This is a little girl's world...

It's true... I never really minded the openly biased retail environment until I had A SON. NOW it's all I notice. Whenever I walk into certain stores, it's a world of pink and glitter and hearts and flowers and... oh yes... faux fur! And usually in one corner there are a few items with dinosaurs and trucks and maybe puppies or skateboards silk-screened onto plain-colored tees. Seriously????? Is this the best they can do for HALF of the population?.... and their mothers?

Sometimes I have to ask if they offer anything for boys. For example, I wanted to find Noah a cute little shirt to wear for St. Patrick's Day last year. I went to one of my favorite stores thinking that of course they would deliver. After searching the entire boys section (which is actually really good!) I failed to see anything that resembled a little boy's St. Patrick's Day shirt. So I asked an employee of this fine establishment, and she said that she wasn't sure that they had any for boys that year. She went to check in the back. I stood there waiting and noticed that I was standing next to a three-tiered, four-sided display of little GIRLS' shirts, skirts, sunglasses, shoes, socks and hats with 4 leaf clovers and leprechauns all over them. Seriously. The employee returned with 2 options that they hadn't even bothered to put out on display. Neither were worth my time or money. So I thanked her for trying and knocked over some little green sparkly ballet shoes on my way out of the store.

Don't get me wrong. We, as mothers of boys, have it SOOOOOO much better than our mothers and grandmothers did when they were looking for baby boy clothes. My mom often just made my brother clothes due to expense and lack of selection in the stores. And most of the major childrens' stores do a decent job of at least making half of the store for boys and half for girls. Gymboree and The Children's Place are two of my favorites (BUT shop the sales racks).

But I ran into this situation yet again today. Noah has recently decided that he LOVES flip flops.... the TRUE kind that just have that little plastic piece that slides between the two toes and then you're on your way. He only has one pair, so I thought I would take him to Kohl's and see what they had. What they HAD were displays and displays of little girls' sparkly flip flops and patriotic flip flops and sunny yellow sequined flip flops.

Little boy flip flops seemed to not exist. So I asked an employee.... again. I was told that they were sorry but they didn't seem to carry those in the store. Uh-huh..... They did have some for older boys, but nothing for Noah.

AM I ALONE IN THIS?????????

I resisted the urge to knock over the four-tiered, mechanically turning little girls' flip flop display with its neon signs on my way out of the store. Instead, I counted my blessings that my little boy really is content with his one pair of flip flops for this summer.

Heaven help me if they break. I may have to have my mom MAKE him a pair. :)