Fancying myself as a right-on parent I have always made a point of not gender stereotyping the boys by  their toys. Despite this, Jake has always been completely fascinated by anything with wheels, and any  offers of a pram or doll have been met with a look of wry amusement.

Arlo, on the other hand, despite a very masculine 17-month old solidity, seems to have taken to the toys traditionally  of the fairer sex with gusto. He can often be found at his toy kitchen with a plastic fish finger hanging out of his mouth, cooking ice-cream in a smiling pan.

He has recently been given a second-hand Disney tea set complete with singing tea pot in what is, even by my standards, an unacceptably pink pink. The lid is interchangeable and each triggers the voice of another tra-la-la-ing Disney heroine.  Arlo now sits with his beloved teapot, listening intently and nodding his curt agreement with Princess Aurora/Snow White/Cinderella on all manner of subjects:

 

Aurora: Let’s have another cup of lovely tea!

Arlo: (grunt)

Aurora: I wish the Handsome Prince could join us for tea, don’t you?

Arlo: (grunt)

Aurora: Why, you’re as pretty as a princess!

Arlo: (grunt)

 

I watch anxiously from the wings with a Bob the Builder at the ready…