gender enforcement

[metaphortunate]

Things the baby has ostensibly done recently to cause people to say "Wow, you've really got a boy there, haven't you?"

1) Opened kitchen drawer, flung out piece of tupperware
2) Climbed up slide at playground

Things I believe the baby has ACTUALLY done recently to cause people to say "Wow, you've really got a boy there, haven't you?"

Received a short haircut.

Reason for hypothesis

Previous to the haircut, the most common question upon meeting him was "Boy or girl?"

Alternate hypothesis

Perhaps the haircut has caused him to behave in a more masculine fashion?

Evidence supporting alternate hypothesis

None. Baby behavior has not noticeably changed.

Evidence supporting initial hypothesis

People are extremely good at finding patterns and then noticing evidence to support those patterns and discarding evidence that does not.

Conclusion

GRRARGH PEOPLE WHY YOU GOTTA BE LIKE THAT.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Gah. My daughter (now nearly two) has been climbing up slides for several months. She's mostly stopped flinging storage containers around, and mostly because she now understands short chats about how glass breaks. Everyone on bus/train continues to think she's a boy because I dress her in clothes like mine and because her hair hasn't grown much since my one attempt to even out the wispy bits.

Which is to say, fistbump.

Insidiousness: we were looking at little wall calendars at Staples, and she pointed out the little cat. Which little cat? Not the photos of actual kittens playing, but Hello fucking Kitty. It's the first time she's seen Hello Kitty, AFAIK.

[amaebi]

Children really respond to cartoons. When my son did, I remembered how much more interesting I always thought cartoons than live footage, when I was small.

[thistleingrey]

Hmm, true--for me it was Tom and Jerry. Hadn't thought about it that way; thank you!

[metaphortunate]

OMG my jealousy of a baby who now understands short chats. *___* Someday, maybe!

No, in honesty I know he's understanding more and more. It's pretty awesome. He doesn't always listen, though.

One thing that I found was fascinating is that cartoon shorthand for animals is culturally specific. My friend's wife is Chinese and she was pregnant when I was as well and we were looking at baby clothes & stuff and it turned out she couldn't tell what the hell the cartoon animals were on the clothes. She'd be like, "...a bear?" and Mr. E and I and my friend would be all "No, see, the ears are on the side of the head! It's a monkey, OBVIOUSLY." And she was all, "If you say so. Side ears = monkey over here, riiiiiight." It is now astonishing to me that babies pick up on cartoon abstractions of animals as amazingly fast as they do.

[thistleingrey]

My daughter doesn't always listen, either--clearly, both kids are human. :) Poor impulse control is part of this age, too. Today's Exhibit A is my finger, bitten while I was trying gently to detach a book at bedtime.

Totally. We have one Korean board book courtesy of my mother; the chibi illustrations still baffle darkforge a bit, though he knows the story (retold in English).