Community Chat

[deepwaterdotter]

I remember sharing a bicycle, baseball and tennis equipment, books, and a record player and records with my siblings.

[jeanlake]

Childhood years in the 60s, gradulated from high school in the 70s. My brother had the army, police, fireman stuff and I had the Barbies. We all had games, cards and records. My dad was great about the girls playing sports and I loved being on YMCA teams and some school-sponsored teams.  

[chrystaltree]

I grew up in the 60's and early 70's so there were girl's toys and boy's toys.  Girls had dolls, doll houses, Easy Bake oven, pretend brooms and mops.  Pink, life was pink for girls.  Boys had the fun stuff. Boys had trains, trucks, fire engines, race cars, thinks that made noise and went fast.  Girls had jewelry making kits, boys had chemistry sets.  It was the way things were back then and most people never gave it a second thought.  Of course, those of us who had brothers got to play with them and their fun toys when they would let us.  Some parents were more progressive and bought toys that interested their kids; regardless of what side of the the aisle the toys were on.  

[KingstonsMom]

I was very much a tomboy growing up and living in a rural, island area, I preferred wandering around in the woods bonding with nature to playing with dolls.

I got my horse at 12, along with my monkey shortly after and with our cats, dogs, rabbits and chickens, there was no time to play with dolls, LOL!

Yep.....I grew up an 'animal girl' and still am, LOL!

[tansy]

I had a collection of Matchstick cars.  Unfortunately always too small for Barbie to drive successfully.  I had some sports equipment but mostly girl’s toys otherwise.

From the age of 10 and up, my shelves were filled with books.  I still had a few stuffed animals, too.

[sunshine45]

i dont think i had any "boy toys" growing up......definitely not any types of guns. i did not ever purchase toy guns for my children. my second favorite board game after monopoly was MYSTERY DATE.

[Carmie]

When I grew up, we didn’t have many toys that were gender based..  We had swings sets, a above ground swimming pool, a sand box, bats and balls, roller skates, crayons, paper, glue and paint. We had bikes and a standard size pool table in our rec room. It had the coin box removed, so we,didn’t have to insert quarters to play.

We mostly played outside and only got “ toys” to play with inside at Christmas time.  I shared a Barbie doll with my sister and my brothers got guns, etc.  But, there were two boys and two girls, so we just played with whatever we had all together.

My neighborhood was full of boys, so I mostly played outside with them, climbing trees, building forts and  playing hide and go seek.  Heck, I could even kick their butts and did on occasion.  I was a scrappy girl.

[ccassaday]

My niece is 6.5. She does not play with dolls or almost anything that is considered a girl toy. She is a huge tomboy and would rather be playing with nerf guns.

[ID2]

I was born and grew up in the 50's in a house full of boys! I never played with any of my brothers toys. I was always all girl. Loved my Barbies, play kitchen in my bedroom, all girlie toys. 

[shoesnbags]

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@chrystaltree wrote:

I grew up in the 60's and early 70's so there were girl's toys and boy's toys.  Girls had dolls, doll houses, Easy Bake oven, pretend brooms and mops.  Pink, life was pink for girls.  Boys had the fun stuff. Boys had trains, trucks, fire engines, race cars, thinks that made noise and went fast.  Girls had jewelry making kits, boys had chemistry sets.  It was the way things were back then and most people never gave it a second thought.  Of course, those of us who had brothers got to play with them and their fun toys when they would let us.  Some parents were more progressive and bought toys that interested their kids; regardless of what side of the the aisle the toys were on.  

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@chrystaltree

I'm sorry to hear that was the case for you in the 60's-70s, while I had those  things way back in the 50s.  I just went back and added chemistry sets to my original post because I had forgotten about them till I read your post.  It's interesting that my parents didn't discriminate with toys, since we were just a working class family.  But my mom had a college education and was a teacher, so maybe that made a difference.  I don't know.