In M & S today and thought I'd look at their newborn basics for DC1, due in early October. We're not planning to buy masses for DC1 as my sister warned me that we're likely to get given lots, but obviously I don't want to be out shopping straight from the labour ward.
Clothes for 0-2 years, already separated into boys and girls. There are a few bits in white and almost nothing else that could properly be described as being gender neutral. We don't know the sex of the baby but even once he or she is here I am determined that whatever sex the baby turns out to be, they will not spend their lives dressed exclusively in blue or pink (delete as appropriate).
Why is it so hard to find stuff that is neutral? I tend to buy more neutral things for friends with children, even if they are obviously for a boy/girl. For my DC1, I have basically had to tend towards the more boyish end of the spectrum in order to avoid being drowned in sugary pink. I wear blue about 4 days out of 7, so why do little girls have to spend their lives in pink?
Ironically, given everything I have heard about how shit they are in all other respects, Mothercare seems to be one of the few places you can get genuinely gender neutral clothes for very small babies.
AIBU?
To get really quite cross about gender separation starting from newborn?
ComtessedeFrouFrou · 14/07/2013 12:16
Stormy - I had that too, although I don't think that it's because white is considered masculine. I think it's because we use male as a default. Think about talking about animals to the kids- it is really a conscious thing not to say he every time. So people so no gender indication on a baby and often default in just the same way.
FWIW, I never cared and, if I didn't think that the conversation was going any further, didn't set them right. People get quite upset if you correct them I found. I had a boy's name I gave them and everything if they unexpectedly kept chatting. 
I had an interesting moment a few weeks ago when a woman called my 2year old ds a girl. He was wearing grey tracksuit bottoms, brown/red/blue trainers and a grey, white and brown striped top with a bear on the front .
Yabu I don't really think it is a problem. Parents can chose to dress their children as they like and there is plenty to choose from. If the styles you like are too expensive try ebay.
Obviously pink sells for girls which is why there is so much of it. I am not a big fan of dressing my son in the dull "old-man" style clothes as I prefer bright colours, but I do dress him in clothes with dinosaurs, trucks and Thomas on them as that is what he likes to wear, (although some people here have also criticised this) 
Fwiw my son was in neutrals when he was a newborn. We inherited them all from friends' dds.
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