Are there boy toys and girl toys?
By The Horse
@TheHorse (218931)
Walnut Creek, California
June 5, 2016 12:59pm CST
My seven-year-old neighbor friend heard me practicing mandolin on my balcony yesterday, so he decided to come over with some of his toys. Cars started appearing from his pockets. Then more cars. Then he ran home and bought still more cars.
I got a little practice in, but we spent some time checking where the cars are from, what model they are, how to get everyone into their parking spaces, etc. After awhile, it occurred to me that we were just a couple of boys playing with our boy toys. I wondered what he would have brought over had he been a girl.
Do you have favorite toys? Mine happens to be a 1914 Gibson A-4 mandolin (and my two favorite guitars), but my stereo stuff counts too. My friend's favorites include his cars, his Thomas the Train railroad collection, and his various stuffed animals. Do you think there are boy toys and girl toys? Or perhaps boy toys, girl toys, and universal toys?
41 people like this
44 responses
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
6 Jun 16
Well, this is an interesting question. No, I don't think there are boy toys and girl toys, unless, of course, one has spray paint in the garage. To make a toy for boys, spray it blue or brown. To make it a girl toy, spray paint it pink or purple. Then tell the child that the first two colors are for boys and the second two for girls. If you don't tell them, they won't know. 
3 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
6 Jun 16
@paigea Instead of denying my daughter "girl toys", I preferred to give my kid all sorts of toys, girls', boys' and gender neutral.
2 people like this
@paigea (36317)
• Canada
6 Jun 16
@TheHorse I would love to see what happens!!!! My father firmly believed there were not girl's toys. I was not permitted to have a doll. Every think I picked up was wrapped in a towel and was my baby. I found a way to have tea parties and to play house. The cars and even the Lego were neglected. He finally relented and let me have the toys I preferred.
But I think he was right, and we should not feel like certain toys belong to one gender and not to the other.
3 people like this
@mommaj (23112)
• United States
9 Jun 16
@TheHorse I didn't like Legos that much but I loved the lincoln logs. My brother and I also set up a miniature town with little trees and houses. We would build buildings with toothpicks. LOL
@Drosophila We will have to set up a play date. LOL
2 people like this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
6 Jun 16
I had girl toys and also a play doctor set that I used on the dolls as patients aand I also like tonka toys and some boy to ys too. My son had cars galore and boy toy s and lkegos oh the legos all over the house. They are bad to step on, sent me to ER as the legos tore the bottom of foot. Had to have stitches. lol
2 people like this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
6 Jun 16
Er, I tell the kids I work with exactly that. Clean up is important. If a grown-up steps on a match box car, they could tear a ligament and have to go to the hospital. Some will just clean up. Others will ask me what a ligament is as an excuse not to clean up.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (167071)
• Boise, Idaho
5 Jun 16
Sounds like two kids with good taste.
2 people like this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
19 Feb 17
@celticeagle Not that old. Kind of like Matchbox cars.
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
6 Jun 16
I loved cars more than barbies growing up -shrugs-
2 people like this
@Jessicalynnt (50523)
• Centralia, Missouri
6 Jun 16
@TheHorse nope, now if I could afford legos.... lol
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
19 Feb 17
@ElicBxn You have a thing for giraffes? I have a thing for penguins, but I don't have one. My stuffed alligator, the one I snuggled with every night when I was a small child, is in my closet. If I snuggled with him now, he'd fall apart.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (223129)
• Chile
5 Jun 16
My sister did not want to raise her children (a girl and a boy) with different toys so she bought them Legos. Francisca made doll houses with them and Javier made cars.
I never could distinguish a car from the other, except for the VW bugs.
I liked books and only used dolls to dress them as princesses and queens. My sister made smallbooks and taught them to read.
2 people like this
@marguicha (223129)
• Chile
6 Jun 16
@TheHorse 
I loved reading fairy tales, but I wasn´t happy that all the action was done by the princes while the princesses either slept enchanted or cleaned up chimneys. That´s why I love so much Little Red Ridding Hood. She wanted to take her own risks.
I loved reading fairy tales, but I wasn´t happy that all the action was done by the princes while the princesses either slept enchanted or cleaned up chimneys. That´s why I love so much Little Red Ridding Hood. She wanted to take her own risks. @durgabala (1360)
• India
6 Jun 16
Interesting topic for discussion. Well, all these years I think we parents have also tuned ourselves to gift cars for boys and dolls for girls. Even girls like to play with cars....of course there is this said nature of toy selection, but we can introduce kitchen sets and dolls to the boys. I have seen many people discriminate when a boy wants to play with a doll. My son who is 11 loves playing with kitchen sets, and loves cooking. He helps me a lot in the Kitchen. He had this liking from childhood and we never stopped. My daughter and son both used to play House-House....by making dishes with mud and leaves....I don't think there are gender based toys, toys are toys and its for all!
