What with a toddler in the house

…I am suddenly reading toy catalogues again. And I am increasingly frustrated by the pinkness, princessification and general gendering of toys. A post by Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town last year caught my eye, therefore, and I have been applying the Lauredhel’s Toy-catalogue Annex of the Bechdel Test ever since. With depressing results, I may add.

To play, try to find:

1. One or more girls, playing;

2. with no boys around; and

3. with something that is not related to domestic work, mothering, being sexy, or ponies.

Before Christmas I did a double take at an ad from Clas Ohlson in the paper. It contained about a dozen images of products, with only one person used for illustration. The person: A blonde girl of around 9 years with a skirt. The product she was advertising? This:

tool belt

It’s not even a toy, as such, they’re real tools, kiddie-sized.

I meant to save the newspaper page, but forgot. However, I got the Christmas catalogue when I bought muffin tins at CO the other day, and lo and behold, the same picture is used.

clasohlson1.jpg

Granted, on the catalogue page there is also a picture of some boys, but they are quite clearly advertising something else and not part of the same picture at all.

clasohlson2.jpg

The sad thing is that this should be so unusual as to warrant comment, of course. Also, surely a denim skirt is not the most practical choice of apparel for a wannabe carpenter? But who am I to dictate what carpenters should wear?

Happiness: 15 kroner

We went fleamarketing today, and found this:

It made the lass very, very happy. It also broke her heart twice, once when we had to put it in the back of the car to get from where the fleamarket was to her grandmother’s and once again when we had to put it back in the trunk to get from her grandmother’s to home.

She cared not one jot that it was grubby (I did, though, all the fabric parts are now washed, and hopefully dry by tomorrow morning) and that it is decidedly wonky. You can push it about, you can move the seatback, footrest and roof up and down. You can put things in the net. You can take them out again. You can arrange a doll in there to your satisfaction and then get everyone in the room to come over just so that you can put your finger to your mouth and say “Shush!” because the baby is sleeping.

All in all, a great find…

Ønskeliste for ungen

Jeg trenger et sted å ha dette…:

– Enkle byggeklosser (gjerne fra Alveslottet). Vi trenger noe sånt ganske snart, det er nemlig i ferd med å bli morsomt å rive ned ting som andre har stablet.

– Lego. Først og fremst Primo (må kjøpes brukt, ikke i produksjon lenger), men gjerne duplo (mamma liker særlig dyrehagen-eskene) og lego også (vi sparer bare eskene og åpner dem etterhvert som hun blir gammel nok).

– pekebøkene “Dyreunger” og “Kjæledyr” i serien “Kjenn på dyrene” fra Litor (vi har de to andre og de er veldig fine)

– pekebøker med rim, fortrinnsvis som ikke får deg til å føle deg helt idiot når du skal lese dem høyt…

– bøker generellt, selvsagt

– regnbueull fra Janus eller ulltøy og ull-og-silketøy fra Nøstebarn (str. 86+, gjerne 92+ dersom det ikke er stort i størrelsen)

– heldrakter (og bodyer, gensere eller bukser) fra f.eks. Katvig, Småfolk eller Molo (str. 86+, gjerne 92+ dersom det ikke er stort i størrelsen)

– puttekasse (og bankebrett, stableesker o.l.) gjerne i tre

– En Rubens Barn dokke de har dem på Det lune redet (edit: vi har kjøpt en som gave fra oldemor – en fra Ark-serien som er kledd ut som drage – men kan nok godt ha flere…)

– Tredukkevogn (Ringo nettbutikk, eller f.eks. Edwis, men der kostet den mer)

– brio-tog (etterhvert?)

– akebrett som hun kan sitte på nå (altså ikke rattkjelke, f.eks….)