doing our best to subvert the dominant baby paradigm

wile, like most of his friends, boy and girl alike, has a toy stroller. granted, most of his guy friends' parents have opted for a more masculine (read: dark blue) stroller for their little men, while i opted for what was on the shelf at our corner dollar store: bright pink and purple plaid.

the other day at the park wile left his stroller in the ball pit (the fenced in area at the top of the park) while we went down to do some sliding. as we walked from one slide to the other, i saw that another little boy had gotten his paws on the stroller and was pushing it around; the woman with him saw me looking at them and asked if it was ours, i told her yes, and that they were welcome to play with it.

after wile had had enough sliding, we headed back to the ball pit, where the other little boy was still pushing the stroller. his caretaker, who turned out to be his grandmother, told him to give it back, but i said, "no, it's fine, he's more interested in his football right now, you guys can keep playing with the stroller." and i got back the standard "oh, it's a boy?" sigh. "yeah, he's a boy." "oh, i'm sorry, the hair...." "oh no, no big deal, common mistake."

so far, so typical. i have the yes-he's-a-boy-yes-his-hair-is-very-long conversation at least once a day. but then....

"oh....but this is your stroller?"

"uh-huh."

"oh.....so you also have a daughter?"

".....noooooo, that's his stroller."

"oh!"

oh, brother.