Is this how AGP's start out?

Things have changed and so has my approach.

In the past I pretty much let D. do what he pleased without intervening. Play princess as much as he wants and so forth.

But now that school is out due to Corona, D. was playing princess and mermaid pretty much every day. Sometimes, he'd just play "girls" and "sisters" with his little brother. But not just a girl- and adult woman. He wanted a bra.  I don't think this is normal for little girls either as well as little boys. 

The "girl" he wants to be isn't a real life girl either. Not one like me who wears baggy jeans, does not wear revealing clothes, hikes, debates, and engages in political activism. His girl is a disney princess who preens in front of the mirror wears party clothes, and well, dances and parties. A caricature. A barbie or Arielle (who has a bra of course). 

In addition to the absence of peer pressure, which is a good thing I think, there is now the media binge, which is not. 

As I am at work as an essential worker much of the day (although I've cut my hours), he's home with his dad much of the time, who prefers the path of least resistance and is letting the kids have oodles of unsupervised screen time. He also downloaded video games for them. Some of them are math games. Most are more along the lines of princesses getting dressed up for parties. 

Things came to a head a couple days ago, when he decided to play "Lollipop", a girl in a princess dress, while his brother was playing a roaring, raging, wild animal. Lollipop would wail in terror when the animal approached and call "Mommy, Mommy, Save Me!" Mind you, Lollipops mom- me- just ran out to the street the other day to break up a bunch of neighborhood bullies, getting threatened by my neighbor in the process. 

I drew the line. The media binge must end. 

I have absolutely zero doubts about that. When not on a screen, he draws (often pictures of princess), sews (a hobby I support even though it often involves princess dresses- its a creative activity), cooks, bike rides, climbs the monkey bars. He has no need of a screen to keep him occupied. 

In the evening after a full day of play, we watched an animal hospital series together. I told him we'd only be watching real life, educational things. We watched male and female veterinarians working together, using care compassion science and ingenuity.

But I took it a step further, a step a bit further, that I am not entirely comfortable with. I said No More Playing Girl for the next few days. You can wear whatever you want, whatever dress you want, but you'll be a boy in a dress, not a girl. And I explained why- that I wanted him to be comfortable in his male body. 

So far I've only had to remind him gently once. But I am still uncomfortable. It's more interventive than my usual style. I don't want to suppress something important. I don't want to silence him. 

I will see how things are after one week.
I think after a week I will slack off. I won't remind him anymore. If he goes back to playing this stuff now and then, I'm ok with it. If the ongoing obsession returns I guess I will slack off too. No point in doing somethimng that doesnt work.

But the screen policy will stand.