We are doing it all the time!!
"Don't throw like a girl!" or "he's bad at math because I hated it!" - how often have we casually made such simple innocuous statements. More importantly, how often are we even aware that these words have dropped from our lips?! Do you know that if you call your daughter - "a brooding teenager" - even if she wasn't, chances are that she will start behaving like one? Hop on to my musings on what stereotypes we tend to use and get some perspective on the effect it has on kids - in this case my 16 yr. old and her thoughts about it