Bill Linnane: Looking back, it's odd we bought my daughter dolls and prams while the boys got toy guns, swords and Lego

Girls’ toys tend to be geared towards future motherhood. Photo: Getty When my daughter was small, we bought her a baby doll. I can’t remember if she asked for one, or if it was just one of those things you give a little girl, along with gifts such as a floating head whose hair and makeup you could style, or a bejewelled diary you could lock.

I remember her walking around the estate with the baby in a little car trailing along behind her, and then when she got older, being tethered to the back of a tricycle and dragged along the road like it was being punished for rustling cattle in the old west. Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.