Okay, girls love Dora the explorer and boys love action figures. But there is something to be said for toys that brothers can share with their sisters and vice versa. The way children spend most of their free time is playing games, and if you can give them some toys based on a common interest, you can encourage them to share and play together, which can strengthen the bond between siblings and create a more harmonious home.
One of the real obstacles to brothers and sisters playing together is that most girls don’t really care about Batman, and most boys wouldn’t get caught playing with Barbie dolls. Therefore, more often than not, you’ll need to provide your children with some “gender-neutral” toys if you hope to see them get along and learn to share.
In the 1980s, we had He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Initially, He-Man had been marketed for children, but due to the generous number of strong female heroes and fantasy elements, as well as an animation director taking on many episodes, the show actually ended up having a lot of crossover appeal. hence the spin-off series and toy line, She-Ra Princess of Power, starring He-Man’s sister. The entire He-Man/She-Ra family of toys was nothing but a great way to get brothers and sisters to play together and enjoy the same shows. Unfortunately, children’s entertainment today has very little in the way of popular franchises with equal appeal to boys and girls.
But then we have Dora and Diego…while Dora the Explorer may have limited appeal to kids, the spin-off series, Go Diego Go, is definitely a kids’ show. Each show shares a number of characters with the other, and the overlap can help bring brothers and sisters together, which means less fighting over the remote when one show or another is on TV, and playing together to create adventures for Dora. and Diego. to conquer.
Then there are completely gender-neutral toys like Legos. Legos generally try to cater more to kids, licensing properties like Batman and Indiana Jones, but the basic premise of this toy has a lot of appeal for boys and girls: build whatever you want to build. Challenging your daughter and son to build a castle together can lead to interesting results, such as a palace with a ballroom and an army of cannons and archers along the outer wall.
While space adventure is primarily a kid-focused genre, Star Wars actually tends to appeal to both boys and girls. By providing the audience with a strong male lead in Luke Skywalker and a strong female lead in Princess Leia, every child who sees the film has someone to root for.
More recently, we have seen electronic toys for boys and girls drop considerably in price thanks to the very nature of the technology, which is getting cheaper by the day. In fact, you can buy a child a digital camera, a toy laptop, or even a camcorder for the price of dinner for one at the Olive Garden. By their nature, these are non-gender-specific toys, but keep in mind that most boys wouldn’t dare touch a pink and purple camera, while girls rarely have a problem with blue.
That’s something to remember, by the way. Many gender-neutral toys are blue for boys and pink for girls. Boys often hate pink, but girls don’t have to worry about being called fags at school if they show up with a blue backpack.