Dressing The Tomboy

My father always refers to the Little One as a tomboy. I don't know why, maybe he's a bit out of touch. Both with his own grandchild and with what kids are into these days. Or maybe it's because she and I are so different at the age she's at now (almost 4.) When I was her age I was all about dolls and pink and ballet. Unashamedly so, even though he tried his hardest to get me interested in "boys toys" such as mini golf sets, remote control cars, skateboards and so on. To his dismay I always preferred playing with my rag dolls or furnishing my dollhouse.

I'm not very close with my father anymore, so when we do see him and update him on Little One's life the picture that gets presented is one of, in his opinion, a Tomboy. She plays soccer, does mini athletics, does sports daycare* (its fantastic, for 3 hours straight they alternate between little kid versions of tennis, hockey, soccer, basketball, etc) and will be doing tennis as soon as she starts primary school. Because she's so passionate about her sporting activities these are the things she likes to talk to him about. She fails to mention her other obsessions: Disney princesses, helping me bake, watercolor painting, crafts, and dressups/imaginative play.

It's fun raising a daughter in this day and age where you aren't bound by gendered constraints of what they should be interested in. Though I do wonder if I'd be able to raise my child so freely if it were a boy. I'd hope so, I don't know if its father would agree, sadly.

Anyway, with the arrival of Autumn the time had come to start stocking up on winter clothes for her. This year I'd decided to buy most of her things at Target. I'll admit it, i'm lazy. I will always go shopping at the nearest place. So when we lived in the inner city that was usually Country Road and Seed, but now we're in the outer burbs it's Target. (I always hated Seed except for its tights.) Unlike CR I find Target's range to be very gendered. Startlingly gendered in fact with little thought given to practicalities of girl child life. But then, maybe they know their target market well enough to design it like that and are appealing to the people who will actually buy them: the parents.

I am also steering away more from CR because I feel like where we're living it's ... well, it's uncool to put so much thought into a child's outfit. In the inner city it was fun to put an outfit together for Little One because you knew so many people would see it. As if there's anything more delightful to an oldie than an adorably well dressed child! Lets just say, my efforts didn't go unnoticed in the little area we lived in which was certainly not a "cool" inner city enclave as it was inhabited more by wealthy older ladies (and gentlemen.) So it didn't seem obnoxious for me to dress her in Burberry or higher end kids clothes (on that note I don't care what anyone says, I think Burberry makes great winter clothes for kids and due to their good quality they can be handed down and still look like new. Unlike Ralph Lauren which I think is crap quality and fades.)

Back to Target. I didn't like what I saw in the girls range at all. But the boys range ... I thought they had some really cute stuff! I'm also a sucker for navy and red.



And in the girls section ...



I did manage to negotiate a skirt in the mix even though she's anti-skirt and dress at the moment as it's one more thing to remember when she's on the potty.

                                   

There you have it. Not one item of pink I realised when I put it all together! So I made up for that in the undies, socks and pyjamas department.



* not actually a daycare, but parents are not involved whatsoever.