Feminism and a fun day out.

I was woken up this morning by K, who had brought something to show me that she'd done.

You've got to admit, she's got a point!

Just in case it's not clear, she put stickers over the word 'Girls' and wrote 'for anyone who likes cooking'.  When I posted the picture on The Everyday Sexism Project group on Facebook, it got some lovely comments including one that said 'Girls like her will change the world', which I shared with her and M.  They were very taken with this idea and it has lead to a discussion about sexism and feminism generally, from things like this to women not being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.  We talked about how we can change things, bit by bit, by not allowing sexist comments without challenging them.  K & M like this idea and K told me about a conversation she had today with a boy, who had said that he felt sorry for a boy because he was the only boy in a particular class and K had said that it shouldn't matter because boys can be friends with girls too.  They also decided to enrole A in their mission to change the world, which lead to more talk about how it's just as, if not more important for men to challenge sexism when they encounter it, as due to that very sexism, some people will listen to men but not women when confronted, which he happily agreed to.  We finished off with the ideas that something that could be perceived as sexist, for example our very traditional family set up, with Daddy working and Mummy staying at home to look after the children, is because it was a choice that we made together and not something that we did because it had to be that way or because Daddy decided; and also that people can be sexist without realising it, because of the way society is set up in a certain way because it was done so at a time when it served men to be that way and it can disadvantage women and this needs to be challenged too.

Today we met up with friends we hadn't managed to get together with all summer.  It was 'one of those days' in trying to get there, satnav wouldn't work, I was reasonably confident I could get us there without, took one wrong turning, wasn't far out but a road closure meant retracing steps rather a long way, but eventually we arrived at Belton House and met up in the adventure playground.  After the children played and the mums chatted and we'd all had our picnic lunches, we moved on and there was more chatting and more playing in the indoor play area for a while before we had ice creams and a wander round the garden and the orangerie.  We all spent quite a while looking at the variety and huge number of bees in particular on the flowers.

Honey bee?

Huge bumble bee!

Sharing with a butterfly.

A little pause.

After a quick game of hide and seek, we, both families, had to get back for swimming lessons, but we have arranged another trip there when it'll be much quieter after schools have gone back in a couple of weeks on a day with no swimming lessons.