Young children, from birth, are inundated with ideas about gender roles. There are products that are sold for female children and products that are sold for boy children. Society looks frowning ky on anyone who does not push these gender specific products on their children, and children are told, from a young age, not to interact with items meant for the opposite sex. These toys reflect our overriding ideas about the roles of men and women in society. Even though we live in an age where women are equally as likely to work outside of the home as men are, it is still considered normal for women to take on the housekeeping role as well. It is also thought that boys should be active and athletic while girls are calm and do,estic. Products and children's books predominantly reflect these gender roles.

I recently read a newspaper article about a young couple who had a baby. This couple decided not to tell anyone the sex of their child so that the child would not be influenced by gender role ideas of others and of society as a whole. Interestingly, many people are upset by this couples actions and there was an outcry of outrage at their idea of raising there baby as a gender less being in the early years. Many people saw the idea of allowing the child to choose their likes and dislikes without pressure from the outside world to fit into a pre conceived role as a form of irresponsible parenting. Many felt that this was setting the child up to be different from other members of society, which would ultimately cause problems in the child's life. It is an interesting story, and it is yet to be determined if this couple must reveal the gender of their child to the world. I, however, feel that raising children without gender pressures would actually help them to feel confident about who they are whether or not they fit into what is commonly believed to be normal. Maybe we shouldn't be so concerned with boys being boys and girls being girls, and be more concerned with children feeling good about who they are.