Children-clothing stereotypes: strawberries for her, a car for him

[Toni]

Didnt mean that it is intrinsically girly or boyish. It is very much defined by current fads. Over 100 years ago red was boys colors and blue for girls.

I interpreted you as just saying that wanting to be "normal" is rather natural. What is "normal" is culturally defined, but the reality is that most kids will pick up on it very young no matter how open and non-gender pushing the parents are. IOW, fast is right that odds are his friends girl would have seen typical remote control cars as a "boy toy" and not liked it, and would be more likely to play with and enjoy it if it had "girly" qualities.

Possibly. But much to my mo ther's dismay, I liked a lot of things that were not 'girl' things when I was growing up. My own kids embraced some stereotypical inclinations ( toys and otherwise) when they were kids--and as kids and as adults and also embraced some which are stereotypically contrary to what might be 'expected' given their genders. My husband became quite a good cook as an adult despite being strongly discouraged from any such interests when he was growing up. Early in our marriage, I was much, much more inclined to do home repairs and so on.