My 4 year old granddaughter dosn't want to be a girl anymore

[lyndafaye]

Apparently a couple weeks ago she cut her hair again.
this time instead of neck length she cut it to her ears.
when asked why she said she didn't want to be a girl.
she got rid of all her dolls and now only plays with boys
toys. good thing she has 2 brothers.

She started school in Sept. and I am wondering if there are
things there that boys can do but girls shouldn't.
She is a tom boy and I am also wondering if her teacher is
pointing out that nice little girls don't do this or that.

Now I know this is just a stage but it sure put a kibosh on my
Christmas gifts to her.
I was going to knit outfits for her dolls and baby blankets and
possibly make her a cradle for them.
What do you get for a 4 year old girl when all she wants are boy
things?

I do know one thing. I am going to write her a story for later in life
just to remind her of this stage.
Maybe another as a gift for Christmas as well.
Children are wonderful in all their stages. Just some stages are more
wonderful than others.

[dolphin]

All girls are not 'girly'. I never enjoyed playing with dolls, rather play with my cousins hot wheels! I liked to play outside, ride my bike, etc. I do wear my hair short too, mostly because I am a swimmer & it's much easier to take care of.

[Golden Eagle]

Do not push on the girly things, or make too much of what she is doing, it is just a stage and like she went into, she will come out of it.
I have 3 girls and they all went through stages like this.
She is probably just attracted to the neat toys her borthers have, or like you said, the teacher is pointing out the Miss Prissy things "she should be doing".
As far as Christmas is concerned, why do you not buy her something like lego or mechanics, so she can make something, should she go back to her dolls and barbies she can always make them cars etc. with it.
This is way tamer than what they will be in for when she gets to her teens....
_________________
Be an organ donor; give your heart to Jesus.
Exercise daily; walk with the Lord.

[lyndafaye]

I would never push anything on her.
She is just an individual.
I could wish she hadn't cut her hair. I love long hair on little girls.
I guess it is because with my curls I could never have long hair. I
was jealous of girls who could.
Her mother was quite the tom boy and my sister was also so it is
definetly in the genes.
Raising children just means you either go with the flow or you freak
out about the changes.
Love them for who they are and don't try to mold them to your perfect
design.
who knows your perfect design may be wrong.
As for gifts maybe WII cartridges would be the way to go.

[Golden Eagle]

WII games is a great option, I love the things they have with the sports and fitness, a very positive gift for her.
_________________
Be an organ donor; give your heart to Jesus.
Exercise daily; walk with the Lord.

[tartwoman]

I think the Lego is a great idea also. My sister and I loved building things and we played with it for hours!

[lyndafaye]

Leggos are a great non gender toy.
unfortunately we bought them for our sons when they were little around 30 years ago. when our 2 out grew them we gave them to my sister's little boy.
He played with them until my grandson grew into them.
So they have a 30 year supply of them. Lots of leggo's so I would like to get something different.

They also have all the dinky toys that my boys grew up with.
Hand me down toys or family heirloom toys are good.

If we lived closer I would probably take her on a shopping trip so she could pick out what she wanted.
She would get the gift she wanted and I would have the gift of being with her for the day.

I got the boys I wanted to raise but now it would be nice to have a grand daughter I could do girly things with.
but what the heck I just want them to be happy.

[Phamilton]

Come to think of it, I wasn't a Barbie or doll kid either (in fact I remember throwing a barbie into a fire...). I was into animals though, so maybe she'd like something along that line...

[princess punkin]

Your granddaughter sounds just like me. LOL

At a young age I did not want to wear dresses or girly clothes. Pink was never a colour for me. Climbing trees and riding bikes was more my thing. Making mud pies in the sand box. You know the fun stuff!

To this day, I do not wear dresses. I have a few times and I get comments about me wearing a dress. More people are surprised. At my wedding in March I think more people showed up just to see me in a dress. Before I got married, I told everyone, Jeans and t-shirt for me people. None of this dress stuff. Well I had two people make me offers, if I wore a dress one would wear pink pants (he was an older man so it would have been hilarious) and the other told me she was going to come naked. LOL Sadly she could not make it. Have to wonder if that was planned more then circumstances

To this day (and I'm almost 30) my mom says I had a girl but she isn't very girly. I can wrestle with my bigger cousins and hold my ground. I grew up with guy and my two best friends are guys. I am one of the guys. Which gives them someone to talk to they know won't make fun of them and still get a girls opinion at the same time. But because guys still see me as a girl sometimes they are very protective of me. But at the same time they made me a very strong person. I have had to defend myself from them. Sometimes we had too much fun. Yes I ended up with some black eyes and fat lips from them. But at the same time they made me a very confident person.

I don't know if I have helped or not. My mom wanted a girl but got a tom-boy instead. Oh yes she is over joyed. But at the same time, nothing holds me back. Dirt, oil, or whatever. It doesn't bother me. And I don't need a guy around to do those things for me.

[lyndafaye]

we don't mind the fact she is a tom boy. BUT my son and I wish she would stop cutting her hair.
She has beautiful wavy light brown to blonde hair and we both love long hair on girls. He actually talked his wife into growing hers longer.
I am from the generation where guys had long hair and my nickname was Sir since my hair was shorter than any of the guys in my classes at school. I always wanted long hair and figured with a grand daughter I would get to play with hair styles.
Both my sisters were tomboys but they had long hair.
I was the pretty little girly girl and hated being dirty except while cooking and baking. then flour was all over me.
Oh well she can be whoever she wants to be and will still be my favourite little grand daughter.
I still like playing with power saws and dinky toys so why shouldn't she. Only I did it in knee socks and dresses at her age.

[princess punkin]

I have long hair to. But its more to hide an imprefection of mine that I'm a little self concious off.

She's 4. When she's playing, her hair is might be getting in her way. Some people can deal with it some people can't. In time when she goes to school she will see the girls with longer hair and what they can do with it to make it stay off their face. She may change her mind.

But it might also be brought on by a favorite cartoon character. If she has a favorite and they have short hair that might be what she is trying to mimic. Or maybe she just likes her hair short. The minds of little ones are hard to understand somedays.

[jumpingjac]

Some other gift options would we sports stuff, animal toys or Playmobil. My sister and I were 'girly' girls but we had numerous tom-boy and boys that we played with as children so lots of toys & games became neither "girl toys" or "boy toys".

[mouse]

lyndafae:tell your son to hide the scissors,keep them out of the child's reach...That's what I did when my youngest(when he was about 5 yrs.old)cut his hair.I put the scissors away.Had a heck of a time though remembering where I put them