Father has a message for online trolls who criticised him for making his son a toy kitchen

A father has responded to online trolls who attacked him for making his son a toy kitchen, saying it's his son's choice to play with whatever he wants.

Reddit user SixStringHook and his wife made his two-year-old son an epic toy kitchen set – complete with a “working” stove and sink for his birthday – from an entertainment cupboard sourced from a charity shop.

Unfortunately, after SixStringHook, who lives in Des Moines, Iowa, posted images of the present on both Reddit and Imgur, many users weighed in on the gift being inappropriate.

“Going off of comments I have received both online, and in person regarding my wife and I's decision to make our SON a kitchen playset and several ‘daughter’ comments and ‘but he is a boy’, let me be perfectly blunt.

“F*** you,” SixStringHook wrote.

He continued: “if my kid wanted a Barbie doll I would get it for him. If that is what he wants, then that is what he wants. It’s his decision what he wants to play with. Not mine.”

Photographs of the project, which cost roughly $75 (£48) in total, have been viewed more than 600,000 times – and the vast majority of the comments are positive.

“Kids are going to play with what they want, and if you try to prevent them from doing something as harmless as playing with the toy they want to play with, they are going to end up resenting you,” he wrote in an edit to the original post.