Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Nature vs. Nurture

With all children, (though especially adopted children), there is a great debate. What makes them who they are- nature, (genetics), or nurture, (their environment they are raised in)?

Honestly, the debate is dumb. The truth is we are ALL products of nature and nurture!

Now, I an not here to discuss the nature vs. nurture of adopted children. No, today I am taking about the nature vs. nurture of girls. A lot of women, (not this one), do not want their little girls to"succumb" to girly "stereotypes." (what is wrong with that?!) Regardless of what you do, (what you encourage or discourage), little girls become little girls.

Pics below- I rest my case. Sweetpea found my shoes and without my prompting put them on. You should also see her with her baby dolls. I encouraged her to like baby dolls, (for awhile she was scared lol), but that was the extent of my encouragement. She mommies them out of her girlie nature.

(if you have a son who puts on your shoes or a daughter who only likes boy things- that is not a problem either. I'm just using Sweetpea to make a point. I was a little bit of a  tomboy when I was little and I'm VERY girly now. All children will play with ALL things, but they do gravitate to their gender specific roles naturally, (by their very nature, regardless of your nurture).)



1 comment:

  1. Hey! I was stalking your blog ;) Your little girl is so adorable!
    I wanted to say something about the nature-nurture debate... Research actually supports the view that gender roles are as much a part of one's environment as they are of one's biology. Basically, they have found that hormones do play a significant role in certain character traits (e.g., female hormones seem to increase nurture and male hormones seem to increase aggressiveness). However, when it comes to things such as clothing choices, toys, occupations, color preferences, etc., those things are largely determined by culture. In other words, it is more likely that your little girl saw you or other women wearing high heels and decided to imitate that as (even as a baby) she already has an understanding that she is a girl and as such she will try to mimic other girls. Sorry, I took a class on this so I had to throw my two cents in haha! Have a good one!

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