to want to buy some non-pink stuff for my baby daughter?

[starkadder]

An unashamed bid for lots of replies by putting this on AIBU...hope that's OK...because I don't think IABU, at all, really. Anyway, I have a little baby daughter. She gets dressed in pink almost every day, because she's been given loads and loads of pink clothes by our friends and family. A combination of not wanting to offend the givers, laziness and stinginess has led me to just accept this. BUT we went to a little girl's birthday party today, where there were about 20 identical pink children - this, combined with the fact that I am currently reading "Delusions of Gender", has freaked me out a bit. So I'd like to buy some nice, not too expensive, non-pink girls' clothes please - any recommendations??

OP - i agree with you but you can get non pink kids/girls clothes all over the place. fortunately dd now 9 has grown out of the pink thing, she HATES pink :) even when she was younger i was never really into the pink thing. i hate pink prams! or pink 'baby/child on board' signs but this is just my own personal taste, each to their own

H&M
Gap
Sainsbury's
Petit Bateau
Next

Loads of places. Can't think of all of them at the mo. I shop mainly in H&M and Sainsbos and I don't buy pink.

Ooh - yes, search out the Scandinavian brands - Katvig Ej Sikke Lej smafolk
I've put Ebay links so you can see some but there are loads of brands on this website and also here
FWIW, I completely agree with you and I only knew about these brands as i have lots of swedish friends with extremely stylish children!

so buy some then... there are plenty of beige, cream, purple, brown, black, grey, yellow, orange, blue, etc clothes in every shop that sells children's clothes.

Just be prepared that as your daughter gets a bit older she might actually WANT to wear pink.

YANBU. I don't have any daughters. But if I did I would do what my mother did and accept all pink gifts with grace and gratitude but not use them. I don't believe she ever put me in pink. I have photo albums full of me as a baby and toddler dressed in red, purple, black, green.... much more interesting colours never pink. I'm grateful to her. I never buy pink for my friends daughters.

Good luck when she needs shoes! I find it maddening. I warned everyone close NOT to buy pink. MIL seemed to think i was mad. I don't really mind darker pinks in moderation but hate hate hate that washed out pale stuff.

YANBU bu it's not that easy. I find you have to spend a bit more. Saints is ok usually.

YANBU at all- I know how you feel. I have a dd too and pink is one of my least favourite colours unfortunately! To be honest we get loads of her clothes second hand from friends with older girls so I just put her in whatever they give us as she certainly doesn't care what she's wearing. Any clothes we buy tend to come from next, vertbaudet, gap, tesco, sainsburys etc.. Most places have a small selection of non pink clothes and they're often in the sales. I also put her in boys clothes sometimes if I like them more. I will warn you that you may get a lot of "isn't he lovely" type comments if she's not in pink- I just smile and say thanks.

Boden and John Lewis do some great non-pink girly stuff, I buy on eBay tho as am not flush enough for the brand new versions...

Sainsburys has a good range in at the moment for girls - all red, navy and white. My dd (4) will not wear pink, purple, or sparkles, glitter, sequins, appliqued butterflies etc etc. Thank goodness because I find all the girly stuff pretty gopping. Boys jeans all the way here too for her, mainly because they don't have flowers sewn all over them.

You can sometimes get lucky in TK Maxx with some of the Scandinavian labels, or just in general in amongst the sea of pink.

Otherwise I'd second H&M as a good hunting ground. Generally the cheaper the shop (especially down the Asda/Primark end of the market) the more the pink I have found too.

Completely agree. I dressed DD in white when she was tiny and since then in her brother's hand-me-downs. Boden are pretty good if you can hang on for the sales. I also like JoJoMamambebe, got spotty stripy purple stuff there this spring.

It depends on your budget, but you can get some great non-stereotypical or unisex stuff from Green Baby, LoveitLoveitLoveit, Frugi and American Apparel (all online) and, if you look carefully, John Lewis or Tesco and other supermarkets. I suffer from the opposite problem: I have a DS who I don't want to dress in sludge colours with tractor motifs, and cargo pants Not only for feminist/sociological reasons (my PhD topic is along the lines of Delusions of Gender) but because those items are dreary and meh on adult men, never mind tots. Good luck :)

PS Be prepared for everyone to comment on how lovely your 'son' looks, because the brainwashing goes deep; my HV refused to believe my child was a boy just because he was wearing a turqoise sleepsuit, ffs!

H&M and then check out the Scandi brands if you're happy to pay a bit more. Polarn o Pyret, Smafolk, El Sikke Leg, Duns Sweden, Liandlo, Katvig, Molo, Miny Mo, etc. I buy things on sale and stock up for the next sizes ahead.

You can buy a lot of these brands second hand on Ebay. They're all made from top quality cotton so they wear really well.

