What's the down side?

When I go into a toy store, I can easily find pink legos, or “girly” science kits, but try to find boy dolls and gender-neutral accessories, and it is a lot trickier. Most boys refuse to play with the pink legos or push the flowery doll stroller, but I don’t believe the reverse is true. Don’t get me wrong, many girls love pink, but I have never heard a girl say that she wouldn’t play with the blue blocks, because those were for boys.

So why do we continue to support a trend that inevitably doesn’t benefit anyone but the toy industry. If we as parents all bought more gender neutral toys, wouldn’t it be easier to encourage both genders to play with a wide-variety of toys, to teach boys and girls to excel in science and in nurturing—giving them both the skills to excel in careers and family life, and wouldn’t we all save money by not buying the pink and blue versions of everything, from blocks to bikes. Siblings could share and our houses just might be a little less cluttered with toys and our landfills might be a little less full. What’s the down side?

- Katie