(no subject)

[ciroccoj]

Yup, I have a clean house. And nobody showed up for the drop-in. But it was actually an amazingly good morning - the boys played outside while I cleaned, then I read to them on the front steps, then we came in and made frozen yoghurt popsicles and ginger cookies. I'm going to gain a ton this summer.

I wonder if fathers of daughters ever get this feeling of "::sigh:: They just don't get it, do they?" when they try to do boy-things with their daughters and run into hard-wired differences between the sexes. I love cooking with my boys (which is strange because I hate cooking by myself), and they love it too, but...

Case in point, this morning. What could be more domestic and non-testoteroned than baking cookies, for god's sake? And yet my little darlings, as they mixed molasses and egg and Crisco together in a big bowl, made all sorts of bombing noises and chattered excitedly about destroying a village and when I put in the flour, baking soda, ginger, etc enthused about how the village was getting reinforcements and they were still destroying because they were stronger and...

Yeah. I wonder if dads ever take their daughters fishing and end up having the girls babble about mama fishies and baby fishies and making friends with the fishies and all that girly stuff. It's very amusing, in a slightly frustrating way.

Comments

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

Well, when my dad took me fishing, I don't seem to remember babbling about fishy families. What I do remember is catching MY limit...and then catching the limit of several other people on the boat. I used to be a kick-ass fisherperson. Or, actually, I had good fishy luck.

Confused

[gypsum.livejournal.com]

My dad used to take me fishing, mountain biking, skiing all the time. I think I had more patience back then because I liked fishing even when you didn't catch anything. Now I don't care much for fishing if I doubt that I will catch a fish. But I never made "girlie" comments about it. Never played with dolls, either.

It was the horse thing that curtailed the mountain biking, although I'd get back into it if I could find people out here who wanted to do it. Skiing, too. But not a lot of people at this college are into those more solitary sports.

Re: Confused

[snarkhunter.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, I was as girly as they come. I had a ton of dolls and just loved them to death. I didn't like Barbies; I liked baby dolls. I liked being "Mommy." Of course, "Mommy's" side job was commanding an army bent on defeating the enemies of Narnia...so...maybe not quite so girly. :) But I grew up with a brother in a neighborhood full of boys. Thank God.

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, from my memory, I wasn't much of a girlie girl either. Still rate low on the estrogenometer - I own one lipstick, a purse, and a few years ago I had mascara but it dried up. And when I did my moot court, I had to buy panty hose. I also don't cook unless I'm pregnant or baking with the boys. What I know about home decor and fashion could be painlessly tattooed on my eyelids.

But. I know I focus on cooperation and relationships, not competition or aggression. I enjoy science and numbers but phase out with high-tech (despite having done an undergrad in computers). Sports hardly touch me. And I wonder if my dad ever felt frustrated trying to, I dunno, play chess with me only to have me focus on how the poor queen felt and trying to comfort the cute little pawns or something. It's interesting, trying to guess how much of this stuff is hardwired and how much is just socialized.