Hair Bows and Gender Roles

This weekend was Emmy's Aunt Polly's birthday, and we went to visit her of course. For this special occasion, Ms. Em decided to dress up like a birthday present and wear a bow in her hair for the very first time ever! It was beyond precious. I am quickly realizing that I have this deeply rooted, girly side of me that I suppressed for many years. I have certainly indulged this side of my personality at various times in my life, and I'm pretty in touch with my feminine side now (i.e. I love to shop, love makeup, would be into dressing up/fixing up more if I had the time, love musicals, dance, knitting, even starting to enjoy cooking, etc.), which is all in a bit of a contrast to my early 20's grungy-hippy phase (Yes, I had a bit of a time finding my self! Cue the image of a thrift store fashioned, makeup-less, moccasin wearing, strange person). I know the things I listed aren't exclusively in the female domain but I guess I am sometimes surprised at how traditional I am/have become in regard to gender roles. For example, this weekend I was mopping the floor with Emmy watching me in her exersaucer. I was telling her how to do it, you know, step by excruciatingly detailed step in order to keep talking and hopefully pacify her while keeping her contained. I was telling her how important it would be to learn to take care of a home for herself and her family, but that I really hope she will find a man who will enjoy mopping the floor, cooking, etc. I explained that her daddy is actually pretty progressive in his willingness to engage in all forms of domesticity, but that often he and I can be a little traditional in our approaches to getting things done. G does all of the outside work and I work a lot on the inside. You can tell this because our yard usually looks great, but the inside of our house is often a wreck. G would probably argue that he does all of the outside work and half of the inside work, and he would probably be right . But it made me wonder what "traditional" will even mean when Emmy is my age? Because boundaries are being broken and lines being crossed or blurred more and more it seems important to give children, especially young girls, a range of experiences. Of course I plan to follow Emmy's interests, but until her interests are more fully formed, I guess I'm going to have to remember to encourage her exploration of "traditionally" male oriented activities. Maybe G should talk to her about how to fix the lawn mower. And I think I'll start by buying her a dump truck for Christmas. Maybe she can drive her baby doll around in it!