This week, however, made me realise that no matter how forward-thinking I like to think I am, in reality my child is still growing up with the same stereotypes that I did. And sometimes I am reinforcing them.
Because this week Archie refused a pink ice cream – because it is for girls.
Just a few days later he took a play pirate sword off my (grown up) friend because ‘that’s not for girls’.
Each time it annoyed me – I work hard to try to avoid such gender stereotypes.
But equally you can’t blame him, he’s two after all, and I wanted to be careful not to make him feel bad for having such thoughts, while at the same time clarifying a few things.
However, such social stereotypes are still very much a part of life, they are all around us and everyone from time to time adheres to them, often without even realising it.
So are they a bad thing or not?
Well, yes and no.
This week footwear firm Clarks sparked a sexism row after naming a girls’ shoe range Dolly Babe and a boys’ line Leader.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was among those to criticise the well-known company, which has apologised for any offence caused.
It is an unfortunate juxtaposition, and a case where Clarks really should have known better.
It would be different if the Leader range also had a girls’ element, or better still gender neutral options.
And I don’t necessarily mind the Dolly Babe bit on its own, just like I wouldn’t be annoyed about a range called Mud and Slugs targeted at boys – I can accept that they have to name them something, although there are many non-gender stereotypical labels out there that would have been better choices.
It is the implied connotation that boys are leaders and girls aren’t that is the problem.
As I write, the new Mini Boden catalogue has just arrived through the door. It includes all sorts of gender stereotypical clothes – pinks and flowers for girls and snails and tractors for boys.
But there’s also cars for girls, foxes for both and enough plain stuff that you can avoid such characters altogether if you wish.
Increasingly shops that market themselves using the social media website Instagram (known as Insta shops) are also becoming known for their gender-neutral ranges and it is a refreshing change to just browse tops and bottoms rather than the highstreet’s traditional and clearly divided sections.
I wouldn’t want everything to be this way, but it is nice to have the choice.
In the same week, rather fittingly I have to say, another story appeared in the national press, this time about a couple bringing their young son up as ‘gender neutral’.
Louise and Nicki Draven are said to be raising Britain’s first gender-fluid family.
The mum Louise was born a man, but is having hormone treatment to fully transition to become a woman. Dad Nikki is pansexual and was born a woman, but dresses some days as a man and some days as a woman.
And they do not want their four-year-old son Star to be constrained by the sex he was born, instead they tell him he is a ‘person’.
These two different stories show the extreme ends of the spectrum out there in the UK today.
And I’m somewhere in the middle. Where my son ends up on it, however, will be up to him, as ultimately he will choose what colour his ice cream is, what toys he plays with and whether he wants to be a leader, play with dolls, or do both or neither – whatever makes him happy.
As for us parents, it is we who really get hung up on such stereotypes and debates, and probably over think them, and most certainly give ourselves a much harder time over them than we should.
I’m not giving up my pirate sword, though.
