Do you dress your children in only unisex clothes?

[nappyaddict]

Does that mean if you have a girl you never dress them in tunic tops, dresses, pinafores or skirts?

[BeeBopBunny]

Why wouldn't you dress a girl in dresses etc?

[Cattleprod]

Most of DS's clothes I would wear myself (in a bigger size obv).

It would be harder to dress a girl in unisex because society has given boys a very narrow range of acceptable clothing. Girls have much more choice and freedom.

[ShowOfHands]

Up to the point where dd could show a preference for clothes, I dressed her as a baby/child. Which isn't really gendered imo. Once she'd outgrown them I sortd them into piles of 'suitable for another baby regardless of gender' and 'if we ever have another girl'. We had a small pile of dresses and things which had been gifted to us but largely she wore a lot of things that I knitted, generally in ridiculous stripes or bright greens/reds/oranges/yellows and a lot of generic babygros, bodysuits etc.

It's interesting now that she picks her own clothes that she goes for a mix with the same proportions. She does pick out some very frilly dresses but also chooses things according to the colour or what takes her fancy. At this very moment in time she is dressed as a ninja turtle and last night wore monster truck pyjamas. We're going to a wedding on Saturday and I've made her a dress out of some fabric she chose which is pink and green.

I hope we've struck a balance where she wears things she likes and doesn't see anything as 'only for boys'.

[Parietal]

DD rarely wears pink and often wears trousers. I sometimes buy trousers & shoes for her from the section of the shop labelled Boy because they are more suited to outdoor play. But she does have dresses and likes those too.

[cory]

I'm not allowed to have a say in dd's clothes any more; she takes her little brother into town as an advisor instead, as everybody agrees I have no fashion sense whatsoever. They're right too.

But when she was little she wore mainly hand-me-downs and presents; a lot of them were uni-sex, but not everything; she had some pretty dresses too. I just made sure there were enough hard-wearing clothes that she could be active in- I hate it when little girls can't play outdoors because their clothes would be ruined. But have nothing against dresses. I think a balance is a nice thing.

[nappyaddict]

Bunny I don't know I only have a DS and like Cattleprod says boys are easy to dress in a unisex way as it's all tops, jumpers, trousers and shorts which girls all wear too. But girls can wear tunic tops, dresses, skirts, pinafores etc which boys don't. I have seen some people on here say they only dress their chilren in unisex clothes and I often wondered if perhaps they only had boys and not girls. Or do some people not dress their girls in these items except for maybe parties/special occasions?

[gourd]

I like to dress our 8.5 month old daughter in dresses occasionally but not all the time - for one thing they aren't quite as practical as top and trousers sets. As she gets older and starts moving about and is out of nappies etc I can see that if she's always in a dress she's bound to be showing her knickers, as all small children do when they sit or bend down etc and it's never a good look, plus a dress will probably get dragged through mud and vegetation in the garden once she's crawling about, so I might put her in trousers all the time then, for practicality reasons. At the moment she's pretty stationary, so I've no problem putting her in a dress some days. She'll almost certainly have to wear a skirt or dress for school, whether she chooses to or not in later life. I wear dresses and skirts myself as I generally don't find trousers very comfortable - leggings are fine, but jeans I just can't bear to wear, as the seams are so uncomfortable. I will never put my baby in jeans either - they're far too bulky and I think if I'm not comfortable in them, they can't be at all comfortable for a small child to wear either. I draw the line at wearing anything pink and we never dress the LO in it either. Pink really doesn't suit her anyway. She's always quite ruddy of cheek any additional pink makes her look like a cooked prawn!

[gourd]

What I do hate is when buying say waterproof baby-suit (for walking/cycling with LO on back of bike) or a baby wetsuit and there is often a choice of only pink or blue. I like red better than pink and I've read somewhere that at my daughters age they like red and yellow best. I hate being made to choose between only pink or blue though, and if I have to, I'll always go for blue over pink, but then we get people constantly assuming she's a boy - unless it's a blue dress!

[Firawla]

no i don't, i don't see the point of making a big thing of dressing them only unisex really. if i see something nice i will get it for them, not thinking "oh that is too boyish for them" and if i had girls i would probably get them dresses, tunic whatever cos it looks nice. i dont think gender clothes will do them any harm at all, it doesnt mean you can not let them play with whatever toys they like (i wouldnt tell them only play with "boys" toys for eg, they are allowed any if they want)

[Hulababy]

No. My DD has, over the years, worn a mix of clothing types and colours. When she was first crawling/waling we tended to pu her more in trousers as they were practical. But they were still from the girl's sections and would tend to look more girly than boyih - florals, pastels, etc. Not always just pink though.

Once she got to be about 2y she had a lot more say. She has been through various stages of what she likes including very overtly pink, sparkly, fluffykind of outfits, to other stages ofdark coloured leggings/jeggings and tops. This summer (now 9y) she is liking leggings and tunics, or dresses - and gone quite girly in her choices overall. She really doesn't like jeans and trousers at the moment though.

[SlightlyScrambled]

No. I'll buy anything that I like, whether it's boys, girls or unisex. Dd isn't old enough to choose herself.

This whole pink for girls and blue for boys is becoming a pet peeve of mine. It's everywhere. I was buying a mug for her today and why, oh why, do they have to be colour coded? Thankfully I found a lone green mug at the back of the shelf.

Dresses are nice but very impractical when she was crawling. She'd keep getting caught up in it.

[sparkleshine]

DS has neutral coloured tops, including dark yellow, green, bright purple, red, striped, and white. But then again theres not much choice really for boys.
All of his trousers are blue and black jeans, tracksuit or joggers.
I did buy a dark pink and lime green (pack of 2) for him a few weeks ago and they both looked awful, didn't suit him. Doesn't mean I wouldn't try something else similar again though.
H

[greencolorpack]

I was, as a child, dressed in a unisex way, which really meant I looked like a boy my whole childhood and I hated it. It was my mum's choice, not mine. She insisted I have short hair too. I hated being called "son" all the time. It stopped when I was about fourteen and started looking more obviously female.

If your child is a girly girl, I say let her be. There's no benefit to raising your child to be a freak who can't relate to other girls just because of your own ideology. If she chooses to dress like a tomboy then that's her choice, fair enough.

[KoolAidKid]

Ha.
No. When she was a baby she wore a lot of unisex clothes because that's what I picked for her.

But as soon as she could communicate (even non verbally) she has had very strong opinions on what she will and won't wear.

[MavisEnderby]

Nappy Addict tut tut!!!I DO dress my girl in dresses on occasion!She has some very pretty ones!I just don't go for the girly pink stuff...she has several pretty dresses!They just aren't pink.Actually I'm a bit pissed off at your thread titleas I replied to your pm stuff in good faith,but yes I DO often dress my child in dresses (nice white one with spots!,nice purple one!,nice dark green checkn one) but I also like to dress her in more boyish colours at times,because they don't show the dribble as much in darker colours,and she dribbles cos of her sn.

[nappyaddict]

Mavis I am confused? I haven't read your pm yet, was there something in that where you mentioned you don't dress your dd in pink and you think this thread is aimed at you?

If so it's not and you'll see I started the thread before I pmed you :)

[naturalbaby]

i like to but my kids are still quite little. ds3 has just grown into 3-6months so is now in his big brothers clothes and people are saying "he's a real little boy now in proper boys clothes!" rather than unisex baby clothes, which i prefer to dress him in as long as possible. if i had a girl she'd wear blue but i haven't dressed my boys in pink yet!