http://www.raisingbakersfield.com/home/Blog/bushelandapeck/24971 &nbsp; Months ago the kiddo went through this very short lived phase of wanting her hair cut short.&nbsp;&ldquo;I want my hair like Sarah&rsquo;s,&rdquo; she would say.&nbsp;Well, she wanted a lot of things &ldquo;like Sarah&rsquo;s,&rdquo; but that wasn&rsquo;t happening. (Deep in me I was a little freaked out that my 3 year old was losing her identity.&nbsp;What&rsquo;s all this &ldquo;I want to be like somebody else bit?&rdquo;&nbsp;But I soon realized that the kiddo wasn&rsquo;t having an identity crisis; she was just being 3.)&nbsp;&nbsp;For whatever reason, the kiddo just moved on from wanting to chop her hair.&nbsp;And I was glad.&nbsp;I love her hair.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s the hair I never had and never will.&nbsp;But I had never, ever mentioned anything about &ldquo;boy hair&rdquo; and &ldquo;girl hair.&rdquo; &nbsp; Nope.&nbsp;She picked up on those stereotypes all on her own.&nbsp;First, it started with &ldquo;princess hair.&rdquo;&nbsp;Princess hair is long hair, at least according to Disney, and that&rsquo;s what my little girl knows. And you know what?&nbsp;I didn&rsquo;t fight it.&nbsp;I didn&rsquo;t fight the whole princess thing.&nbsp;I watched my niece do that with her daughter and it backfired exponentially.&nbsp;And I&rsquo;m not anti-princess; I only want my daughter to know that there is a world beyond Disney princesses. &nbsp; She is always telling me, &ldquo;I want my hair down like a princess,&rdquo; or &ldquo;I have long hair like a princess.&rdquo;&nbsp;Okay.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s nice.&nbsp; &nbsp; But the stereotyping went to a whole new level the other night when we were watching American Idol.&nbsp;(Yes, I let her watch it sometimes.&nbsp;She loves to sing, and she loves watching the singers.)&nbsp;For those of you who don&rsquo;t watch the show, each show ends with a short recap of the night&rsquo;s performances.&nbsp;Here&rsquo;s what the kiddo had to say on each performer: &nbsp; I like him.&nbsp;(on David Archuleta) I like her. (on Brooke White) I like her. (on Carly Smithson) I like herm.&nbsp;(on Jason Castro, a young man who sports beautiful, long dredlocks) &nbsp; Yep.&nbsp;Herm.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s a combo of her and him.&nbsp;At first she wasn&rsquo;t sure whether he was a boy or girl.&nbsp;Then the kiddo insisted he was a girl because he had long hair.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And I admit the kiddo&rsquo;s creative contraction is pretty darn funny.&nbsp;But I am a little concerned about the long hair/girls &amp; short hair/boys stereotyping.&nbsp; &nbsp; We watched our wedding video the other week &ndash; part of our 15th wedding anniversary celebration (hooray for us!).&nbsp;The kiddo did not like seeing Daddy with long hair.&nbsp;Hmm. &nbsp;She said he looked like a girl, and she made it very clear that she never, ever wants Daddy to have long hair. &nbsp; I&rsquo;m thinking this will pass soon. &nbsp; Any thoughts? &nbsp; Months ago the kiddo went through this very short lived phase of wanting her hair cut short.&nbsp;&ldquo;I want my hair like Sarah&rsquo;s,&rdquo; she would say.&nbsp;Well, she wanted a lot of things &ldquo;like Sarah&rsquo;s,&rdquo; but that wasn&rsquo;t happening. (Deep in me I was a little freaked out that my 3 year old was losing her identity.&nbsp;What&rsquo;s all this &ldquo;I want to be like somebody else bit?&rdquo;&nbsp;But I soon realized that the kiddo wasn&rsquo;t having an identity crisis; she was just being 3.)&nbsp;&nbsp;For whatever reason, the kiddo just moved on from wanting to chop her hair.&nbsp;And I was glad.&nbsp;I love her hair.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s the hair I never had and never will.&nbsp;But I had never, ever mentioned anything about &ldquo;boy hair&rdquo; and &ldquo;girl hair.&rdquo; &nbsp; Nope.&nbsp;She picked up on those stereotypes all on her own.&nbsp;First, it started with &ldquo;princess hair.&rdquo;&nbsp;Princess hair is long hair, at least according to Disney, and that&rsquo;s what my little girl knows. And you know what?&nbsp;I didn&rsquo;t fight it.&nbsp;I didn&rsquo;t fight the whole princess thing.&nbsp;I watched my niece do that with her daughter and it backfired exponentially.