Actually that's the kind of FEMININITY i'd like to encourage too Dach. I think that good qualities are universal in most cases.

BUt will we raise our girls the same way? When my brother was going to parties at 14 my mother gave him condoms "to be safe". When i went on the Pill at 14 i was called "a little ****" and ignored for a month.

Bx
I totally agree with you there - the thing is because I don't have any daughters I tend to marginalise the issues that people raising girls deal with .

The whole thing with double standards totally bugs me - it's rife in some of the communities in my area. I would hope that my sons will have the same standards for themselves as for women but the thing is at some point our children

Mayaness, ITA agree that there's no need to put gendered clothes on children. My criteria is pretty much is it warm/cool and comfy. Beyond that I don't much care. Imran has long hair and I'm forever getting told what a pretty little thing he is lol. He looks pretty butch to me. I'm not particuarly submissive so I can't really imagine myself imparting that quality to my children.

Re the spiders thing - TBH women who fall into a wimpering heap in the face of an arachnid or small rodent annoy me so if my DH did it I'd be pretty annoyed too (The rule in our house is you can look but you'd better not touch a la The Wiggles - we have a spider conservation zone).