My daughter wore pretty much no pink whatsoever for the first two years of life. I like bright colours so she wore bright colours.

Now she's 2.8 years old and the pink thing is starting to kick in. Thanks nursery! Comments like 'My favourite colour is pink isn't it?' I'm fighting it.

Thank you!! Love MN.

Just to say though too - I'm not complaining about the impossibility of buying non-pink - I (to my shame) have not really bought anything for DD at all because she'd been given so much stuff. She also wears some of her older brother's hand-me-downs.

Didn't think about Sainsbury's - will have a look - also these Scandiwegian ones - cheers!

Yanbu my dd has a range of colours. Has very few pinks god I hate that colour

Gap and H&M are both good for bold bright colours and loads of the girls stuff in Next at the mo is yellow and navy which looks great!

I share your pain. But actually I've not found it all that difficult to avoid pink tbh. I also unashamedly exchanged a lot of the gifts we'd been given when DD was born for less pink stuff (wherever we'd been given a gift receipt - if people give you a GR then you have to assume they won't be offended if you exchange). Shops I have found to be useful so far:
H&M
Zara
Next (although they also have some hideous pink pink pink stuff so you have to hunt a bit)
Vertbaudet
John Lewis if you hunt a bit
Blue Zoo at Debenhams and the little John Rocha stuff can throw up some goodies too from time to time.

If you can stretch your budget every now and again, these are good:
Tootsa Macginty
Polarn O Pyret
Boys & Girls

Also, why not buy some boys stuff? My DD can often be found in jeans with (shock horror) NO FLOWERS OR GLITTER ON THEM!!! i.e. just plain jeans like adults would wear. She has had some very funky babygros from the 'boys' section of places like Boots, Asda, Sainsburys (she has a particularly funky bright blue and white Noah's Ark themed one which always gets complimented).

I have always found it helps to be very honest with people and frequently go on and on (and on and on) about how I think it's such a shame that girls so often get dressed in so much pink when there are so many funky clothes in other colours. Most people have now got the hint (and people think they're terribly clever when they give her something not pink as if they're the first person to have thought of the idea).

My DD does have the odd splash of pink (not baby pink though, as I really can't stand that) but it definitely doesn't dominate. Also, you need to be aware that your DD will be mistaken for a boy from time to time. I couldn't care less about this (she's only 6 months old!), but it does bother some people!

I have 3dds (6, 4 and 1) and they don't wear a lot of pink, I have bought from the Sainsburys navy and red range, they wear a lot of plain leggings, usually from Next and a lot of stripes, spots usually in red or yellow tops - M&S has a load of packs of 3 tops in at the minute and they're not very pink.

Although it doesn't bother me if they were pink crazy - its just a colour.

YAB SO U. I have 3 DDs and lurve pink. I was sad when older two grew out of it. Trying for number 4, will be nice if a boy but if its a girl, brill for pink.

Sorry, I got carried away so x-posted with lots of other (less verbose) people!

PS scorpette I know - boys' stuff bad too. It bothered me that so many of the clothes for little boys had quite aggressive themes - combat stuff, or pictures of massive sharks, etc etc. But the pink really hurts the eyeballs.

And I quite LIKE pink, really - I was wearing a pink cardigan today myself. Anyway, am excited about all these top tips, thank you everyone!

PS you can dye pink clothes red or purple v easily, so if there's stuff that is just not going to get worn otherwise give it a try! Dylon do a good range of machine dyes, you could try dying things brown, blue, and orange too, but the colour may not work so well over the pink.
I wasn't allowed to wear pink as a child (hippy mother), it didn't bother me in the slightest, have only started to like it in my 30s!

I find that there are all sorts of colours in the 'girls' sections of all clothes shops.

It doesn't matter if it is pink or not though if it has flowers or butterflies or hearts etc you can convince yourself you are pandering to enforced gender stereotypes. The colour isn't the problem neither are the designs it's the people thinking about it too much.

If you want to dress your girl in green, blue, brown...whatever go ahead she's your child.

I mix it up a bit, i love pinks and purples but i also find green really suits my DD. I sometimes put a dark top (maybe even bought from the 'boys' section) with a frilly skirt.

If you are accepting gifts though it is good manners to put your child in them, for a photo at least, or ask for the receipt and go and swap the pink dress for a blue one

YANBU. All of my family were warned before DD was born that I do not want to dress her in 'ballet' pink.

I already have 2 dses, and tried my best to dress them in brught colours.

DD is almost 8 motnhs now, and will not wear pink most days. I like dusky pink, or bright pink, but not that pale insipid bleurgh colour. DD does have some clothes in pale pink but will never wear a full outfit in that colour. Maybe a t-shirt with some jeans or something.