Posted by Martin R on September 10, 2007 
Back in July I went to a big toy store to buy presents for my daughter’s fourth birthday. I got her some street crayons, a magnetic drawing board and a head dress with silver antennae. While browsing I found the product in the above picture. I didn’t buy it for her. Let us cleaning!
I have two daughters and when we went in to the toy store the place was crammed with stuff like that. Girlie things one side and the black and dark brown boyish stuff on the other side. I always felt I stepped into the 1940s, God knows why… The girls are big now and I don´t have to go to these depressing places anymore!
Do they think little girls want to grow up to be motel maids?
Take your daughter to a rodeo. And a motocross. Maybe she’ll be the next Danica Patrick.
I’m depressed to think such things even exist. Believing they should give girls toys such as this because they are the traditional roles is nonsense.
Not that I’m 100% against tradition – if I ever have a daughter, I’d like to be able to give her the same toy that my mother had when she was a child in the 1950s – Meccano.
What if a boy is used in the marketing?
http://www.mysimon.com/9015-11029_8-35547102.html
Would that still be wrong, or?
Btw. I wonder what the target group is for this product:
http://www.toystogrowon.com/sku993
Maybe all the little Daffyds out there 
“Girls can not enjoy both cleaning toys AND science experiment books”
My 5 yr old girl wanted that toy last Christmas. She loved to get it out and play cleaning with me while I did my share around the house. Oh, did I mention I am the dad.
And afterwards, its off to the kitchen for some science experiments, based on a book she selected from the bookstore.
She is allowed to choose what she wants (not that she gets everything she wants). So what do you thinks things are like now, 9 months later. We are still doing experiments from her book, but the cleaning trolley rests forgotten in the basement. So let your daughters have the “girlie” toys and the geek toys. Trust them to figure out which is better. That is a lesson that will stay with them. Because they choose, not the parents.
MikeF wrote:
“Not that I’m 100% against tradition – if I ever have a daughter, I’d like to be able to give her the same toy that my mother had when she was a child in the 1950s – Meccano.”
Oh! My absolute favourite plaything as a kid (in the 40s and 50s). I had to play with my brothers’ set, though; it would be shameful for a girl to ask for one. They gave me dolls, twice. When I sold the second one, they gave me no more.
I remember asking my parents, when I was 6 for a hotwheels racetrack. They wouldn’t buy it for me, they wouldn’t get me the smash-up-derby either. Thry did buy me a tea set (Pink too) that I never used.
My 4yo daughter is into anything pink and girly, that cleaning set would almost certainly appeal to her. I’d rather she did some real cleaning up. She also plays with cars, trains, and lego. On the other hand, if she wants pink nailpolish on, so does her 3yo brother. I let him, but if they are staying with either grandmother, poor Ro misses out, and I hear complaints from him for a week.
Gwen also dresses Ro in her skirts. Daddy went a bit funny about that one to begin with, until I reminded him that he has borrowed one of my Elizabethan dresses to go to a party!
Certainly all the advertising for kids toys are very gender biased.
How bout putting a real broom or rake or dustrag in they hand, male or female? Is that child abuse?
women characters on TV hit men, degrade men, and humiliate
men. men and little boys watch TV. no wonder men, in the corporate world, do not promote women. I dont see women objecting, to Hollywood, to the abusive way in which their men are portrayed. I dont see women giving up their monopoly on post-conception rights, either. Women have always, and still do, rule at home (they mete out or deny sex), and they think they can run roughshod over men, in the corporate setting, by whining and complaining. it may work at home, honey, but it dont wash at work. would YOU pay to see a movie where male characters hit females without any punishment, or a sermon?
Try shopping for boys. I stopped going to the big toy shops a long time ago. There are guns, cars, soldier outfits, weapons and more weapons and more weapons.
My son enjoys cleaning more than I do. He recieved a toy vacum cleaner for his 3rd birthday and loved it. Now he’s 8, Lego and Meccano works. Buy these for your daughter but skip the bionicle, fighter series.
You are all just looking for something to complain about! They also sell this same toy for boys in “boy” colors as well. And they sell pink tonka trucks too so stop whining! Most girls enjoy cleaning and the ones who chose to play in the dirt are fine too. Studies show that most boys play with “boy” toys and most girls play with “girl” toys.
I liked dolls, soldiers, blocks, guns, trucks, tea sets, dresses, Indian headdresses, boats, jump rope, fireworks, and anything else I could get my hands on growing up. I used to receive 50 cents for polishing my mothers furniture and went to the movies with it. The point is, to each his(er) own. Everything is fine if the child likes it and it isn’t harmfull. Never had any cleaning toys, always enjoyed the reall things, and its not a bad lesson in life either, since bacteria is not really a good thing, and things last longer is they are taken care of properly.
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