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A lot has changed since we were children, but the rules about how girls and boys are expected to behave haven't budged in decades. Toy and clothing stores are still often divided into sections for boys and girls. As a result, shopping can be an exercise in frustration for parents who are trying to avoid gender stereotypes.
Sometimes fighting against those preconceived ideas of how girls and boys ought to be seems futile. So why persist?
"Ultimately I think it leads to healthier, better adjusted, happier kids," says Dr. Christia Spears Brown, an associate professor of developmental psychology at the University of Kentucky.
Brown's book, Parenting Beyond Pink and Blue, explains why it's important for parents to work against gender stereotypes when raising their own kids, and she gives them strategies for doing so that are aimed at kids of all ages.
