Boy’s toys

What is it about boys and cars? I know I never consciously encouraged it, but both my boys seem to be slipping into a stage where they are interested only in boy’s toys.

The younger one is sent a library book from school every weekend – he rarely listens when I try to read it out to him. But this weekend, the book had pictures of cars, and trains, and planes, and rockets and he all but devoured the book. Fire engines, combined harvesters, road rollers – he wanted to know the names of everything, and even repeated them back to me in his endearing lispy voice.

When it comes to bed-time reading, the kids now seem to be veering towards Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine – Noddy and Winnie the Pooh no longer hold their attention for too long.

As for television viewing, it is only Superheros they want to watch. The older one tried watching Barbie for a bit the other day, but even before he could articulate that he was tired of it, his brother changed the channel.

Is that a good thing, or a bad thing – I really do not know. All I can wonder at is how easily all those months of consciously buying them gender neutral toys can be wiped out by peer pressure. Or is it that at all – maybe my two just happen to be mechanically minded and like gadgets more than they do emotional stuff.