Boys vs. Girls

I'm one of those parents who prides herself on trying to raise kids in a kind of gender neutral way. I mean, I'm far from perfect...conor has a blue room full of trucks and madeleine has the most gorgeous new pink and red roman shade (just put it up and love it!) but I feel like I'm pretty good at sending a message that males and females are equal... So it's been much to my surprise that Conor has suddenly started defining gender roles. Last week, he was pushing his tricycle around the lawn and told me that he was mowing the lawn and that I couldn't help because it's a job for Daddies and Conors only. I'm finding that he's defining all these tasks into boy tasks and girl tasks or types of play. For example, he told me that only boys are allowed to rough house. No idea where he learned the term rough house or who told him it's only for boys, but he's decided that it's unacceptable for girls to play like boys. It's actually pretty funny how is little mind is working and trying to categorize things.