Creating future MEN!
“Gender equality means that women and men, and girls and boys, enjoy the same rights, resources, opportunities and protections. Gender inequality arises when one group is seen in a society as having more rights than the other– UNICEF.”
A lot can be spoken on this topic but I will try to share my 2 cents about how something as big and serious like Gender equality can be easily taught to our little ones in fun ways. As its rightly said that real learning begins at home and the real teachers are both parents, we as a family have always emphasized this throughout our learning journey so far.
In general, boys are encouraged to be intrepid and adventurous, while girls are too often silenced, praised for neatness rather than their achievements.
Hello, my name is Priyanjali (Software Consultant) and my lovely husband is Ankur (UAE Financial Expert) and together we have a son called Ayaansh who is 4 and knows and is learning a lot of gender specific activities since the last two years. As parents we were sure since the beginning we need to slowly and steadily teach our son the basics and then based upon his interest we can always go deeper and learn more.
Learning through play can reap immense benefits: play fosters resilience, social skills and creativity. But it can also be the moment at which children adopt ideas around gender that shape the trajectory of their lives.
By the age of two or three, children grasp fundamental norms around gender. Consciously or unconsciously, parents, teachers and peers coax or coerce children into a restricted set of choices based on their gender. That is not just color-choice, but a plethora of identity-shaping roles.
What goes on in our brain reflects what is going on in our world — and if it is gendered, that will
young boys are encouraged to build Lego structures or play video games, while girls are steered towards activities that make little use of technical and spatial skills.
Keeping the same in mind we always made sure our son has a mud kitchen and doll house along with his Legos, he has pink and yellow in his wardrobe along with the blues and black, His PJ mask battalion represents him and two other girls as the protagonists, he learns art and music along with kids cooking and the most recent acquired skill is sewing 😊
Books also play a very crucial part in this process and I would like to recommend some books to start with:
- ABC for Me: ABC What Can She Be?
- Think Big, Little One
- My First Book of Feminism (for Boys)
- A Is for Awesome!: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World
- No Difference Between Us
Glad to continue on this journey as we progress with our parenting in the years to come and hoping to make a difference amongst our peers for a better society in the future.
Read more parenting tips from real moms sharing their own thoughts about raising children in their own best way.
Appreciate your efforts. I have an almost 3 year old boy and I have been consciously trying to keep things gender neutral (where ever possible). He loves to play with his kitchen set and is my greatest help in mundane household chores.
Rightly said, what we do is what they imbibe 🙂