Last night Alec (age 6 1/2) went to a friends house and played in their simpleset pool. He knows he is only allowed to go in it when there is an adult checking on them. Obviously the adult was not looking at key times. When Alec came home he told us about the game of truth or dare that the 5 boys had played minus Alec. He said that they dared everyone to pull their pants down to show their weenies and their bums. It took Alec a moment to figure out weenie as in our house of anatomically correct, things are what they are, hey a penis. He said he told them it was very rude but they played anyway. Then he said they dared another boy to touch the other boy but no one would do it. Sigh, these boys were aged 6-10, some definitely old enough to know better. Watch for an upcoming personal opinion about healthy sexuality in children on my parenting blog.

Then today he played at another friends house, a 6 year old girl. They were playing barbies and she told him that if you are a girl playing barbies then you “have” to look pretty before you play, big sigh. Amazingly enough she let him play with them. One of his old friends told him only girls can play with dolls and barbies. Fortunately, the gender stereotypes from other kids don’t seem to be doing any major influencing on him. Also watch for an upcoming personal opinion on gender stereotyping on my parenting blog.