Gender Confusion?

I don’t believe in it, but what father hasn’t cringed when he sees his son do something girly?  I’ve struggled before with how Ella likes so many boy-type things and last night I come home from work to see my son wearing a pink mini mouse princess veil and my daughter wearing her Mario T-shirt saying she’s a firefighter!

Pax let mommy wear the hat briefly before wanting it back, so he could call himself a princess.  I guess this is what happens to boys when they have an older sister.

I asked Ella if she wants to be a girl firefighter, to which she adamantly repied “No, a boy firefighter.”

I tell her how beautiful she is and she says, “No I’m handsome.”

This launches a discussion about how she is a girl and we say girls are beautiful and pretty while boys are called handsome.  She denies it and says she’s a boy.  “Why? Why do you want to be a boy, Ella?” 

“Because I’m handsome.”

OK, a little circular reasoning there…

My co-worker tells me she will probably grow out of it, although she may be a tomboy all of her life.  Another sister might influence her to be more girly.  So I’m resting all my hope that Macy will be a very girly girl who might rub off on Ella, we’ll see. 

Oh, it was also funny to see Ella at her ballet lesson for Halloween costume night.  There she was, moustache wearing Mario in a sea of princesses, fairies and mermaids.  She didn’t care!  And I’m glad she knows what she likes and sticks to her guns about it.  I’m really O.K. with her liking rockets and robots and firetrucks and I’m (kinda) OK with Pax wearing the princess hat right now, because I don’t think it really means anything anyway.

So she got her hair cut short last night, too.  Not as short as she wants it, but shorter.  Here’s the Before:

And the After:

At least she’s wearing a princess tiara in the first picture!

Happy Fatherhood Friday everyone!