Linus confronts feminist stereotypes

Linus is all boy.  He likes sports, bugs, and dirt.  His favorite color is camo. He hates the color pink, princesses, or anything he perceives to be slightly girl oriented.  His mother is one of the only females he tolerates.  That said, today was a big day.

We started off the morning, earning our screen time as usual.  I offered to once again try teaching Linus to tie his shoes instead of making him do something more academic.  The ability to tie shoes has eluded him.  Linus wants athletic shoes that tie more than anything.  I won't buy him any until he is proficient at tying his own shoes.  This morning I decided to take a different tact.  I had him put on my new tennis shoes (old ones were destroyed during mud run).  Wearing my shoes meant he had larger laces to work with while being able to apply the right amount of pressure.  This was a big deal because the laces were hot pink.  Within two minutes, he could tie with pretty good accuracy, including a double knot.

Some would have called it a day at that, but I was ready to build upon his success.  I really wanted to try the "family" yoga class at the YMCA.  Linus perceives yoga to be very girly (probably since I usually only go when pregnant).  He was concerned there would only be girls there, it wouldn't be fun, and would be stupid and boring.  Turns out that family is yoga is super fun and challenging and there were boys and an adult man in attendance.  And did you know that women weren't allowed to be yogis until the 1970s?  As we walked to the car Linus commented, "That was pretty fun. Lets go next week.  I need to work on my poses."

The day followed with some very feminine cookie baking, and a little masculine throwing of the football in the backyard with his mom (a girl who can throw a football!).  I knew I needed to utilize this window of open-mindedness and get Linus to ride a bike.

Linus' bike is a little big for him and he never totally mastered a balance bike.  Eileen has a very easy to ride bike that she is learning on.  The only problem is that the bike is pink, with flowers, a white flower basket, and sparkly tassels on the handlebars.  Linus normally balks when I suggest trying her bike.  But today I think he sensed he needed to be open to new things.  And wouldn't you know it, within five minutes he was successfully riding a bike with zero help from me.  Emboldened, he kept practicing even when an occasional male walked by the house.

After we finished bike riding, Linus and I were reviewing day's events.  Linus said, "Mama, I think I'm going to write a book and call it 'The Boy Who Tried.'  There are a few other lessons I am hoping he takes away from today:

• don't knock something until you tried it
• just because something is pink or girlie doesn't mean it's bad
• girl things can help you be awesome 
• girls are awesome, especially his mom and little sister (who was happy to let him borrow her bike)

And most importantly, listen to your mother.