I'm expecting a girl soon and I'm already sick of the expectations being placed on her by certain family members (of the older generation mostly)! I mentioned that this baby kicks far more vigorously than my little boy did when I was carrying him, and one of the responses was, 'But why would she, she's a girl!'
I also mentioned I was going to buy a stretchy wrap to carry her in and got, 'A pink one, obviously...' Err no, why would that be obvious?
Whenever I've mentioned how lovely the bond is between my son and his dad, I always get 'Well you'll have the same with your daughter...' why?! Why does my gender mean I can't have the same bond with both of my kids? What makes you think my daughter won't love spending time with her dad too?!
Maybe she will turn out to be a dainty little princess who loves playing with dollies and wearing dresses, but maybe she'll be more interested in football and cars and trains. Maybe she'll be a lovely mix of the two. Drives me mad trying to put babies into neat little gender-stereotypical boxes, before they've even been born!!
That's exactly what Beggy is doing and will continue to do, she'll stifle the poor girl's personality out of her like she has done with her other two kids. Poor Alfie and Woody don't seem to have any likes or interests, skills or things they seem to be particularly good at, except watching TV and staying out of their mum's way. Winds me up whenever she says 'what a childhood' over some video of them in a field or something. Yeah, what a childhood they COULD be having in that environment if their parents gave enough of a shit to nurture them properly.