I am a modern parent.
My children are not colour-coded in blue and pink. I take great pains to make sure that everyone does dancing, everyone does roughplay and everyone reads a lot of books.
Even better, when Little Man proudly displayed his red-painted toenails and silver-painted fingernails to family and friends, no one batted an eyelid.
So, when Little Lady adopted (stole) a new Spiderman toy from her big brother I was secretly delighted. It's a small little figurine, with the added feature of a spiderweb-emblazoned backpack with a working grappling hook.*
She played with that toy the whole way to creche that day, then picked him up and played with him again the whole way home. Listening to her pooting the "bad guys" and shouting "pow pow!" every bit as loud as her brother did my heart good. Clearly, I rock at gender-neutral parenting. I should give classes or something. Perhaps there's even a medal...
And then we got home. Having divested herself of her coat and wellies, Little Lady resumed her play, for a few minutes. Suddenly, a shocked voice could be heard declaring "Spiderman! Why are you still wearing your coat? We are INSIDE now and you have to take it off THIS MINUTE!". After she'd taken his coat (backpack) off, she sat him down for some tea and toast.
While I struggled not to laugh within earshot, I realised that actually this was the success that I've been hoping for. A little girl who's not afraid to run, and shout, and save the day, but also a little girl who's not ashamed of the fact that sometimes, she just wants to play at being a Mammy.
*Incidentally, I have no idea why Spiderman needs a grappling hook. Tobey Maguire had already made Spiderman my least favourite superhero, but he's really fallen in my estimation now...
