Kids Will Be Kids
The whole reason I was a huge tomboy who was allergic to all things girly was because of my mother. My mom forced gender expectations on me, and because I had a bunch of brothers I immediately thought that I just didn’t want to be a girl if being a girl was less fun than my brothers got to have.
They got game systems as presents the same year I got a fake vacuum and baby doll. It was no wonder I didn’t want to be a girl.
My mom pushed me more and more into being a girl. The harder she pushed the more I wanted to be a tomboy. She doesn’t like the fact that now I wear dresses and makeup because she feels like I should have done those things when we could have had mother-daughter moments.
But I would have done that stuff had she just allowed me to be myself. I remember, once, she told me that I was finally getting a corgi puppy.
You see, I had been wanting a Corgi for years and I had collected Corgi books, Corgi stuffed animals, all kinds of Corgi things, so it was obvious I wanted one like most girls want a pony. So we get in the car and I’m so excited.
We get to a large building and we go inside…and my mom reveals actually it’s a glamour shoot. She knew I wouldn’t have agreed to go with her if she told me the truth.
They put me in a tube top and a pound of makeup and took all of these really adult pictures of me (I was 14) and of course, I was mad and I hated it. To make matters worse, she brought other family members there for “moral support” which I just found embarrassing.
That same month, we got a new dog, but it was what my little brother had been asking for, a Boston Terrier. You know. To rub it in I guess, she gets my brother a dog. She seriously doesn’t understand why I am still mad about it.
Please let your kids be themselves. I always liked pink. I just lied about it because I also wanted to play Pokémon, which was “for boys.” Everything fun was for boys!!!