Here's something my daughter ALWAYS gets on me about is she says I let her brother get away with everything. I'm sorry but I was always raised that boys did certain things and that's the way it was.
She treats her son like a girl! She even got him a baby doll when he wanted to pretend her fist was a baby all the time.

Does this seem right to you? I mean boys hit and boys and boys push to get their way, and if they don't they'll be walked all over when they are adults. She thinks I did everything wrong!

What do you think?

My two youngest (girl and boy) were the worst of my three, the oldest always played goody 2 shoes. The younger ones however, fought like cats and dogs. I think that boys should be able to be toughened up a tad, but there is a difference between a tad to me and becoming a really aggressive male later in life. My boy is off in the war now, he isn't a Mamma's Boy but he isn't an all out aggressive male either. Then again he is in his early 20's still. :D

I think there can be and should be a happy medium. I do think its important for boys to have baby dolls, they should learn to be good fathers and caring too. And I think its important for them to play rough too. You should wrestle with them. But I think girls need to learn those skills too.
I think too often we teach our boys to go for what they want any way they want and we teach girls to only go for things that are going to make them better mothers and wives, still.
I'm all for equality, but I think we also need to remember due to CENTURIES of breeding, women are better at some thing and men are better at others... most the time, but NOT all the time.

I'm glad I'm not alone here. I should make her come read. She thinks I'm so old fashioned. She's putting her son in karate when he turns 5, and "some sport he likes" (she's assuming he'll like the activities), saying that will teach him discipline and team work and all other manly qualities the way having a baby and a dog teaches him to be nurturing and responsible.

My husband would have had a stroke if I’d have given our sons a doll. He thought the GI Joe figures were too close to being a doll. But they got them anyway. I didn’t have any girls, but I don’t think I would have raised them any differently. As far as standing up for themselves, but still being considerate of others. There is a line between standing up for yourself and being a bully and I tried to make sure my sons knew where that line was. They have both grown up to be caring and considerate, but definitely male. And they certainly know that there isn’t any such thing as “men’s work” or “women’s work”!

I think in this day and age the idea of giving a boy a doll is okay. But I do agree with some people that think doing that makes our men too girly. I think there are some toys for boys and some toys for girls.

I am going to need all the help I can get with just my one boy. The only thing I have to compare it to, is my mother who had 2 girls and 1 boy. And well, she did this all on her own, I am thankful my love is with me no matter what. Any suggestions for when potty training comes? I'm always looking for as much info as I can get right now, even since May being a mom, my entire life has changed, you guys were not kidding when you tell new parents that, thats for sure!!