A 27-year-mom from Vancouver is not letting the trolls affect her cheerful holiday break despite flooding her social media with comments about giving her six-year-old son Barbie dolls for Christmas.
Caitlin Fladager said that she gifts her children whatever makes them happy and not the things that "society thinks they should get." Her son, Jack, wants Barbie dolls for Christmas, and so she shared a video clip of herself wrapping his presents.
This was not the first time the mom received public criticisms about how she was raising Jack. Over the summer, her followers strongly reacted to her decision to bring her son to the salon to get his nails done.
While the trolls told the mom that her son needs a father figure, Fladager was only too happy to share how excited her son was to be getting some pampering. Fladager said that her son also showed his painted nails to his father.
No Gender Stereotypes
Despite some criticisms, Fladager also received praises for not forcing gender stereotypes on her children. The mom admitted that she gets a lot of questions about Jack, especially his relationship with his dad.
In one TikTok clip, Fladager showed her son in a pink dress and twirling with the help of his father. This was her response to the trolls who thought that Fladager's husband was upset because she treats her son like a girl.
@caitlinfladager I get asked a lot what my husband thinks of our son, wearing dresses.. ##repost ##daddysboy ##fy ##parenting ##dadwin ##kidsarekids ♬ original sound - Emma Ferris
In another clip, the mom said that she started noticing that Jack loves to play with his older sister Adrianna's Barbie dolls a lot. That's when she thought that her son should get his own Barbie toys.
Fladager also explained to her followers that she mostly posts about her son and not her daughter because the latter often says no to having her videos or photos online. On the other hand, her son loves to be filmed and agrees to have these uploaded when the mom asks.
"I always ask them before I post. She doesn't want to be on the internet and I respect that," Fladager explained.
Mandy Moore's Son Gets a Barbie
Meanwhile, the son of actress and singer Mandy Moore also received a Barbie doll for Christmas from his father, Taylor Goldsmith. However, this was a special kind of Barbie because it was a doll of his mother, Mandy.
The actress shared an image of the Christmas gift on her Instagram stories. Her husband found a vintage Mandy Moore doll from her days as a pop star, which also came with a poster. She said that Goldsmith thought it would be funny to give this to their nine-month-old for Christmas.
According to CNN, gender-neutral toys are fast becoming popular with parents. Industry experts have observed that the shopping habits of moms and dads have changed in the last five years to reflect the new reality in the world.
Thus, many toy companies are moving away from labeling, marketing, and organizing their products as gender-specific toys. Brands are now more gender-inclusive as some stores no longer carry boys' or girls' sections and have stopped packing their items in pink for girls or blue for boys.
