I cannot believe that people still mistake Maddie for a boy. She’s just about 2 years old and more so now she is mistaken for a boy. Here are some reasons I think this happens:

HAIR: It took her a while to grow a decent head of hair. Fine. But now she has a great mane of flowing curly locks. Sure this isn’t a dead-ringer for what gender she is but more often than not you would think long hair = girl. I would think a boy with very long hair would be mistaken for a girl more often than the opposite.

COLOR: This past winter she wore a brown colored coat. Since when is brown a gender-centric color. I thought it was Blue = Boy, Pink = Girl. That was the only gender rule I ever heard of. But I dress her in jeans or cords when she goes out in cold weather to the playground and most parents tell their kids to watch out for that boy referring to my Maddie. I thought brown was a neutral color. Plus we got that jacket at the GAP and I’m pretty certain that it was in the girls’ section with the only other color choice was white.

PANTS: As I mentioned earlier I usually dress her in pants, especially in winter. And call me crazy or a fashion-minded fool but I cannot stand those tight-skinned sweat pant-like leggings that are only geared for the girls. I’m not 100% sure why but I don’t like her wearing them. Maybe its because they look like sweat pants but I think they look silly especially in the butt area. They are tight in the rump and with a diaper it looks dumb. Plus they are usually very loud and bright colors and I prefer a decent yet cute and even girly blue jean or corduroy pants. So I basically only dress her in jeans and cords and this may fool most people in thinking she’s a boy. But when they have flowers and butterflies on them [which all of them have some girl-centric icon on them] this baffles my intellect. AND she’s wearing pink sneakers!

I don’t mind you asking if she’s a boy or a girl if you’re not sure. Hell, I’ve looked at some toddlers and questioned their gender but I never assumed and just spit out the first guess to the the parent. But take the time to look down at her attire for more than a second to see if you can make a good educated guess. And brown is not a boy color.

I had to discipline Maddie today. I’ve yelled at her before and even showed some force when she has disobeyed but today was different. It was the first time she outright defied me. I had asked her to pick up pretzels off the floor that she dropped and she repeatedly told me “No.” But because she told me no I had to put on my disciplinary parent hat even though I didn’t think the pretzels on the floor was a big deal. I even had to try really hard not to smile or laugh at her saying her cute little No’s. She would even roll around the floor and laugh after saying No. And here I am trying not to think this is cute [even though it really is] and trying to get her to listen to me and pick up these pretzels. I would ask please. I would raise my voice even to short screams. She would just laugh. [Glad to see I’m not too scary for her] I even slammed my fist on the table. Nothing. I then started to tell her that she cannot play with the iPad [her favorite ‘toy’ in the world]. She still ignored my command. I then told her that she couldn’t go outside and/or down the basement [new fun ventures in her life]. Again laughing and having a good time being defiant. She then went to a book that she’s really into this week and I immediately took it away from her and told her she can’t read it unless she cleans up the pretzels. Now I got a little reaction but still not picking up the pretzels. When she finally went over to the pretzels I asked her again. She said NO.

And then I grabbed her wrist, squeezed and spoke lightly in her ear with a horrible serious stern mean Daddy tone. She then started to cry. After I consoled her a bit she then picked up the 9 pieces of pretzels on the floor and put them in the dish on the table. Atta girl. Was that so hard?

It was a momentous occasion as I had to stand my ground and be the bad guy for a few minutes but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel pride that she is thinking on her own and rebelling a bit. She’s growing up and this is far from the last time I will have to be the bad guy to her. But it was a quick little tiff and we quickly were best friends again shortly afterwards.

BUT I will try this little trick that I tried a few times that worked on her when she just wouldn’t listen or pay attention to me when I asked her something in the past. Repetitive commands. Instead of asking and asking and then raising my voice and then getting annoyed and getting all bent out of shape I would repeat my command in a somewhat robot voice quickly in such an annoying way until she listened and then she would do what I asked her to. For example: “Maddie pick up the blocks. Pick up the blocks Sweetie [no response]. Pick up the blocks. Pick up the blocks. Pickuptheblocks. Pickuptheblocks. Pickuptheblocks. Pickuptheblocks. Pickuptheblocks. [finally she’d then pick up the blocks.] It doesn’t take too long usually and it’s better than getting stressed out and yelling. I didn’t try it for the pretzel incident because the No’s took me by surprise and I usually do the Repetition Method when she’s off in her own little world and just not listening. But today she was listening and just being a cute little punk.