What I've been reading lately

Great article on avoiding gender stereotyping with your children. It's much more than boys wearing blue & girls wearing pink, it's about boys not learning to talk about their emotions & girls learning to be passive.

Since I first wrote about it in my post, Mount Pleasant Pride, I've learned a lot more on Vancouver's Smallest Park, aka, 'Gather Round' & how you can get involved in greening our city further.

Source: amightygirl.com via A Mighty Girl on Pinterest

Some picture book suggestions from A Mighty Girl. Even if you don't have a daughter, don't you want your son to see examples of strong girls too? It's not just girls who need these role models & great characters they can identify with. Boys need to see girls in stories that aren't pathetic princesses. 

A really long, but worthwhile op-ed on the myth of having it all as a working mother. Creating a mythical SuperMom ideal just makes most of us feel like crap because we can't achieve that. We need fundamental change from our workplaces to make work & family more compatible for mothers.

A perspective on how much freedom to allow a toddler. I'm constantly asking myself, "Should I let him do that?" I can't swaddle him in bubble wrap & prevent every single bruise, but where's the line between overprotective too lax?

Not really something I've been reading, but rather watching: a short CBC news story on a few warrior princess type characters in movies marketed at girls. Maybe, just maybe, Hollywood & Disney in particular are getting the message that the passive pink princess types of yesteryear need a serious revamp. Check it out: