Gender Bender

Sometimes you end up having a conversation with your 3 year old child that makes you give your head a 'where on earth did he come up with that idea, I am definitely going to need to have a conversation with daddy tonight' shake.

I was outside playing hockey with the wee man yesterday and we got onto the conversation about being able to play good hockey and being fast, you know, the average athletic conversations you tend to have with a youngster while partaking in an athletic activity.  When out of the blue, he comes out with 'I am the fastest runner in the world because I am a boy'.  What the.............

Okay, so I get the previous statements he has made, differentiating between the genders by comparing myself and his papa, boys eat meat, girls eat veggies, boys drink milk/beer girls drink water.  These make sense (sort of) because that is how it is in our household, not because we have discussed with him about these specific (and totally false, obviously) girl, boy differences.  It was funny, it was cute.

This, however, is just way off and not something I want him believing in.  As delicately as I could, I explained to him that people are good at different things such as running, playing hockey, reading etc.  because they practice a lot, not because of their gender.  Do you know what he said to me?

'No mom, it's just real, boys are faster than girls, for true mom, it is just real'.  Where in the hell did he possibly come up with this idea, and why was he not taking what I was explaining to him as truth?  And how did he come up with telling me that it is real?  What the fuck?

So my thoughts are that his dad said something like that in passing as a joke, or that he heard a random and (hopefully) joking conversation between people and took it as real.  Whatever the case, it a little bit breaks my heart to think that he thinks that boys are better then girls at ANY thing.

Is there any one out there in blogger land that has had a similar conversation with their little one?  Any thoughts on how I might persuade him against being sexist 3 year old?