Reliving my childhood with my son's toys

I came across this cartoon the other day and knew immediately that it was going to become a blog post. Why? Well, first of all, because it's funny. I mean, yes, to a guy, it's a very funny cartoon. It's funny because that's what they think of girls' toys.

But then I thought about it from my own perspective, in light of my upbringing and being a product of my generation (born in the 70s, I'm a true Gen-Xer). My brother is 5 years older – he got Lego, he got Meccano (remember Meccano?), he got blocks, remote control cars, a microscope. Sure, I stole as many of them as I could, but what did I have of my own? Dolls, barbies, this huge doll head on a stand so I could play hair dresser and make-up artist, chalkboards, stuffed animals... things that stimulated my imagination... but nothing I could use to build or discover kewl stuff.

In the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy, I knew, just knew, in my heart of hearts that we were having a boy. I pictured hubby, myself and our son playing with remote control cars, Lego (my blog clearly demonstrates our obsession), and all the other fun stuff boys love to play with. Then the ultrasound technician said we were having a girl.

A what, now?

All I could picture was this adorable little person coming out as my complete antithesis. That she would be the girliest girl ever. Everything pink. Pop music. Barbies. It took me weeks to convince myself that I would be ok. She'd be a tomboy. She'll be a skater girl. We'll be ok.

And you know what happened? The universe knew better and delivered a boy. A boy's boy. Transformers and Star Wars and cars and Lego and destruction and trucks and motorcycles and loud. All boy. And our house is filled with everything I didn't get to play with when I was younger.

We hang at the Science & Tech Museum, watch guy movies, drive out of our way to go look at race cars and trains. It's like reliving my childhood, the one I didn't get the first time.

So does this make me some sort of anti-girl chauvinist? Does this all mean that don't think I would have done the same things with a daughter? Nope. I just think that fate works in mysterious ways and if I'd been given a daughter it would have been to teach me some lesson about girlie girls being fabulous and not much different from me. I love my girlie girl friends. And yes, I do have some. But one in my house? Oh to just picture the teenage years gives me shivers...

Lucky for me, I must have done something good to someone special along the way and had enough Karma to enjoy my childhood a second time.

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a gross-out story to read or some Lego to play with... :)