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Original poster

Should cot cards be gender neutral or dont you mind pink and blue?

208 replies

EachandEveryone · 27/12/2018 12:06

Thats it really. We need to order a load more and theres no point wasting the NHS money. I just wondered if we had moved on from pink and blue as i notice a lot more babies are being dressed in neutral colours. Or, does it not bother you?

OP posts:
Witchend · 27/12/2018 15:19

I had pink ones with dd nearly 20 years ago.
They'd obviously changed by time I had ds as they were white and when I commented the girls had had pink ones there was a general disappointed air among the mothers I was talking to, as they would have preferred the coloured ones.

SheldonSaysSo · 27/12/2018 15:19

I think keeping them coloured may be easier for staff to see at a glance (especially with the rise in more unusual names when it can be hard to determine if it is a boy/girl).

However, if they are significantly more expensive then it would be better to save the NHS some money.

OhTheRoses · 27/12/2018 15:21

M and F are visual clues as are o> and o+. Best I can do on my phone. DS was in SCBU overnight 24 years ago. No cot cards then.

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3boysandabump · 27/12/2018 15:21

My son was in scbu and I didn't even notice the colour of his cot card. I've just looked on a photo because I was curious and it was actually blue.

If your child is in scbu you have a lot more important things to be worrying about than gender stereotyping IMO

BikeRunSki · 27/12/2018 15:24

^Can’t believe all these parents asking what a cot label is?

Don’t you keep your babies cot labels? Little paper labels with ribbon or string ties which goes on the bedside cot when you first have your baby.^

I had my dc in the same hospital 10 and 7 years ago. They didn’t use them. Just brackets for the babies. I can’t imagine that my hospital is the only one that doesn’t use them.

3out · 27/12/2018 16:01

I’ve never heard them called cot cards until this post. I’d have called them name cards, or labels, or maybe name tag, or ID card. I only opened the thread to find out what a cot card was 😂

Knittink · 27/12/2018 16:11

Good lord there are some dimwitted posters on here. Gender neutral means the cards are not a different colour according to gender. It doesn't mean that we think the babies shouldn't be designated as male or female fgs! It means that colours have got bugger all to do with what sex you are.

Jazzhan · 27/12/2018 16:13

It's funny the amount of people demanding the babies have gender neutral colours. If you're so gender neutral, why do you care if your boy has a pink bow?

I still have the cot card (didn't actually realise it had a name) and her wrist band. There was a very lovely ward assistant, I don't think she was a nurse, who suggested I might want them. I cherish them.

AssassinatedBeauty · 27/12/2018 16:15

"If you're so gender neutral, why do you care if your boy has a pink bow?" - I wouldn't care. That's exactly the point. And that's not what's being discussed here, which is the use of the stereotype of blue=boy and girl=pink.

SoyDora · 27/12/2018 16:16

I wouldn’t care if my boy had a pink cot card, or if my girl had a blue one. Why would I? I’m not saying my children are gender neutral, they are quite clearly either male or female. I’m not sure why that means a particular colour has to be assigned to them though?

Jazzhan · 27/12/2018 16:17

Most normal people, do still dress their kids in pink or blue. A few renegades don't, but it's a tiny minority. Tiny.

Most babies will have yellow, green or white when newborn as the parent didn't know the sex.
When the sex is known, all the blue or pink stuff starts to arrive.
I really don't think that a baby is going to decide its gender based on the fact that it's put in pink or blue. I don't suspect they actually give a shit lol.
MN is crazy

SoyDora · 27/12/2018 16:19

Most people I know dress their babies in all different colours, as blue and pink aren’t the only colours that exist. Mine (girls) wear blue, red, yellow, pink, blue, grey, green... all sorts. How dull would wearing one colour be?!

Jazzhan · 27/12/2018 16:19

It's not actually a stereotype. It's a societal norm.

SoyDora · 27/12/2018 16:20

I really don't think that a baby is going to decide its gender based on the fact that it's put in pink or blue. I don't suspect they actually give a shit lol

No, of course they aren’t going to decide their gender based on what colour they wear. That’s kind of the point. Why do you need to dress them in blue or pink then?!
Of course they don’t give a shit. So why do you?

AssassinatedBeauty · 27/12/2018 16:21

@Jazzhan really? Most people where I am dress their babies in a variety of colours, not just pink/blue.

Jazzhan · 27/12/2018 16:21

If someone had rocked up with a blue outfit for my baby girl, I'd have asked them were they visiting the wrong baby. I don't want my girl dressed as a boy!

SoyDora · 27/12/2018 16:22

You just said yourself they don’t give a shit what colour they wear. So why do you give a shit what colour they wear?

AssassinatedBeauty · 27/12/2018 16:22

Dressing a baby girl in blue isn't dressing her as a boy though.

Sparklingbrook · 27/12/2018 16:23

Stick to pink and blue.

SoyDora · 27/12/2018 16:23

Does your baby girl literally only wear pink?

Jazzhan · 27/12/2018 16:23

I did too. She had red, purple etc. And actually blue denim. I just preferred pink though. Maybe because I'm not a fucking weirdo who wants to use my baby to make some stupid point about gender.

NottonightJosepheen · 27/12/2018 16:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SoyDora · 27/12/2018 16:24

How is it making a point?! The only point I’m making is that I like lots of different colours, and that colours don’t actually have a gender!

OddBoots · 27/12/2018 16:24

It's not unusual for societal norms to become old fashioned ideas as time goes on. I think we reached maximum pink and blue a few years ago and are getting over it now.

Jazzhan · 27/12/2018 16:24

My very pink baby is now a teen who would rather die than be seen in something pink.

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