On the 14th, Thumper turns three. I know! Crazy, right? Three. Tomorrow he’s having a shared party with a friend. Her birthday was two weeks ago, and his is next week, so neither will technically be a birthday kid for the actual party, but, well…technicalities. They get to wear the crowns anyway.
If you’d asked me before the kid was a toddler if I’d be making birthday crowns using “gender specific” color choices, I would have said “Hell, no.” My son could wear a pink crown. The little girl could wear a blue one. Though most likely I would have expected to be making the crowns in some combination of orange, red, and yellow. Because, well…that’s what I would want. But then my sweet child turned two and a half and began to develop very, very definite opinions and preferences, as did his friend and co-celebrant. When the topic of birthday crowns came up, Thumper would settle only for blue. And not just any blue. DARK blue. It’s all about the dark blue these days. And his friend? She insisted her crown be pink. Hot pink for the main color, light pink for the 3.
And so that’s what they got. Hey, it’s their birthdays, not mine. And I can’t weigh them down with all my baggage about “boy” and “girl” colors. So he likes blue. So she likes pink. Okay. (Can you tell it still bugs me a little bit?)
I snuck in some green and black with the casing for the elastic. The way the casing gathers up really pleases me.
Anyone care to place bets on how long these crowns will be worn at the party before they’re tossed aside?
For what it’s worth, I think the main thing is that if he had wanted pink or she had wanted blue, you would have done that, too.
God, when I was a kid I HATED pink, and I had so fucking many pink things… *calls therapist*
My girls won’t take a crown off for much of anything. One believes she is a real princess if she has a crown and the other has world domination issues. Doesn’t it drive you crazy that kids buy into all those gender roles? My youngest daughter became aware a few months ago that some things are ‘boy’ things and won’t have anything to do with them anymore. Very annoying when she won’t wear her own blue girl clothes because it is a ‘boy’ color. But she still plays with trucks.
I can’t wait to make a birthday crown for my little guy! YAY! Birthday crowns!
I bet they’ll happily wear their crowns all day. Or until they get “itchy” or “warm” or some such thing.
Given that they are so SOFT, they might stay on. Or not. Hee. Yes, we adults have to give up our politically correct ideas about gender sometimes. We hate to — we have so much invested in it — and don’t we HATE it when the “stereotypes” turn out to be true — or as Abigail says, “They are stereotypes for a reason”? God I hate that.
I never liked pink as a child. I remember the days of shared birthday parties, birthday hats, and birthday games. What a special time it is.
My niece turns 3 next week — she’s not much of a pink girl, but she’s so sunny that she likes *every* colour. It’s a very novel experience in a child.
Happy happy bday to Thumper — and happy anniversary of being a mom, Cari.
they will keep them on all night, at least that’s my guess. 🙂
happy birthday to the kidlettes!!
at least you worked to keep the gender-color normativity away until he chose for himself. friend of ours (uber-progressive lesbian couple) have barely let their son *see* a color other than blue since minute one. they say “well he just loves blue and trucks and baseball – we can’t keep him away from them!” the poor kid never had a chance…
I swore I would never buy my son an article of clothing with vehicles on it….but that’s what he likes and I’m eating my words.
Or they could be their favorite things and favorite memories. Maybe they’ll swap crowns and Thumper will have the pink one, and his friend the blue? We were determinedly gender neutral with our first child, then we gave up – there seems to be innate as well as cultural stuff going on there.
yeah – I’ve been amazed and a little horrified at how my kids preferences (and they are adamant about them) are completely gender stereotypical. It’s freaky, and I honestly believe I didn’t foster it. There is also this though: at christmas Scarlet got a pink stroller and Blu would.not.rest.or.be.quiet until he had one too. So now he does. 🙂
Awesome crowns–nice project. My son is ten, and his tastes always ran towards the “traditional.” I’ve found it to be the case with most kids–I also think it’s innate.
Their color choices bother me, too, even though I think it’s totally right that they each should have exactly what they want. Love the crowns; they have a Dr. Seuss look.