By Charlotte Gray

Here’s a story: Charlotte (the name Emily Gray Photography comes from her middle name) and I met in a field on the way to a Mothers Meeting at Petersham Nurseries, some cows started homing in us, so we beat a hasty retreat which involved climbing fences. With buggy’s! We have been firm friends ever since.

When she isn’t fending off wildlife Charlotte is busy taking amazing photos and bringing up two gorgeous girls who were born on the same day two years apart!

Here are her thoughts on ‘Raising Girls’:

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I should preface this by saying that this is based on my relatively limited experience of raising two girls. I realise all children are different, as are individual families’ experiences, and I’m not meaning to generalise.

•  The battle against pink. I’m all for a bit of pink (in the right shade!), but my first born received almost the entire collection of M&S newborn clothes in an insipid shade of pink. Everything in moderation please. Thankfully my daughters’ favourite colours are blue and green.

•  On that note, if you dress a baby girl in anything other than pink, purple, floral or possibly white, the general public will assume she is a he.

• Whilst we are talking about clothes I have become aware of the vast difference between the cut of boys and girls clothes. Take t-shirts:

• Boys range – cut like a regular t-shirt shape. Girls range – lower neckline, tighter fitting, shorter capped sleeves and ruched detailing. This starts at 18 months and doesn’t improve…

•  Girls can be just as exuberant and physical as boys, at times. Saying that I have also known my children to sit together and “read” for over an hour and my oldest once spent two hours cutting shapes out of paper with her scissors. According to my mum friends with boys, this is unheard of in their homes.

• They also have amazing capacity for imaginative play. Hours and hours, even at this young age. I recently tried to play Marble Run with the four year old. I went to make a cuppa and when I came back the marbles were all “kids” and one of the marbles was trapped and had to be rescued. They all had voices and there was a definite plot. I left her to it…

• With the two last points in mind I am a firm believer that we all have our time and these moments of peace will seem like a distant memory once the hormones kick in during the teenage years!

•  My four year old can already rival a teen in her ability to strop and create a drama. The two year old is following in her sister’s footsteps.

• They are just as interested as boys in bottoms, genitals and poo/fart jokes. Hysterical. And a great way to attempt to bring them round from the aforementioned strops!

•  Genitals – what do you call them? It seems to be straightforward for boys but when it comes to the vagina there are literally hundreds of names that people choose to use. In our house? We use a combination of vagina and ninny, although my oldest once got confused and thought it was called “Jeremy”. It kind of stuck (sorry to all the Jeremys out there)!

•  Girls can be just as competitive as boys and can put away vast quantities of food. The oldest eats for Britain.

• I don’t know what it is but they go through this high-pitched phase. None of my friend’s boys do it, so I’m assuming it’s a girl thing? It gets to the level where I think I could rent her out to a local council as one of those (awful) devices that deter teenagers from congregating in a town centre.

•  And just for the record Clemmie, I have also had to endure the entire Thomas the Tank anthology. SIXTY FOUR BOOKS ALL ABOUT TRAINS! 😉