A boy with a doll told off a judgemental toy shop customer with four words
A boy went shopping with his mother to pick out a new toy. And when a judgemental shop customer interrupted, he put her right in her place.
An account of the incident was recorded by Rheann MacLaren who posted a photo of her three year old son enjoying his new purchase on Facebook.
In it, she addresses the shopkeeper who tells her son that he shouldn’t have a pink pram, because it is apparently “just for girls, not boys”.
But before she got a chance to react, her son shut down the entire conversation with just four words -“Cos I like it”.
MacLaren then adds some pretty good advice to the shopper, basically along the lines of “mind your own damn business!”
She adds: “My child will grow up a well-rounded, accepting boy who will NEVER feel pressured to conform to gender stereotypes.”
Read the words, as shared by Rheann below:
To the customer in the toy shop:
I seen the looks you gave me and my three-year-old son today. I seen the way you watched him pick out the pink dolls pram and push it round the shop with pure joy. I seen the way you came over frowning at a child simply enjoying a toy.
I listened as you tried to belittle my son for his choice of toy.
“Oh you don’t want that, it’s just for girls, not boys! It’s all pink and girly. There’s cars and dinosaurs over there, why would you want that girly thing?!”
That’s what you felt you had the right to say to a small child who you’d never met before in your life. I was about to have a go at you, tell you off for being so judgemental and critical of a small child – but my boy got there first, and answered you so much better than I could’ve;
“Cos I like it”
It’s literally that simple. It’s not about the colour of it, the labels behind it, the way it looks… It’s about the fact my child looked at it and thought it looked fun to play with. He pushed it all the way home from the shop proud as punch with his new toy, he told me about how he’s going to put his baby dolly in it and push it to the shops for its milk, because yes, shock horror, my son has a dolly too. His favourite toys are his cars, his trucks, his bus… He love dinosaurs and monsters, he’s happiest when he’s outside playing in the mud and puddles.. But sometimes he likes to play with a doll and pram, he’ll play in the toy kitchen and pretend to do ironing, he likes pink things and watches with fascination when I put my make up on. Am I worried? No, not in the slightest. My child will grow up a well rounded, accepting boy who will NEVER feel pressured to conform to gender stereotypes.
I really hope you saw how happy he looked as he walked out the shop with his girly pink dolls pram and think twice about saying anything similar to a complete stranger again.
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