Why are so many toy plates, vacuum cleaners and shopping carts PINK?

So I’m soon going to be in the process of reviewing a toy kitchen with my son Gavin over the next few weeks and I decided to go on an accessory hunt today while I was at my local Target looking for some plates, pots and pans. Now I visit toy aisles frequently and feel that I have a pretty good understanding of how ours is organized. However, I searched and searched for the pretend play items and it took forever for me to find them. Once I did, I was removing all sorts of boxes from the shelf because all of the pots, pans, vaccuum cleaners, shopping carts and pretend play items at my Target were all PINK and some version of the girly, frilly variety.

I much prefer to shop at Target because it is smaller and more organized, usually yielding cheaper prices than our local Toys R Us. I honestly was pretty fired up that I couldn’t find one item to consider purchasing on my trip that was gender neutral.  I think my local Target failed me today,  I’m not happy about it and maybe I’m overreacting. Most of you who read this blog regularly know I’m not one to go off on personal tangents, but I figured I’d try something a little different in this post and weigh in on your thoughts.

If he were older and understood, what would I have said to him about why we weren’t going to purchase this item? I just wonder, why pink? What family owns a pink vacuum cleaner or pastel dishes anyway? I work with children of all ages and I don’t find it strange or concerning at all that my little boy would want to vacuum or sweep, after all, imitation of domestic activities is on all the standardized assessments I’ve learned in my professional line of work with children his age. He’s young but he loves using the SwifferVac after dinner, knows to put his empty cup in the sink when he’s done with it and will help me put the clothes in the washing machine when we are doing laundry together. I feel as if I’m trying to do my part in society by raising my son with basic responsibilities, totally at his developmental level, since all kids his age like filling containers –so I don’t think there’s anything wrong wrong with having him throw something away or put something away, he is very willing and capable.  I’m hopeful that giving him the opportunity now will provide him with some basic skills to help his own family later on and this I think needs to be ingrained at a young age. Plus it will give me more ammunition when he’s a teenager because the “I don’t know how” won’t apply.

So maybe I’m overreacting based on one small experience, but for those of you with little boys, what is your initial reaction? Would you buy your little boys the pink girlly stuff and am I overreacting? How many stores should I have gone to in order to find a product I could consider? For those of you with girls, is there a reason I’m totally not understanding why all these pretend play items need to be girly? Don’t you get tired of all things pink? What about families with multiple children of different genders who will use the same kitchen set for years on end? Call me crazy, maybe it’s the full moon lingering from yesterday, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, please comment.