Fighting Words

The last week I was pushing Vince and Joel on the swings in my in-laws.  Vince was telling me that I wasn’t doing a good job pushing and that girls were weak and boys were strong.  I could feel my blood pressure rising!  I am not proud of it but I got a little bit of an attitude and told him that he was wrong, girls are strong (he disagreed again!), and if that is how he felt then I would just stop pushing him.  Vince said “fine!  Grandma will push me!”  I told him “Grandma was a girl too and I doubt she would want to push you if you think she is weak.”  Vince then asked Grandpa to push him!

There have been several other times in the last week that Vince has told me I couldn’t do something because I was a girl.  I then ask him why and then attempt to explain to him why he is wrong.  I don’t think I am getting anywhere!  I get a lot of  “yeah, but…” answers.  He also tells me “well, there are girl projects and boy projects” or “there are girl teams and boy teams.”  He has also told me that I couldn’t play Dino ball (from Dinosaur Train) with him because it was only for boys and not girls. 

I only have sisters and growing up our parents made sure that we knew we could do anything that we wanted to in life with hard work.  It didn’t matter if we were a girl or boy.  If we worked hard and put our minds to it we could do anything!  It was like a broken record, we heard it all the time.  I am sure I rolled my eyes once or twice hearing that when I was growing up.  I actually remember my dad saying “Girls can do anything boys can do and better!” and “Only boys cry not girls!” (I never believed that one.)  My parents had three daughters and they clearly knew they were brain washing us but I am grateful.  

To hear my son say girls were weak hit me hard!  Not quite 4 years old and he already knows how to push my buttons.   I know while I was pregnant there were several times when I told him we had to wait for Daddy to lift something or carry him because I couldn’t.  I guess he figured it was because I was weak.  I think I am just going to start going out of my way to tell him how strong I am whenever I lift or carry something.  Eventually it will work, right?