Make-up or Bunnings? Photo: Shutterstock

Stephen Callaghan stand-up and take a bow. You are a mighty fine dad and you deserve a virtual high five.

You are definitely on Santa's "nice" list this year. I can't comment about last year, but this year you've made it for sure.

You see, Mr Callaghan, who goes by the Twitter moniker Grumplestiltskin was faced with yet another example of a school being out of touch with modern society and instead of just shrugging his shoulders he took action.

His daughter's school, near Dubbo in NSW, thought it would be an awesome idea to arrange end-of-year activities for the year six students. Nothing wrong with that, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, his daughter's school stuffed up, monumentally.

"My daughter's end of year activities for Year 6," he tweeted.

"Girls – hair and make-up in the school library. Boys – DIY workshop at Bunnings. Sigh. Will things ever change?

"My daughter wants to be an engineer. She doesn't give a rat's arse about make-up."

He then wrote a letter to the school to complain and it's pure gold.


I wrote a letter pic.twitter.com/oFJp7egVnf — Grumplestiltskin (@2FBS) December 6, 2017

"When Ruby left for school yesterday it was 2017 but when she returned home in the afternoon she was from 1968," it read.

"Are you able to search the school buildings for a rip in the space-time continuum? Perhaps there is a faulty Flux Capacitor hidden away in the girls toilet block?

"I look forward to this being rectified and my daughter and other girls at the school being returned to this millennium where school activities are not divided sharply along gender lines."

His tweets were liked by thousands of supporters, retweeted hundreds of times and received hundreds of comments.

"That's fine she doesn't give a rats. Neither did I back in the day. That's why I studied to become a pilot," said one woman.

"They should have been able to choose activities. Unnecessary gender labeling," said another.

And National Science Week tweeted: "We hope that your daughter gets to go to the @Bunnings DIY workshop (along with any of her friends who want to go too) #womeninSTEM".

Why are things like this continuing to happen over and over again? Why does this make me feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall, repeatedly? Why do children's activities continue to be divided along gender lines? And why is this continuing to happen in schools – the one place where kids of both sexes should be encouraged to learn equally regardless of if they have a penis or a vagina?

I have three girls. One wouldn't have any idea what a hairbrush is, one spends much time planning her daily hairstyles and one has super short hair and couldn't care less either way.

But despite their differences they all fight to be the one chosen to go with their dad to Bunnings, on his almost nightly pilgrimage to the hardware mecca.

The one who doesn't know what a hairbrush is just goes for the sausage sizzle, the one with short hair goes in hope of getting gifted some more craft supplies and the one, who most probably would be sporting a high ponytail with sparkly ribbons, goes because she is keen to be a builder one day.

You see, every person is different. There are girls who love DIY workshops, there are boys who would love to learn how to apply make-up, there are kids who would happily embrace both and those who would think both options are pretty lame.

The point is kids should be encouraged to try everything.

I say bravo to people like Mr Callaghan. It's up to all of us to take a stand when confronted with sexist, outdated crap like his kid was confronted with.

Shrugging your shoulders simply won't do.

Looks like, despite the continued discussions around this topic, that many people are still not getting the point.

It is 2017. There is no such thing as boys and girls' activities. There are such things as boys and girls' colours? Gender does not define you.

When will people start understanding that?