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This year Trent wasn't with us for Ostara, so we moved our festivities to Easter. Being ten hasn't interrupted his pleasure in egg hunts, chocolate and silliness at all. He loves to get up in the morning and start hunting eggs immediately, and Michael usually hides them the night before. The boys really get into this annual ritual, and it's a playful game that I enjoy watching.
It also works really well with my Latin gender conditioning: the woman gathers the chocolate, jelly beans and basket goodies and assembles the baskets, and the man hides the eggs in clever places, directs the process and manages the boy. I like it because I get to do the bits I love and I enjoy watching the two of them play their way through this familiar ritual. But it's also fun to twist things around a little bit.
This year, I hid the baskets. Halfway through Trent's hunt, Michael turned to me with a puzzled expression. "Hey, I thought there were baskets,' he said. "There are," I grinned. "But you have to find them."
"Trent?" he asked.
"No, you," I answered.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, surprised.
Immediately Trent wanted to look, too, but Michael stepped in: "You look for the eggs, and I'll look for the baskets!" Then off he went to find them. He looked and looked: he looked in the pantry, on the baker's rack, around the kitchen, in the living room, but couldn't find them. "Where ARE they?" he finally asked, exasperated.
"Well, they're pretty big," I said, "and kind of hard to miss."
Soon both boys were tearing up the kitchen looking for the baskets while I giggled mercilessly.
Finally, Michael found them---in the pantry, almost out in the open, with just a couple of dishcloths draped over them.
It was the unfamiliar role reversal that got them. The never expected to have to hunt for their chocolate!
It's comforting and fun to indulge in the traditional gender roles I was brought up with, and just as much fun to reverse them here and there. I love to play on both sides of the paradigm!
It also works really well with my Latin gender conditioning: the woman gathers the chocolate, jelly beans and basket goodies and assembles the baskets, and the man hides the eggs in clever places, directs the process and manages the boy. I like it because I get to do the bits I love and I enjoy watching the two of them play their way through this familiar ritual. But it's also fun to twist things around a little bit.
This year, I hid the baskets. Halfway through Trent's hunt, Michael turned to me with a puzzled expression. "Hey, I thought there were baskets,' he said. "There are," I grinned. "But you have to find them."
"Trent?" he asked.
"No, you," I answered.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, surprised.
Immediately Trent wanted to look, too, but Michael stepped in: "You look for the eggs, and I'll look for the baskets!" Then off he went to find them. He looked and looked: he looked in the pantry, on the baker's rack, around the kitchen, in the living room, but couldn't find them. "Where ARE they?" he finally asked, exasperated.
"Well, they're pretty big," I said, "and kind of hard to miss."
Soon both boys were tearing up the kitchen looking for the baskets while I giggled mercilessly.
Finally, Michael found them---in the pantry, almost out in the open, with just a couple of dishcloths draped over them.
It was the unfamiliar role reversal that got them. The never expected to have to hunt for their chocolate!
It's comforting and fun to indulge in the traditional gender roles I was brought up with, and just as much fun to reverse them here and there. I love to play on both sides of the paradigm!
