WHAT SHOULD WE BUY OUR SON?

I would like to get him a toy kitchen. He loves playing with pots and pans at home and at playgroup he spends a lot of time playing with the pretend kitchen there.

My husband wants to get him a toy tool kit and a train set because he thinks they’re more suitable for boys. I think he’s being ridiculous and I have told him so. What do you think?

Bella, 38, Ealing, London

JEREMY SAYS

YOUR husband is right. Your simplistic gender stereotyping is out of date and dangerous and does you no credit.

Perhaps you haven’t been watching top cookery programmes on television recently and are unaware of the
man called Gordon Ramsay, proof positive that spending too much time in a kitchen and even excelling there can leave a man with little control over his temper or language. Do you really want your two-year-old making boeuf à la Tourette?

Using tools, by contrast, takes patience and self-control while a train set, with its frequent malfunctions, will prepare him for the aggravating commuting life that may lay ahead of him.

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