daughters

Remember back in April when I shared my mixed excitement and trepidation about the DC SuperHero Girls announcement? Well, the franchise debuted at New York Comic Con this week and last month I had the absolutely incredible opportunity to actually sit down with 5 other feminist/blogger/moms and representatives from Mattel …

My daughter loves robots. She loves them so much, she got 4 new ones for her birthday last week, along with building toys, books, a camping outfit, art kits, and a terrarium. Sounds like a great gender neutral haul, yeah? I wonder what you are imagining dear reader, when I say that …

I spent most of Thursday (when I wasn’t working, of course) flipping back and forth between two breaking comic-related stories. The first was actually really exciting (to me) news that DC is working on a new superhero concept featuring and aimed at girl comic fans. My first reaction was something pretty …

I first started thinking about conforming as a form of privilege when I was writing The Importance of Not Defining Normal for Other Children and realized how much easier it is, in many ways, to have a child who doesn’t push gender boundaries. In very specific circles, having kids who buck …

Maybe it’s just my Facebook peeps, but for the past couple of days, I’ve been seeing a reasonably steady stream of info about “No Gender December“, an initiative by an Australian group called Play Unlimited. The stated goal is focused – rightly in my book – on gender-specific toy marketing and seems …

The click-bait headline blared something I can’t quite remember about how just plain horrible elementary and middle school (i.e. tween) girls are. They are pushy and loud and mean. That’s the idea right? That we are raising a generation of girls so imbued with the paradoxical juxtaposition of “girl power” …

Close readers of my posts here on Grounded Parents know that I am a big fan of the work Melissa Atkins Wardy of Pigtail Pals Ballcap Buddies is doing. Several years ago I was struggling to find a voice for something that had been bothering me immensely as a parent …

So, we got the new LEGO catalog the other day. This is always a big day in our household, especially for me, as it’s when I can start planning my holiday shopping for the kids and usually identify what I want under the x-mas tree as well. (Pro tip – …

1. Internet lists are a whole bunch of bs. Yes, even this one (well, really it’s more snark, but wev). We’ve all seen those [Random Number] Things I Wish I’d Known About Raising a Girl/Boy/Girl lists, right? Guess what. Bullshit. I can honestly say that I’ve experienced all 19 of …

My daughter was 7 when her mom and I separated and I ended up with custody of her and her brother. Now, it is important to understand that she saw her mother all the time so it wasn’t like I was completely alone in raising her, but the bulk of …