Letting Nixon BE Nixon....

Sometimes the hardest part of being a mom is letting your child be him/herself. There's so much fucking pressure to raise a boy to be strong and tough and manly, while girls can be soft and girlie and princesses OR rough and tumble tomboys. Nixon likes having his nails painted sometimes, he's even asked for pink once! (HOLY shit he's not right in the head!! No, you fuckface, he's 2 he hasn't "learned" that boys aren't "allowed" to wear pink.) Nixon has pushed a doll stroller through the zoo with his friend, Miss Macy doing the same thing. His stroller was blue and he rolled it kamikaze-style downhill with his precious BeBe in it, while laughing with glee the whole time!


   Today was raining, Mac was at work with the car and Nixon was chilling with me having a snugly movie day. Cartoon Network was doing a movie marathon of sorts and I figured it was better than watching any other movie or show I've seen a million times over with him. A Barbie movie came on and Nixon was enthralled by it! I've never been big on gender roles, or so I've always prided myself on, but to my horror my first reaction was to try to change the channel! I caught myself, and instead left the room to grab a cup of coffee and figure out my issues. It wasn't that Nixon was enjoying a Barbie movie...it was that I've always disliked Barbie and just assumed any child of mine (boy or girl) would feel the same way! I took my coffee and sat down to watch Nixon enjoy a Barbie movie. Turns out...he was only into it for the dancing and singing!


   I guess, my point is, despite my every intention of being that super open minded mom that just doesn't play by the typical gender roles, this one snuck up on me. The one thing I didn't do, which I was really fucking proud of myself about, I didn't say anything to Nixon, I kept the internal struggle over Barbie where it belonged...in my head! Like most times I have an issue with, I don't (at least I try not too) let Nixon see me struggle with the issue.