&nbsp;And I&rsquo;m not anti-princess; I only want my daughter to know that there is a world beyond Disney princesses. &nbsp; She is always telling me, &ldquo;I want my hair down like a princess,&rdquo; or &ldquo;I have long hair like a princess.&rdquo;&nbsp;Okay.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s nice.&nbsp; &nbsp; But the stereotyping went to a whole new level the other night when we were watching American Idol.&nbsp;(Yes, I let her watch it sometimes.&nbsp;She loves to sing, and she loves watching the singers.)&nbsp;For those of you who don&rsquo;t watch the show, each show ends with a short recap of the night&rsquo;s performances.&nbsp;Here&rsquo;s what the kiddo had to say on each performer: &nbsp; I like him.&nbsp;(on David Archuleta) I like her. (on Brooke White) I like her. (on Carly Smithson) I like herm.&nbsp;(on Jason Castro, a young man who sports beautiful, long dredlocks) &nbsp; Yep.&nbsp;Herm.&nbsp;That&rsquo;s a combo of her and him.&nbsp;At first she wasn&rsquo;t sure whether he was a boy or girl.&nbsp;Then the kiddo insisted he was a girl because he had long hair.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And I admit the kiddo&rsquo;s creative contraction is pretty darn funny.&nbsp;But I am a little concerned about the long hair/girls &amp; short hair/boys stereotyping.&nbsp; &nbsp; We watched our wedding video the other week &ndash; part of our 15th wedding anniversary celebration (hooray for us!).&nbsp;The kiddo did not like seeing Daddy with long hair.&nbsp;Hmm. &nbsp;She said he looked like a girl, and she made it very clear that she never, ever wants Daddy to have long hair. &nbsp; I&rsquo;m thinking this will pass soon. &nbsp; Any thoughts? en-us <p>&nbsp;First, congrats on the anniversary!&nbsp; :)</p> <p>Now, the whole hair/gender identity/gender stereotypes thing...&nbsp; It <i>must </i>be a three-year-old thing, b/c The Pumpkin's doing that stuff too.&nbsp; Just yesterday, we were playing with some flat wooden dolls you lace wooden clothes onto, and it was just cracking her up to put the &quot;boy&quot; clothes on the &quot;girl&quot; dolls and vice versa, she thought the idea was just hilarious.&nbsp; I think that at this age, they're just categorizing everything--what we have to watch out for is when those categorizations get freighted with values and meanings from media and elsewhere that we don't want them to imbibe, is all.</p> <p>But seriously though--your husband had long hair?!&nbsp; That, I can't imagine.&nbsp; Heh. </p> <p>You know, we keep trying to get The Pumpkin to consent to her first ever haircut, just a bang trim so it's not in her eyes all the time, and we use your kiddo as an example, and she still won't buy it!</p> http://www.raisingbakersfield.com/home/Blog/bushelandapeck/24971/#c_225763 http://www.raisingbakersfield.com/home/Blog/bushelandapeck/24971/#c_225763 <p>&nbsp;First, congrats on the anniversary!&nbsp; :)</p> <p>Now, the whole hair/gender identity/gender stereotypes thing...&nbsp; It <i>must </i>be a three-year-old thing, b/c The Pumpkin's doing that stuff too.&nbsp; Just yesterday, we were playing with some flat wooden dolls you lace wooden clothes onto, and it was just cracking her up to put the &quot;boy&quot; clothes on the &quot;girl&quot; dolls and vice versa, she thought the idea was just hilarious.&nbsp; I think that at this age, they're just categorizing everything--what we have to watch out for is when those categorizations get freighted with values and meanings from media and elsewhere that we don't want them to imbibe, is all.</p> <p>But seriously though--your husband had long hair?!&nbsp; That, I can't imagine.&nbsp; Heh. </p> <p>You know, we keep trying to get The Pumpkin to consent to her first ever haircut, just a bang trim so it's not in her eyes all the time, and we use your kiddo as an example, and she still won't buy it!</p> <p>&nbsp;It seems I need a moniker for my child.&nbsp;&nbsp; Hmmm, since pumpkin and kiddo are already taken.&nbsp; We have a number of nick-names, but I'm gonna go with Z-Rock (aka The Z-Rock)&nbsp;</p> http://www.raisingbakersfield.com/home/Blog/bushelandapeck/24971/#c_225905 http://www.raisingbakersfield.com/home/Blog/bushelandapeck/24971/#c_225905 <p>&nbsp;It seems I need a moniker for my child.&nbsp;&nbsp; Hmmm, since pumpkin and kiddo are already taken.&nbsp; We have a number of nick-names, but I'm gonna go with Z-Rock (aka The Z-Rock)&nbsp;</p>