gender bender

i really disappointed myself today. yes, indeed, i surely did. you see - today, for the first time ever, i bought gender-specific gifts for kate and josh (my niece and nephew). kate is 5 and josh is 3. they are bright kids and they are live-wires... they literally just never stop going until they sleep. but i guess all kiddlings are like that.

when they first came along i made sure i was a good aunt. as i live in toronto and they live in alberta, i really took time and effort to pick the just right gifts for them. i really wanted them to love me (or just remember me) even though they didn't get to see me very often. very carefully i would pick the right books to expand their little minds and to introduce them to some classic tales that are so often today over looked in favour of stories about blues clues and some explorer named dora.

and when i wasn't buying them books - i bought clothes. kids clothes are pretty damned adorable. at any rate - there were no frivolous toys from aunt jo... and definitely no dolls for kate and no trucks for josh. i hate the whole idea of just falling into the normal and standard gender expected ideas and thoughts. a girl wears pink, a boy wears blue. a girl plays with barbies so she can learn to nurture, a boy with legos so he can learn to build the universe. i don't have kids myself - so there is a real possibility that i could just be full of it!

anyway... this year rolls along and i find myself looking for affordable gifts. seems that my siblings have decided spawn themselves with quite a bit of regularity (my brother has 3 little demon seeds and my sister has one with another on the way). the more kids they have - the less my generosity grows! when they first came along, i spent upwards of 60.00 on each of them. if i did that now, well, it would be unrealistic in my current state of affairs!

so i discovered what limited funds equal. they equal gender toys. shudder. i know. i am sitting here in a pit of self-loathing. urgh. come december 25th, kate will find herself with a my pretty pony, a clickit (girl lego) kit to build necklaces, bracelets and hair clips. josh will find himself with a monster truck (purple with giant tires) and a series of 3 cars that come enclosed in 3 plastic eggs (like kinder eggs, but with die-cast cars). my only concession at a cool non-gender gift was the fact that they are both getting glow in the dark dinosaurs. a triceretops for kate (happens to be her fave, or at least was in august) and a t-rex for josh (that was his fave in august too).

i can take some consolation in the fact that josh will love his little cars and truck... he is such a classic boy. and kate likes art projects - so she should get off on the necklace making bit... and she seems to be developing a love for horses... so the my pretty pony should be just about right.

oh well - next year i can get back to more non-traditional gifts.

[music | david usher, "butterfly" live]