[gmw]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

His older girl is already quite serious about becoming a veterinarian. She started secondary school this week (he posted proud dad photos). She has been birthing sheep on the farm since she was 4 and is able to do it without any assistance. His middle girl loves to paint and cook like her mother, and also loves school. His son, who I think is just now 3, is the likely candidate. He loves farm toys, the dogs and the sheep. However, all three children had very expensive sheep bought for them to start their own flocks should they want them one day.

Wanting to be a vet when starting secondary school is cute, wanting to be a vet when finishing secondary school is serious (especially given the marks required - I assume that is still the case).

Yep, I had farm toys too, but I didn't end up farming, nor (as the examples may be) driving trucks or flying planes. I had a toy kangaroo and now live on a bush block I share with many 'roos - maybe that counts.

And unless these expensive sheep are embryos on ice, waiting to be raised when the children are grown, then I see this sort of as a convenient fiction: a way to help the children feel involved in the farm. (Let's face it, his 3yo son is not ready to make life and death decisions regarding his own flock.) It's a good thing for the kids, but it's even better for the father: he gets happier kids and he gets to justify his own pick of expensive sheep that he wants in his flock.

All I really mean is that these are nice family-life images (albeit not from the book), but they don't actually offer much in the way of predictive value. The daughter that likes to cook might end up a chemist. In my experience the fact that the author tells us he knew exactly what he wanted at 13yo, and that wish remained static throughout his life, is more the exception than the rule these days, a late hang-over, perhaps, from the relative isolation of the district and the long standing male hegemony - especially of his own family.

Originally Posted by CRussel

I would agree with you on this, Bookworm_Girl. While there are certainly places in the book where he demonstrates a rather male-centric view, the overall impression I got was that a shepherd is a shepherd, and that it isn't a gender-specific noun.

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

He also wrote approvingly of Beatrix Heelis (Potter) and her work. I certainly had the impression that he is proud of all three of his children, and doesn’t see his daughters as in any way less important than his son.

For me this was yet another example of the self-contradictions that spread through the book. There are so many statements that could (and possibly did) originate with his grandfather, and then there are hints (mostly in the latter part of the book) that we see of what he accepts as the reality now. But (as far as what is actually in the book goes) it's almost as if he hasn't noticed any change himself.