I think not specifying your child’s gender is a bit extreme (aka ‘bloody daft’) and says a lot more about the parents than the child.
I don’t think ‘gender appropriate’ toys lasted very long in my family. With an older sister and and older brother (plus a baby brother) the toys and games were a bit of everything in my family. I had a couple of dolls but played a lot of football and cricket with my 4 years older brother (he has psudo-achondroplasia so he was usually the goalie/bowler and I got to do all the running and ball retrievals from neighbouring gardens). I don’t recall ever seeing my 6 years older sister ever play with any kind of ‘doll’ – she was into books and drawing/painting by the time I really noticed her.
We had tons of Lego and Dad made loads of big wooden building blocks of various shapes an sizes – we’d build the Lego houses and brick forts, I’d populate them with model soldiers (meticulously painted by older brother) and then we’d blow the crap out of it all with the model Field gun (compressed air-powered with – alas – non-explosive ammo). I think my Tressy doll (“Tressy the smaller, Sheena the taller – they are the dolls with the hair that grows”) went the way of many an Action Man during those conflicts. Sheena ultimately lost her ‘life’ after a particularly hard landing, having been launched down the ‘Commando death slide’ Dad had rigged from the bedroom window . . .
But I also played ‘Shop keeper’ with my very ‘girly’ best friend, and when we weren’t falling out of trees, paddling in the brook or roaming the countryside with my aunty’s dog Toby, we’d mess around with make-up and hair styles and ‘Dressing up’.
Great days! 😀