For 28 years, this box has held our Christmas wrap. It’s carted down from the attic or garage rafters each year in December and put away again in January. It’s been moved from Germany to Lake Grove to Tigard, to Beaverton and now, finally, to Sherwood, OR.
Times have changed. My own ideas of roles for men and women have evolved over the years. I didn’t think twice about purchasing a toy vacuum for my two-year old daughter 28 years ago. It was a Christmas gift. She liked it. It made popping sounds and she played with it.
Today, I’m a bit put off by the obvious marketing of this vacuum to little girls. It annoys me. Not one image of a little boy about to experience the joy of pretend vacuuming depicted on the box.
But that’s who I was then. And how the world was then. I’m glad things have changed in terms of gender expectations for boys and girls.
