What thoughts do you conjure up  when you see the above  images?  Does something immediately look wrong to you?   Do you find it out of place and inappropriate for the little boy to be pictured with his kitchen playset ?  Are you a father or mother of a son who is offended by these photos?

If you’re Wolfgang Puck or Bobby Flay these images wouldn’t phase you at all.  These photos could very well have been taken of themselves in their youth,  as they were dreaming of the multi-million dollar empires  they would build from their cooking skills.

With that in mind, why is it that so many parents, grandparents and peers in the year 2010 still find these images wrong?  It appears that gender bias in the selection of toys remains to be a force when shopping for toys for our children.  This “toy bias” begins at infancy, when adults determine what toys they feel are appropriate for boy and girl babies.  This bias continues on through the toddler years when boys and girls are determining what their role in life will be.  

I was going to compile a list today of the top Christmas toys of 2010, but as I was putting together my list the same odd thing kept occurring to me!   It was like I was shopping back in the ’60′s.  The lists of top toys for girls were all about the nurturing, creativity and attractiveness while the boy toys were all inclusive of aggressiveness and reality (such as war).  My course of action immediately changed!

I started thinking back to a few months ago when my grandson wanted to purchase the “Barbie Toy” from Toy Story 3.  He already owned several Buzz toys, Woody toys, and most of the other characters (a little spoiled…YES!).  Daddy had promised him earlier in the day that if he was good and cooperated with all of the other boring errand running of the day, he would buy him one toy.

So, Barbie from Toy Story it was.   Or was not?  Daddy kept trying to sway him towards the more masculine, macho boy toys.  “Wouldn’t you rather have a Transformer?”.  “How about this cool race car?”  Whenever my son attempted to pull our grandson away from that Barbie, all our grandson could respond with was “WHY”?

Today I kept going back to that day in that toy aisle and asking myself the same thing.  Why wasn’t it okay for him to get the Toy Story Barbie.  That’s what he wanted.  So why was it so important to my son that his son NOT get that Barbie?

That question took me back to these photos of very very happy little boys pictured with their kitchen playsets, and asking myself the question:  “what had I as a parent done to instill such toy gender bias into my own son”.

My list of the top 10 toys for Christmas 2010 has been put aside for the moment, however I have something more important to now share with parents, and anyone else who is purchasing toys for children this Christmas.  This article about gender bias in toys is a must must read.  It’ll open your eyes to how we are influencing who our children will become just by the toys we decide to purchase for them.  Ya just gotta’ read it!!!

And yes…we did purchase a play kitchen for our grandson 2 years ago and it’s still one of the best toy investments we’ve made.  While other toys get ignored after a week or two of play, the play kitchen still gets used over and over again…time after time.   And when it runs out of playtime, well….hopefully we’ll have more grandchildren to share it with by then.

As parents and educators it’s important that we influence our children the right way and choose toys that promote creativity, can be played with in many ways, and will stay interesting over a long long long period of time.

Read the article here and then tell us what you think by leaving your comments below.

This fall weather is getting me in the mood to start making some of my favorite soups.  As a “recycled recipe”, this one came from my friend Kim who got it from her niece who got it from her mother-in-law, etc. etc.  You get the idea.  Now that I and several of my friends are making this recipe, we’ve discovered that it comes out different every time (depending on who’s making it).  I’m sure as we all pass it on it will change and recycle again and again.

You can add your own variations and interpretations.  My friend Kim said she even added some left-over gumbo into it one time and it turned out great!  I myself add chopped onions and chopped garlic to the chicken while it’s cooking and my family likes it that way.  Here’s the basic recipe, and you can just use your own variations to make this a whole new “recycled recipe” of your own.

Tortilla Soup

6 chicken breasts

2-3 cans of your favorite black beans

2-3 cans of whole kernel corn or Mexicorn

3-4 chicken bouillon cubes

2-3 cans “Rotel” (hot or mild-your choice)

1 can chicken broth (or more depending on how thick or thin you like it)

2 cans diced green chilles or jalepenos

2 cans of Green Chille (Stokes works just fine but use whatever you like)

Garnishments:  flour tortillas, blue corn tortilla chips, regular tortilla chips, sour cream, cheddar cheese, whatever you like to serve it with.

Night before: place chicken breasts in bottom of crockpot.  Cover with water.  Add bouillon cubes and 1 can of the Rotel.  Cook overnight (I’ve personally done this for almost 12 hours starting off on low and upping to medium or high in the morning).

Next morning:  shred the chicken and put it back into the crock pot along with the black beans (sauce included), corn (drained), additional Rotel, diced green chillies (or jalapenos) and the 2 cans of Stokes Green Chille (or whatever brand you like).  Let it cook in the crock pot all day on low.

There you have it.  Add whatever you like, spice it up as much or as little as you want and enjoy!