Boy likes Dolls | Imamother

amother

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 9:41 am

Maybe I'm being silly, please feel free to tell me that, but my 2 year old LOVES playing with dolls, the toy kitchen, puts on his sister's fancy dress up shoes & jewlery. Should I be worried or is it just that he's very imaginative & has great dramatic play skills?

amother

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 9:43 am

I forgot to point out that he is a boy & he does play with lego, Clicks, waffle blocks etc too. I'm just worried about the girls stuff.

mummy-bh

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 10:12 am

Don't worry, this is totally normal behaviour. Children learn by imitation and it sounds as though your son is learning by copying your daughter. When my first boy was about 20 months or so, my mil came over and she was a little disturbed to see him playing with his sisters dollies. I told her to watch carefully how he acted with them - he was much more aggressive than the girls were.
This is completely normal, and I always find it reassuring to see that the boys CAN act compassionately (when the mood takes them!).

lst

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 10:28 am

He's completely normal, dont worry about it at all. I even think I read somewhere that its good to encourage young boys to play with girls toys a little and for girls to play with "boys toys" a little.
Mayb if he were doing it at a much older age, then mayb I'd worry

chocolate moose

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 10:30 am

When DS was 2 I got him a toy kitchen b/c he lilked it so much. We did have a baby girl at the time .............

He anyway turned out to be a big strapping 19 year old with raging hormones! He's fine!

BeershevaBubby

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 10:55 am

What in the world is wrong with a guy who likes to cook, knows his way around the kitchen and the laundry room??

amother

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 11:20 am

Thanks everyone for your replies. He IS close in age to his sister & they play together a lot. I'm not gonna worry now.

[quote]I told her to watch carefully how he acted with them - he was much more aggressive than the girls were.[/quote]

Actually, he is nice to them, covers them with a blanket, pats them & syas "Shhh, shhh." It's actually funny.

aussiegal

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 11:22 am

It's great for his imagination and language skill development!! Keep it up!!! Eventually he'll go to preschool or whatever and findout from other kids that dolls are for girls. But until then...its perfectly normal. I've seen tonz of boys in their carriages with dolls etc.

tziviakayla

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 12:54 pm

My little 2 year old son plays with dolls, too. They are always around since he has 5 sisters! My dh kind of rolls his eyes and is slightly disturbed by the play, but I think it's really funny! I like watching what he does to them...he is much more aggressive than his sisters. But, he can also be really sweet to the dolls, rocking them and talking to them and pushing them in dolly strollers. It also lets me know what he might do, if given the chance, to his baby sister!

yoyosma

Mon, Dec 18 2006, 12:56 pm

This thread makes me laugh.
Of course he will play with those toys! He is around you most of the time, right? So he will do what you do! He sees nothing wrong with what his Mommy does so he wants to do it too!
Dont stop him, let him play with whatever he wants. There is nothing disturbing about it.

ChavieK

Tue, Dec 19 2006, 12:24 pm

My ds stil plays with dolls & he's 20- just kidding.They outgrow it , although both my 18 & 20 yr ds have build-a-bears.They are both total guys who cook & know how to clean. My girls all played with blocks trucks & legos. We never allowed toy guns but the boys made everything into guns anyway, the girls never felt a need for that.

withhumor

Tue, Dec 19 2006, 6:04 pm

I take it as a compliment that he is copying his mommy. They do outgrow it. Even if they don’t outgrow it sooner than you think, it’s still pretty normal. Did you have any brothers?

Wed, Dec 20 2006, 9:45 am

My DS (almost 3) does the same thing
I picked him up from daycare a while back and he was wearing a purple dress and red boots, it was hysterical and unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. I did take a photo of him when he dressed up in some of my clothes.
He likes playing with dolls and dresses them and pushes them around in the stroller. He loves the home corner and toy kitchen and plays so imaginatively, it is great to watch. He also loves cars, trains, diggers, lego etc...
It sounds like your son is absolutely normal.

Sun, Dec 24 2006, 5:58 pm

Not only do I not have a problem with it I bought my son a doll to play with. 2 keep DH happy I bought DS a boy doll (well it has blue clothes) as I do not have a daughter.
At first he was really not interested in it but now as he is more into imaginary play and acting out what he sees us doing, he'll pick it up an pat its pack, saying ah, ah baby etc but gets disinterested very quickly. I have no idea if a girl at this age (22m) wud spend more time playing with a doll.
But I thinka boy and giurl shud be offered similar opportunites when it comes to toys.
Having a doll supposedly teaches a child compassion which is a good thing 4 a boy as well.

Tefila

Sun, Dec 24 2006, 7:36 pm

I would rather worry if he dressed up in pink with lipstick and all at an older age then as a tot enjoying dolls. My twin sonm loves dolls too and always has two of them whereever he goes. He is two yrs old and makes sure they are always warm comfortable and secure. Good to know I am doing something right since they basically at this age emulate you Very Happy

mumoo

Mon, Dec 25 2006, 2:12 am

if girls can have dollies to pretend play mommy, isn't great that boys can pretend play totty? my younger girls had all the 3 yr and younger boys in the neighbor hood playing house.

one time I saw her with a ball in her shirt. I watched from the deck as the boy kept insisting he wanted to see the baby. dd refused time after time saying, its not ready yet. seeing he wasn't going to give up, dd finally said, "Ok if you take me out to dinner the baby will come" I nearly choked laughing

greenfire

Tue, Dec 26 2006, 10:36 am

When my son was little I bought him a Buddy doll they're made for boys and looks more boyish - and if I have anybody who loves to cook & bake it is him not my girls. One of my friends told me a story about her boys who said there's a aboy in yeshiva who sews - she was stunned but then laughed when she found out it was my son. If I can fix the ________whatever of course he would do _________whatever too. Yep he made alot of money hemming the boys new suits for yom tov.