[darkFunction]

I notice the commenters who agree that it seems to be biological are the ones who actually have children.

I have a two year old. He was raised with gender neutral toys and due to the pandemic largely in isolation from the rest of society for the last year with a lot of time spent with both parents. Moreover as the father I don't show strong interest in “typical” male interests like cars or football.

The first time my son saw a digger, he was hooked. He is completely enthralled with construction vehicles- dumper trucks, cement mixers etc. His favourite colour of Play Dough is "mud". He has dolls but they hold limited interest over his toolbench.

Before having children I would have said it was largely societal. But I've watched my son show strong preference to "boy" hobbies since he was able to show interest in anything and it was really quite surprising how "boyish" he turned out to be considering we tried to give him equal opportunity for all activities. Of course you can never rule out external influences entirely but I remain convinced the difference is biological.

[danielrpa]

Great insight. I'm blown away by the amount of nonsense I hear about child rearing from people who had minimal contact with young children. A lot of theories quickly get destroyed when you get schooled by your own child!

[zrail]

My 4yo and 2yo girls are also enthralled with diggers. I think there's just something about big equipment that's impressive.

This is a really good book on the subject :) was both their favorite for quite a long time:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/228537/digger-dozer...