2 people like this
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
5 Jun 16
I played with boy toys (army men, cars) when I was younger but also girl toys (barbies)
1 person likes this
@infatuatedbby (94914)
• United States
5 Jun 16
@TheHorse I have a camera 
Would they be a grown up toy? I don't have any musical instruments except a piano which I don't play anymore.
Would they be a grown up toy? I don't have any musical instruments except a piano which I don't play anymore.1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
19 Feb 17
@infatuatedbby That's a grown-up toy!
1 person likes this
@rebelann (112873)
• El Paso, Texas
5 Jun 16
That's a good question. I've heard a couple moms talk about their little girls and how they were mortified that they didn't play with their dolls, they preferred the monster trucks their older brothers played with and of course stuffed animals.
Aren't stuffed animals universal?
2 people like this
@ria1606roy (2797)
• Kolkata, India
6 Jun 16
Doctor's set, Lego world, race cars and also a large number of girl toys used to be stocked up in the cupboard, and I planned and played with each one of them.....playing was one of the few pleasures back then
1 person likes this
@ria1606roy (2797)
• Kolkata, India
7 Jun 16
@TheHorse yeah it is like our way of adapting our roles in the world. Since we cannot be adult right away, we have to make do with make belief.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
7 Jun 16
@ria1606roy It prepares us for the real world that's coming.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
6 Jun 16
@magallon I think it's the same in the Latin American community here. And the Black community ever more. Everyone's "trying" to be "Liberal," but for some, it's a struggle. I've had (mostly Black American) parents tell me not to allow their boys to color with pink or purple crayons. They believe it will turn their boys into homosexuals.
1 person likes this
@magallon (19279)
• Philippines
6 Jun 16
@TheHorse .. I think not really turning them to homosexuals but could have develop identity crisis.
They will wonder why they are allowed to play girls things while they are boys. And boys things while they are girls.
There will be a confusion in their minds.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
6 Jun 16
I have eight grandchildren. 4 girls and 4 boys. The girls gravitate towards the dolls and homemaker toys, the boys to the cars, trains and farm toys (I don't have war toys). They all love playing with the Lego and building things with my blankets and pillows.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
19 Feb 17
@Morleyhunt Yep. The differences start to emerge early. Interestingly my 2 1/2-year-old with expressive aphasia DOES make car and airplane noises.
1 person likes this
@Morleyhunt (21744)
• Canada
6 Jun 16
@TheHorse when my son was born, ( after three girls) everyone commented on how much like a boy he looked. Personally, other than the plumbing he looked just like his sisters, but I made a point of dressing him like a boy. At about six months he suddenly started to do things his sisters had never done. He was pushing wooden blocks on the floor and making car noises. The girls, never, made car noises. They had toy cars and trucks, just as my son had his own doll, but they definitely played differently.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
5 Jun 16
@teamfreak16 I had a favorite plastic fighter jet I flew around school (with my hand) but I was never that much into cars, though I can tell a vintage Mustang from a vintage Camaro, etc.
2 people like this
@teamfreak16 (43418)
• Denver, Colorado
5 Jun 16
@TheHorse - Oh, I loved my Hot Wheels (a lot. I'm surprised I could care less about cars as an adult.)
1 person likes this
@puddleglum (1380)
• United States
5 Jun 16
That sounded like a fun day. I liked diverse toys when I was small--Legos, Disney toys, tea sets and cars. Haha. I might have been hyperactive.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
5 Jun 16
@puddleglum Whew! I attribute my lunacy to things other than my early toy choices.
1 person likes this
@buzzg3 (230)
•
6 Jun 16
I have a 11 year old boy and a 4 year old gal at home.There is a difference of what they prefer to play with. My son is crazy about cars and my daughter loves her doll. They do play with each other using both 'boy' and 'gal' toys but given a choice my son will want his cars and my gal her doll
Please let us know what happened when you spray paint the toys into 'gender' colors. That would be such an interesting experiment
Please let us know what happened when you spray paint the toys into 'gender' colors. That would be such an interesting experiment1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218931)
• Walnut Creek, California
6 Jun 16
I can't quite do that, but I could find some pink cars somewhere and see if the girls choose them when playing cars with the boys. Ah, I just thought on an experiment I HAVE been conducting with guitar picks. Maybe I'll write about it in a post.
1 person likes this
