I love this column from Mary Moore at The Catholic Sun on what she noticed while observing her children during a recent family outing:

The roles were carved out and epitomized throughout the entire weekend. Every stick found was, for our son, a weapon or tool and for our daughter, a bridge to help wounded animals cross dangerous half-inch rapids. The youngest charge in our crew, a two-and-a-half year-old, followed quickly in her big sister’s shoes, petting and caring for critters in proper maternal manner.

The bestowing of names and roles upon creatures for our daughters, and racing and hunting the same vermin for our son, are not the result of taught behaviors. I have never guided our children toward categorical groups of toys. They have quite naturally been drawn, each by their own nature, to those suitable to their respective maleness or femaleness, or at least reconciled the ones that were atypical of their nature into something fitting to it. I know from dozens of conversations with other parents that mine are not an exception in this.

Read: Male and female He created them: Outdoor lessons teach eternal truths