Role Play

My son commented about his 4-year-old daughter’s fascination with her sticker book of Disney princesses and their weddings. He’s sure little boys wouldn’t be interested, and he’s right. When I was at their house last week, I marveled at Anne-Marie and her nearly-two-year-old sister, Maddie, at their play. As Maddie sucked on two fingers, she would toss a blanket square over a baby doll lying on the floor, place one hand on top of the blanket and expertly grasp baby and all, clasping the bundle to her chest. She has an inborn nurturing instinct that comes natural for her which she can’t help displaying. (Excluding the time I found the baby doll in the oven of her play kitchen!)

One morning she got upset because her pop-tart broke when she took a bite and threw a fit in her high chair. “Let me calm her down,” motherly Anne-Marie said, putting her arms around Maddie and holding her close. After a couple more obligatory wails, Maddie was all smiles and finished her breakfast.

Anne-Marie’s favorite doll is a “wedding girl”, as she calls a bride doll, or even a baby doll in a christening-type white dress which she calls a “wedding girl” also. Not long ago she announced matter-of-factly of her 5-year-old playmate that “Gabe won’t marry me because he’s mad.” She was inseparable from her cousin, Bradley, at a family gathering recently. “I’m going to marry Brad; I’m SERIOUS!” she proclaimed at the lunch table, while patient, 10-year-old Bradley looked on stoically.

When I was making deviled (excuse me)--stuffed eggs for a church get-together recently, I tried to peel them from the air pocket at the end of the egg. This reminded me of something my daughter, who raises chickens, told me. “Mama,” she said, “you can tell which egg will hatch into a male chick or a female chick by the shape of the egg.” Really? “The roundish oval eggs are females, and the longer ovals are the males.” She said some old-timers there in Tennessee had told her that, and she had found it to be true when setting eggs.

Whether this is factual or not, I don’t know, but I do know that male and female both have their role to fill. Boys are just naturally aggressive and boisterous and use action words like, Bam, Screech, Pow, etc. when they play, just as girls usually want to play House. Son Jamie hasn’t yet raised a boy, but I’m sure he’ll notice a marked difference when the time comes! You don’t have to be an old-timer to know that.