AARGH! What's with the prenatal gender-typing??? - Page 2

[ZoeyZoo]

Originally Posted by yogamama74

AMEN TO THIS THREAD!

Its like you have to buy white to be neutral!

I was just talking to DH about this since we aren't going to find out gender. I'm glad he was completely on board with not doing this blue/pink thing either. He wants to paint the nursery tan or gray since those are the colors we tend to pick out for our home in general. LOL.

I know how you feel with cloting even though I'll be a FTM. When I was looking for clothing for my friend's baby shower (and I didn't know sex) the only non blue or pink clothing I could find where she was registered was yellow so I ended up buying her a bunch of yellow clothing.

[renaissanceed]

In addition to not enjoying the blue/pink aspect of most baby clothes, I also find the pastelness of baby clothes, in any colour, to be just... awful.

I come from a pretty pale family so we look awful in pastels. If I could find some reasonably priced baby clothes in bold shades, I'd be delighted.

As for nurseries - well, we are fortunate to not have to worry about that. DD and Sprig will 'share' a room (ie. their clothes and change table will be stored in there - they will sleep with us in our peapod coloured room) which used to be my office. It is painted maroon on the upper third, and off-white on the bottom third and I love it and am not about to change that. I guess I might consider it one day when they ask but painting over red is not fun!

[maisiedotes]

With my last pregnancy, my MIL got us all kinds of "boy" clothes with doggies on them. I am saving everything to dress my daughter in, to prove that blue ain't just for boys! I am cringing at the thought of all the pink stuff we are going to get when people get wind that we are having a girl. I can hear the whispering now: "do you believe she won't let her daughter wear pink princess clothes? She is dressing her in BLUE!"

I think, though, that I will let people know that we prefer gender neutral everything to avoid all of it!

[Curlita]

Originally Posted by maisiedotes

With my last pregnancy, my MIL got us all kinds of "boy" clothes with doggies on them. I am saving everything to dress my daughter in, to prove that blue ain't just for boys!

I was SO hoping for a girl to dress in all Dylan's fire engine and tractor clothes for the same reason!

[pixiedust]

I'm all for girly and pink on my girls but not knowing the sex it's very frustrating trying to shop!! it's about impossible to find gender neutral stuff!

[Kontessa]

Give me animals and nature please! LOL No sports, no tools, no cars.......

My DS is almost 2 and hard to shop for because mama is picky about the above.

Same goes for coming baby whom we will not know if boy or girl till birth. In all honesty though, if baby is girl, I will be shopping for pink and lace for a few church ourfits after the babymooning is over. For the most part though, simple cream wool outfits are what I am hunting at the moment. LOL

[Lexi_029]

Ohhh, I HEAR that! I'm so, so sick of pink and purple and I haven't even had my baby shower yet. *lol*

[maisiedotes]

DH has registered us for a Red Sox and Patriots recieving blanket/ hat/ onesie set before we knew the gender. When we found out we are having a girl, my SIL said "oh- do they make that in pink?" Grrr.

Of course, he wanted it because HE likes sports...

[lanamommyphd07]

Not in your guys' DDC, but I couldn't resist--I too waited to know gender, and mostly because I knew this kid would get TONs of stuff, and I personally have an aversion to gender-typing with clothes. I splurged on tie-dyed stuff online at Momma's tye dye--so the eventual daughter had (has) bright bright clothes. (the day care calls her the hippie baby--makes mom proud) and every time at the resale shop I find something brown or orange or red, I snap it up. All the pink CRAP with any writing on it was FIRED and I spent the whole first month with this kid doing returns at stores. Constant returns. But then at places like Target and whatnot there was nothing to trade it in for, so we got laundry detergent and stuff. I noticed while trying to shop for GN clothes, that the high-end or organic stores had TONS of normal-looking clothes. Makes me wonder about the class system here and whether only those with money seem to care about not having mainstream junk. Interestingly, I like blue on the kid (she has blue eyes) and so many people assume she's a boy. I figure, I won't argue with you--you'll probably expect more out of her if you think she's male anyway.

[oskie]

While I agree that there should be more gender neutral options, our families are acting like this child will be dressed in nothing but white for life.

Inspired by the recent dramatizations in our DDC, I offer this one:

"But how can we shop for baby clothes if you won't find out what you're having?"
Gee, what did they do for, oh the millenia that existed before ultrasounds?

"Oh, ok, we'll just get you diapers. Everybody needs diapers."
Actually, we're using cloth, but we'll be glad to tell you where you can find some cute covers online for the baby.

"Cloth? That's too weird. We'll just bring over formula. What kind does the doctor want you to use?"
I'm breastfeeding.

I hate being "difficult", but I just don't want a ton of stuff that we'll never use.

[gcgirl]

I don't get the gender stereotyping thing either. It's all so arbitrary. And as I've posted elsewhere, in some cultures, red/pink is preferred for men/boys since it's perceived to be a strong color (fire), and blue for girls because it's a softer color (water).

My personal feeling is who cares? When I was a tot, my dad bought me a secondhand army jacket (in my size!), and somehow I ended up with an NBA t-shirt. I will have no qualms whatsoever about dressing my girls in fire engine PJs or my boys in pink teddybears.

My parents did an excellent job of raising me without gender stereotypes (even though my dad often loved to dress me up in girlie clothes - dads are funny that way). I was allowed to help wash dishes, fold laundry, cook, clean, work on the car with my dad, dig in the dirt, play with trucks and erector sets, and any number of things I wanted to do. I was never, ever discouraged from doing something because it was "for boys," and consequently, as an adult, I am one of the most gender-balanced people I know. I don't see things in terms of girl/boy stuff. Once, in a child development class, the prof asked us to raise our hands if we felt we were in the middle on the gender-role continuum, and I was the ONLY ONE (out of 35 or so) who raised my hand. Just goes to show our culture has a LONG way to go before we stop raising our kids with these damn stereotypes.

On the other hand, my brother and SIL were adamant about not dressing their little girl in pink, but she just looks so GOOD in it, so now she has a bunch of pink stuff.

[gcgirl]

Originally Posted by oskie

While I agree that there should be more gender neutral options, our families are acting like this child will be dressed in nothing but white for life.

Inspired by the recent dramatizations in our DDC, I offer this one:

"But how can we shop for baby clothes if you won't find out what you're having?"
Gee, what did they do for, oh the millenia that existed before ultrasounds?

Umm...white, yellow, green, purple, patterns, rainbows, tie-dye, brown, black, natural undyed, red, orange...I mean, that's if they just can't stomach the idea of buying pink or blue for an unknown gender identity.

[Momma Aimee]

While I agree that there should be more gender neutral options, our families are acting like this child will be dressed in nothing but white for life.

MIL too

Dh's family refused to have a shower for Theo's birth as we didn't know what we were haing so how could they possibly shop???? they SAID they would host one after he was biorn .... but as I am still wiating for the promised wedding shower, and Theo is 20 month old now and still no shower for him either

mil acts like it is some huge afont to nature not to find out, like it is an attack on HER -- cuz she can't buy pink or blue or make a pink or bllue blaket...................

what i find soooooooooooooooo odd is that what 10 or 15 years ago NO ONE could find out......so this whole "you HAVE TO KNOW" things is new but still rampant.............

[GinaRae]

I was in a small boutique recently and couldn't help but overhear someone complaining loudly about how maddening it was to her that they refused to tell people the sex of the baby, complete with sounds of disgust. I believe she even mentioned how selfish it was. I didn't, but were I in there today in my mood lately, I might have told her how I feel about that statement.