Toys are Gender-specific, right? {Giveaway}

BonBon Break

BB divider

We were sent this product to evaluate. All opinions are our own.

BBwhiteBadgeOrig

There are girls’ toys and there are boys’ toys. Toys are gender-specific, right? As you walk down the aisles of toys stores, there are the aisles of “pink” and the aisles of “boy toys”.

My knee jerk response to the question is, “NO!” However, if you told me that some girls like certain toys more than boys do, I would now agree.

My daughter is my second-born and her toys were her brother’s hand-me-downs. She played with blocks, cars, balls, animals, and our play kitchen and her play world was complete, or was it?

Just before her first birthday, we were at baby group and her eyes locked on a play crib full of babies. She ran her little baby legs over there and grabbed the babies and held, rocked, cooed and sang like I had never heard her before. Her brother had a doll or two, but they hadn’t made it to the play area. I had assumed it was out of a lack of interest, but I was completely wrong.

That year, whenever anyone asked what she loved, she responded, “Babies.” The result was a LOT of babies for her birthday and she doted on each and every one. Our couch and our stairs turned into nurseries. Nursing, changing, swaddling and bathing became the focus of our days. They also needed tea.

Lil Miss also loves ninjas…and climbing HIGH, jumping from tree to tree at the age of 3 and balancing on our fence. And ballet and tap.

Recently,  we were given 4 sets of Chuggington StackTracks by Tomy. It was HUGE!  We built the boxes individually…

Toys are Gender-specific, right? {Giveaway}

and then combined them all to create the Boulder Bedlam Megabuild! It is seriously impressive.

Toys are Gender-specific, right? {Giveaway}

Get ready. I am going to contradict myself here.

A parent who thinks in broad, sweeping generalizations would say, “Boy toy”, but both kids were all over it. Was I surprised? No. My Lil Man sorted all of the pieces and then was a building machine, locking and stacking. He followed the online instructions for the megastructure with very little assistance. 45 minutes passed and it was ready to play.

Toys are Gender-specific, right? {Giveaway}

My favorite feature is that it could withstand a heavy-handed 3 year old without falling to pieces. (This is the girl who jumped on her brother’s Lego Bat Cave minutes after he built it and smashed it into hundreds of pieces. Yes, we have a quiet house – HA!)

My son had two of his friends over and they were ALL going crazy with it and yes, ninjas were introduced into the mix and and it didn’t break apart. This was Lil Miss’s response to the boys playing with HER set:

Toys are Gender-specific, right? {Giveaway}

The most fascinating thing was listening to my kids play with the set.

My son: “Kiyaaaaaaaaaa! You, bad ninja are going dowwwwwn and you cannot catch me. Kiya! Kiya!”

My daughter: “I’m a runaway baby train! Help me Sister! You can do it, just go UP the track! Keep going!”

Toys are Gender-specific, right? {Giveaway}

He had ninjas taking over the trains and she had two sisters rescuing each other. Kids are going to make it their own as long as we let them.

Admittedly, we do have generic Legos and the pink / purple variety as well. Why? There isn’t any confusion about who’s are who’s and to be honest, Lil Miss adores pink and purple like they are the sun and moon. She did not inherit this from her earth tone wearin’ mama.

The bottom line is that I follow their lead. If something peaks their interest, THAT is what drives my purchase. When we do visit a toy store, we explore all of the aisles without any mention of who’s toys they are supposed to be. Yes, my kids gravitate to the aisles that are gender specific, but they play across the aisles. We don’t care and for those that do…let it go.

BB divider

The GREAT news is we are giving away one of these complete sets for your kids! Ours was built in about 45 minutes and has been the center of play for the last 3 weeks. Not a day has gone by where they passed it by. I have to add in that Tomy has an incredible online community for these sets where parents and kids can share their new designs and TOMY has provided numerous options with their kits in the Alternate Layout Gallery. Well done.

Chuggington Giveaway on BonBon Break

GIVEAWAY

There are THREE ways to enter:

1) –MANDATORY– Leave a comment below answering: “What sounds would be coming from your kids as they played with this set?”

2) Join our weekly newsletter where we provide you with recipes, inspiration, humor, tips and more! Click here.

3) Share this post via Facebook and include @BonBonBreak in the message.

BB divider

If you want to buy some of these now, you can!

SHOPPING CART (the images are Amazon affiliate links):

Rescue at Rocky Ridge Set

Wilson’s Wild Ride Expansion Pack

Stunt Brewster Set

Twists and Turns Expansion Pack

BB divider

 Val CurtisABOUT VAL: As the Editor-in-chief of BonBon Break, Val loves finding and creating content to share with their readers. A former middle school science/math/tech teacher, she put her career on hold to be at home with her son and daughter on an island in the Pacific Northwest. When Val breaks away from her keyboard, she enjoys gardening, cooking, hiking, camping, photography, tidepooling, sailing and potlucks. She gets a kick out of combing the web for recipes and making them gluten free so she can share meals with her husband, family and friends. She is a tech-gadget geek who is poked fun at, but it doesn’t bother her a bit. Combining her love of photography, tech and graphics to create new, fun content for her sites quenches her “thirst” for integrated technology. Read more from Val on BonBon Break.

This post was written by Val Curtis exclusively for BonBon Break Media, LLC
Rules and Guidelines for the Giveaway:

The Chuggington Boulder Bedlam Megabuild giveaway begins Sunday, April 13 and ends at 12:00 AM on Sunday, April 20, 2014.

Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Void where prohibited.

All entries are optional with the exception of leaving a blog comment. We will never sell, distribute, or spam your email.

One winner will be chosen randomly via Random.org and notified. If they do not respond within 48 hours, another winner will be selected.