Posted By Laura in #New!, Childrens, Gift Inspo, Just for You, Toddler, Toys | 2 comments

After three boys, I was a pretty confident parent and was ready to roll on through the next few years with a measure of experienced comfort.

*hollow laugh*

How little I knew!

Having a daughter was a WHOLE new ball game – but not the way you might typically expect. Yes there were pink gifts, pink clothes, an excess of soft toys and a ridiculous amount of soldiers and snipers sitting around having tea parties (this is what happens when your girl inherits three older-brothers toy cupboard). But amidst the obvious girl-ness of this new person, there were surprises.

She was the first of our children to leave home – at the age of 16mths. She broke out of what we had thought for ten years (and three boys) was a child-proof garden, and headed down the road. Thank god one of the neighbours scoped her up. She escaped again – different exit strategy, and this time wound up IN a neighbours pond. She is the only of our children to have climbed the dresser – and consequently tumbling three full shelves of glasses smashing down on to the floor with her as she fell.
Her footwear of choice is flashing wellies, refuses to have her hair in any style except ‘unstyled’ (preferably unbrushed too), trees are there to be conquered (right to the terrifyingly wobbly thin wispy bits at the very top) she adores dressing up, loves Anne & Elsa – and is generally just her own awesome person.

Of course, buying gifts for her can be a little tricky as her tastes are so varied (and unpredictable) – and I admit it’s a total bug bear of mine (and so many other parents) when a shop will insist on categorising toys by gender. Sure at 8 she loves to braid friendship bracelets, and decorate home made cards with glitter. But that’s not ALL she is – and I don’t like retailers deciding what she will like, purely because of her gender.

So when I saw that The Toy Store had a section for ‘toys for girls’ I admit I felt my hackles rise. Here we go again, I thought – more pink glitter and cheap plastic for my daughter.

But.

While there’s a certain sprinkling of necessary pink plastic through the pages, I was impressed and relieved. Because there was also a decent share of properly non-pink stuff in there too.

LEGO City Prisoner Transporter set – £22.05

We actually have this LEGO City Prisoner Transporter set – and my girl loves it.  The bad guy on the quad bike pulls some serious moves in our garden, and that amazing escaping prisoner can take a serious crack to the head as he’s pulled along behind, I can tell you.

Ezyroller drifter in Red – £90.85

And there’s this totally awesome Ezyroller Drifter Go Kart. What girl doesn’t want to get out on one of these? Apparently you can reach speeds of 12kph.
BIG fun right there.

So; lesson learned. Not all retailers are created equal, and sometimes they do mean it when they say they do toys for girls…