Learning to be Beautiful

Pink is Jack's favorite color right now. He complained bitterly when Annie got to wear the tights she proclaimed "beautiful" to church last Sabbath and he had to wear a button down shirt and shorts. So, midweek, he found a pair of Annie's too-large pink tights, stripped to his undies, and pulled them on. Digging a pair of pretty pink gloves out of the same drawer, he donned them and pranced out of the room to dance through the house, thrilled with bathing in the beauty of pink. That outfit became his standard attire for the remainder of the week. He skid across the floor behind a tricycle, he pushed around his cars and trains, he even slipped outside and dug in the mud, all in pink tights and gloves. I took some pictures and videos. Eyebrows were raised (a pair of them mine), smirks exchanged (yup, me too), and teasing ensued questioning what unmanly genes my husband may have passed down to our son.

Annie loves cars, planes, helicopters, and trains. She steals Jack's Lightening McQueen sandals, fights over his matchbox cars to stuff into the back of her "happy bear" plush backpack, plays "race cars" pushing a stroller around at breakneck speeds, and her favorite shirt is a hand-me-down with Thomas the Train's happy face on the front. She wants to climb, play hockey, and dig in the mud. No eyebrows are raised, no smirks exchanged... no one questions the unwomanly genes I may have passed down to our daughter. Oh no, a tom boy with long blond hair and beautiful blue eyes is always adored.

Offensive: My son learns appreciation of beauty from the sister he adores and is ridiculed. My daughter learns appreciation for mechanical things from the brother she adores and is praised.

Delightful: My daughter's strengths are expanding my son's perspectives.

Delightful: My son's strengths are expanding my daughter's perspectives.

Fortunately Jack and Annie aren't socially sophisticated enough to understand the scorn of a smirk. But the time will come when the devastation of condescension invades their emotional security. I'd better not be the one to introduce the concept to them.