In Sunday school, my then four year old son was rewarded by letting him pick any toy from the treasure bag. Holding hands with his little "girlfriend," he had her help him pick the toy. They picked a pink My Little Pony toy flip phone.

Some time later, we were at my parents' house. My dad took exception to the "pink girls'" phone. After trying to convince my son to play with something else, he ran up to the Walmart and bought him a Buzz Lightyear phone. My son thanked him, put it in my capacious bag, then ran off conversing on the pink phone with Blue Bear (a blue stuffed bear he'd left at home), his best friend tucked under his arm ("Bunny" is a stuffed simulation of the rabbit from Guess How Much I Love You).

Later that afternoon, his then four year old and seven year old cousins came over. The three of them were playing phone together. My dad made an issue of pointing out how the cousins had "boy" phone. He kept carping on the fact that it was a girl's phone – to which my son asked, "What's wrong with girls?" Dad kept at it. Didn't he want to play with the Buzz phone? He even tried to tell my son he shouldn't play with a pink phone because he would be made fun of.

Remember – he's only four years old at this point. My son looked up at his grandfather, shrugged and said, "You can make fun of me, grandpa. I like my pony phone… and so does my girlfriend."