a princess costume on. There were so many fathers there saying what I considered RUDE comments to my DH--"you must be a proud dad" etc That really got under my skin. DS is 3 and having fun, there is no reason to judge it other then that.

 

I think it's silly for people to say rude things about it...they're little, they don't understand "society roles" yet. I think your little guys are just having fun and that it truly is a phase. It seems perfectly normal to me for kids to like EVERYTHING. They don't necessarily need to like boy or girl clothes or toys just because that's what society tells us. Just let them have fun for now...probably once they start school and are around boys all the time, they might drop the girly stuff and dig into the boy stuff.

 

It's a normal phase. Even if boys don't have access to princess costumes, most will try on Mommy's shoes or make-up at some point. Making a huge deal out of it will certainly be confusing, so I just went with it and laughed about it. One of my sons loved pink for a while, and even insisted on pink shoes in Kindergarten. I explained to him that most people think of pink as a girl color and that he would probably get teased at school about the shoes. He did, but smiled and told them, "I don't care. Pink is my favorite color and these shoes are awesome!" Strong kid! He grew out of it in a year and now prefers "boy" colors.

 

My son has been calling himself "Dora" since yesterday going so far as when I call him by name he says "No mom, I'm Dora". They have been playing "Dora" and "Swiper" the last few days because the want to go to Dora Live but we just went to Elmo grows up and it's expensive. They also always want the girl toys they see on TV...I think it's funny. It's a phase, I would just go with the flow. I'm sure they will want to be many more things in the future.

 

thanks everyone! Loved reading the responses.. i am annoyed at teh rude comments as well from others.. especially other dads. Oh well-- my kids are smarter than theirs..lol. Oh well.. here's to enjoying all things 3!!

 

QUOTE(Holdentwins @ Mar 21 2009, 08:16 PM) [snapback]1238679[/snapback]
thanks everyone! Loved reading the responses.. i am annoyed at teh rude comments as well from others.. especially other dads. Oh well-- my kids are smarter than theirs..lol. Oh well.. here's to enjoying all things 3!!


Men are stupid. And SO worried about anything challenging their masculinity. It's so not a big deal that little boys are interested in girly things ... take lots of pics and you can all laugh about it later!

 

So glad my husband doesn't freak out over this stuff! My boys just recently were running around the house with swizzle sticks saying "Princess Presto!" (from Super Why) and making things change into other things. They understand that certain clothing items are meant for girls but that doesn't stop them from playing pretend in grandma's heels or loving the hot pink feather boas at the craft store. And yes, glitter & shine attracts no matter the gender. I actually found some Iron Man sweatshirts in the boys' section at JCP that have glitter on them and some long sleeved Ts with metallic prints. Instant favorite items. Apparently, some of the clothing designers get it.

 

QUOTE(seamusnicholas @ Mar 20 2009, 10:00 PM) [snapback]1237376[/snapback]
I got him the original color I went there for...blue! I had to draw the line with that!



Why?

 

QUOTE(caba @ Mar 22 2009, 12:23 AM) [snapback]1238683[/snapback]
Men are stupid. And SO worried about anything challenging their masculinity. It's so not a big deal that little boys are interested in girly things ... take lots of pics and you can all laugh about it later!


One of my fave pics of Owen from when he was about two is of him carrying a powder blue purse and wearing several strings of his grandmas beads, wearing nothing else but his diaper. Hee!

 

QUOTE(Ellen Barr @ Mar 21 2009, 03:22 PM) [snapback]1238222[/snapback]
It's a normal phase. Even if boys don't have access to princess costumes, most will try on Mommy's shoes or make-up at some point. Making a huge deal out of it will certainly be confusing, so I just went with it and laughed about it. One of my sons loved pink for a while, and even insisted on pink shoes in Kindergarten. I explained to him that most people think of pink as a girl color and that he would probably get teased at school about the shoes. He did, but smiled and told them, "I don't care. Pink is my favorite color and these shoes are awesome!" Strong kid! He grew out of it in a year and now prefers "boy" colors.



What a guy! That's so cool! And now, from watching your most recent video, I can tell ya, you couldn't cram much more "boy" into that little guy! Good for him!

 

Totally normal phase.
Mine also like to wear my shoes...still...especially high heels. They like to wear lipstick and use my make-up brushes.
When they were 3.5, DH has an emergency appendectomy, and I had to leave them with a friend who has 2 girls. She put them in jammies and princess pull-ups. The next morning Jacob threw a fit because he wanted to wear the lavender jammies to preschool. And right now, we have pink Dora pull-ups in the closet.

 

DS used to like to wear DD's dresses. I let him, even out to the grocery store. WTH! I mean he's only a little boy gender stereotypes can be so silly.

 

I think it proves that they are well rounded, creative boys. At that age they do not know that boys are not "supposed" to be princesses, they are just playing
and using their imaginations! innocence is bliss!!

 

Without reading the other responses, I would say let it be. When parents make a big deal over something, kids pick that up. What's the harm, anyway? I wouldn't be worried about what other people have to say. It's just a 3 year old using his imagination. I wouldn't want to squash that. Just my opinion.

 

That would not upset me at all. I think it is great and wouldn't interfere with their imaginitive play. I think it's a very healthy stage for them to go through.