When my son was about 2 years old, my husband's parents came to visit. My MIL had gone to the library sale and brought a HUGE bag of books for my son. Easily 75% truck/plane/rail and misc. vehicle books. Great present. He loved them.

Second day of their visit, my FIL, out of the blue says to me: "Why do you think he likes trucks and cars so much? Do you think this is just an innate trait of boys?"

Um, sez I, well, not really. You just gave him a giant book of car stuff.

Short answer--even if we don't notice that we are socializing our children into gender norms, we probably still are doing it anyway.

Anonymous wrote:It's not just toddlers. We went to national train day. It was my father, husband, brother in law, and two nephews. I was the only female. All of them - ages 2 thru 64 - thought it was the greatest thing ever and can't wait until next year. I was bored out of my skull. It was terrible. All you do is walk through the trains and then look at the engines. I was done after 5 minutes. The two, six and 64 year olds had to be dragged out.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
I can soooo relate to you in this scenario.
I can't wait to just send MENs to the field at anytime!

Anonymous wrote:They like the idea of driving them into tunnels.

S. Freud

That's funny. My son is probably more obsessed with the tunnels than the trains.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious- but why do boys almost universally like trains/cars/trucks so much? Girls like dolls and playacting - which I get. They are practicing what they see around them. But what's the innate interest in vehicles? Anyone know?

Are you asking why children like trains/cars/trucks? Or are you asking why girls don't like trains/cars/trucks? (Which would come as news to my daughters, by the way.)

I think little kids like BIG machines. They are big, they do cool things, what is not to like?
In my DD's preschool, all the kids run and press their noses against the window when the trash truck comes for pickup.

I'm not so sure its 100% innate or black and white. We tend to raise girls one way and boys another, even if we don't mean to. Kids do not have set gender stereotypes and roles until we teach it to them.

The differences in my kids were really due more to personal preferences rather then gender.

Anonymous wrote:They like the idea of driving them into tunnels.

S. Freud

Win.

I'm a woman and never got the doll thing. I still don't get it.

Anything with wheels.
When they push it, it moves. Cause and effect. Kids like that. And it's simple. doesn't require thinking. and doesn't require parents to tell them to do it. Same thing with electronics. They push buttons, they see colors and things move.
Just like, they know what buttons to push when they get older.

They like the idea of driving them into tunnels.

S. Freud

Anonymous wrote:It's not just toddlers. We went to national train day. It was my father, husband, brother in law, and two nephews. I was the only female. All of them - ages 2 thru 64 - thought it was the greatest thing ever and can't wait until next year. I was bored out of my skull. It was terrible. All you do is walk through the trains and then look at the engines. I was done after 5 minutes. The two, six and 64 year olds had to be dragged out.

Anonymous wrote:It's not just toddlers. We went to national train day. It was my father, husband, brother in law, and two nephews. I was the only female. All of them - ages 2 thru 64 - thought it was the greatest thing ever and can't wait until next year. I was bored out of my skull. It was terrible. All you do is walk through the trains and then look at the engines. I was done after 5 minutes. The two, six and 64 year olds had to be dragged out.

This is me when I go to Udvar Hazy!

I love playing with cats and trains! My husband jokes that I buy the toys for me. My boys love playing with cars and trains, but I could honestly play with them all day. Probably because I wasn't allowed to play with boy toys as a child.
Why? It's something logical, I like watching the mechanisms and physics at work.

My son is obsessed with guns. I wish it were just cars!

Ugg, us too! And it's definitely not something we encouraged and in all other ways he is a sweet, mild mannered kid. Drives me crazy.

My younger son's current obsessions are trains and his baby doll. It's not going to be long though before his older brother has his shooting zombies.

I think they like the idea of driving them into tunnels.

S. Freud