Mary Grace came flying out of school today saying, "Mommy, Mommy, I want to go to wrestling camp!"
Knowing that what she means by wrestling (tickling and pillow fighting with Daddy and her sister on the living room floor, with lots of screaming and giggling, and a heavy emphasis on stealing Daddy's socks) bears little resemblance to what the NCAA calls "wrestling," I said, "Ok, we'll talk about it."
I didn't want to be a total sexist and tell her "Wrestling is for boys," because we've worked really hard to teach our girls that they can do anything that boys can do (and that boys can do anything girls can do, and that girls don't have to have something painted pink and purple to enjoy it, I'm lookin' at you, Lego. Ahem).
"Why do the girls have to have permission to play wrestling, Mommy?" she asked. Oh boy. Thanks, School, for thwarting 6-1/2 years of "we girls can do anything!" in one shot. I guess the boys got a flyer while the girls had to get permission, or something. I don't really know (and I'm not going to cause a big kerfuffle about it, because 6 year olds just don't tell you straight and complete stories. Ever. And I've been burned on that before).
"Some girls do wrestle, but not too many. Why don't you wait until we've seen a few videos to decide what you want to do? Oh and by the way, I already have you signed up for like a jillion weeks of Very Fun Summer Camp Extravaganzas, and I never went to camp at all you stinker, so back off!"
"BUT MOM!!!! I wanna wrestle! I can wrestle with boys! Daddy's a boy! And I'm good at wrestling!"
"Honey, sometimes words mean two different things, and I promise that you and the gym teacher are not using the word 'wrestle' in the same way. Just. Watch. The. Videos."
<incoherent whining about what a meanie meanerton Mommy is>
So we got home, and had lunch, and she says, "I'm ready to watch the videos now!"
I show her a video of two high school aged girls wrestling.
"Yeah, you're right. That doesn't look like fun at all."
Told ya.
(PHEW!)
3 comments:
Glad there are videos around!
Abby wants to play hockey so we have sought out girls teams to go watch. :)
Just catching up on your blog... I occasionally go through the this with Derek. He loves gymnastics (thanks to the playdate with your girls 3 years ago at open gym). Sometimes for a little extra help I sign him up for classes in addition to his team practices. He's in a tumbling class right now to work on his back handspring. He is one of two boys in the class of 15. At the beginning of every session he complains that more boys aren't in the class. He quickly makes friends with a few girls and gets busy doing the sport he loves, so he forgets the boy/girl ratio. But I dread the whining and questions at the beginning of every new session. Sigh.
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