Children's views are important. How they see the world is how the future will be shaped, because children are the ones that will be in charge of the future. This makes it important understand children and understand how we want to influence them. The most important thing is that children just like anyone else have their own opinions.
Some of their opinions are more stereotypical than others. Like, for instance, preferences based on gender. Where I'm from in Washington it's pretty common thinking to view gender preferences as something influenced by society and normative parenting influences. Due to these reasons preferences and behavior based on gender influence by "society" was a bad thing. This begs the question are these gender-typical opinions influenced by outside influence? Or is it an inborn preference?
In an article called "Sex Differences in Infants’ Visual Interest in Toys", they took two toys, a doll and a truck, and showed them to infants between 5-6 months old. Before an infant could have the self-awareness to recognize gender identity. The result showed the majority of the female infants were more focused on the doll than to toy truck, but the male infants of attention was relatively split between the two toys slightly favoring the doll, but according to the article they described it saying, "the effect was not significant." The male infants also favored the truck more than the female infants by comparison. This does show that males and females have distinct preferences even before they are aware of gender identity. More female infants fixated on the doll than the males did and more male infants focused on the trucks than the females. Of course one test doesn't determine absolute fact.
An interesting article that I found was a similar test as the one previous, but it was done on nonhuman primates. This study is called "Sex differences in response to children's toys in nonhuman primates", in the article it says, "males had greater contact time with the “masculine” toy set" and "females compared to males had higher percent contact with the “feminine” toys." Gender preferences literally span species! It is absolutely normal for there to be normal gender-typical behavior. Nevertheless, it is up to us how we want to influence these behaviors.
I think by understanding gender differences and gender-typical behavior we can better teach the future generation. We're all going to have our own opinions, but it is how we shape the next generation that we shape the future. I think embracing differences is good and acknowledging they exist and not for any particularly clear reason is good. If everyone is different then everyone has something to learn about each other. The more we learn from about and from our families, the more we can help each other. It's not just about being different it's about learning about what makes us different and trying to understand what makes everyone else different.
No one in my family is the same. We may have the same quirks, but hobbies, pet peeves, and even looks have distinct differences. I was never very good with trying to understand my family. So, I was in conflict a lot. By trying to understand my family and learning to accept our differences as well as understand them, my relationship with my family especially my younger sister has improved a lot. I talk to my sister more frequently, I've bonded with my brothers and gotten over all of my angsty issues with my parents. I've learned to love them all to death. If you're having difficulties with your family whether you be a child or a parent, ask yourself, "What can I do to understand them better?" I guarantee that if you do your best things will get better.
Sources: Alexander, G.M., Wilcox, T. & Woods, R. Sex Differences in Infants’ Visual Interest in Toys. Arch Sex Behav 38, 427–433 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-008-9430-1;
Gerianne M Alexander, Melissa Hines,
Sex differences in response to children's toys in nonhuman primates (Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus)
Evolution and Human Behavior,
Volume 23, Issue 6,
2002,
Pages 467-479,
ISSN 1090-5138,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1090-5138(02)00107-1.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513802001071);
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