to ask so what if people think that?

[pinkbluegreenyellow]

Friend recently had a baby boy. Her DH goes on about how 'strong' he is, how big and tall, how much bigger than other baby boys he is. Fine. He is a big guy himself.

What irks is any suggestion that his son might, god forbid, appear 'girly' to others. For example, his son was gifted a t shirt that had a pink stripe in it. It's being given to charity as 'no son of mine wears pink. Don't want you being mistaken for a girl'. Friend's cousin allows her small ds to dress up in both cowboy and princess outfits and this is met with a sneer too.

Leaving aside the notion that pink is for girls, I want to shout so fucking what if people think he's a girl?? Like being a girl is weak and pathetic? I get that you might want people to assign the correct gender to your child but is there the same fear attached to people thinking your child might be a boy? As in , I can't dress her in blue, I don't want people to think she's a boy?

My ds does not wear girls clothes either. It is also my fault as I do not buy him any unfortunately.

Thank you limited, that was all I was saying . I didn't understand the post and I know it wasn't because of the way YOU expressed it - it was MY lack of understanding!

Thanks all, I'm really glad to hear I'm not the only one who is annoyed by this. Though some of the views on here about raising pansies etc make me want to weep somewhat.

Winter don't take any notice and don't justify your intelligence to anyone!!

Hope your ok?

Just look at the words. Boys' clothes, girls' clothes...I don't make the rules...that's what it's like round here.
How will things ever change?
No-one was saying boys should wear dresses, just that they should be able to if they wanted. Who, or what is stopping them? And why?

Kotinka, I know I'm not blah but that wouldn't bother me. I wonder though if the dad had a bad experience himself - it does make you edgy. I'll probably be so anxious when my kids start school.

It is perfectly ok winterlace. I would not want you to think you had gone mad

blah, getting back to the original post, would you be as strict as not letting a bit wear clothes if they had a little pink somewhere on them?

A tiny splash of pink on BOYS clothes - Yeah maybe ok, but only if was a line or something small. Not dress or something for girls though. I actually think some men pull of pale pink shirts too.

My son has three t shirts with pink on. I picked them as I liked them and they look really smart.IMO.

Who is trying to get one over on anyone???It is not a personal attack. I had to read twice some things you wrote to understand them and I rarely have to do that. It is just your style of writing not because she us trying to get out of anything!She could just not reply?

My DD was mistaken for a boy whilst wearing a flowery dress, so I'm not sure how useful clothes are

But I didn't say a word about LD. I don't know why it pissed you off: it clearly has and I'm sorry about that but to be honest I don't know why it's winding you up.

There were a number of words I didn't know the meaning of in your other post. I looked them up on the phone and still didn't really understand. So I admitted to this. I definitely wasn't trying to win the argument using it, I was just saying I didn't understand and like I say that was me not you - your post was fine but I didn't understand the words you used and I explained I wasn't the brightest!

I was just trying to lighten things by laughing at myself a bit, I am the same with DHand maps and when we go on the tube. Sorry if it bothered you but honestly there was no ill-intent there at all.

Jeez winterlace I can see you are really trying to stop this feud.

winter I am sorry for what sounds like a truly dreadful experience for you as a child.

But what is being talked about here is very different - none of this is about forcing children to wear what we want them to wear, but allowing them some choice where appropriate. So uniform for school, if that's the rules, but what you like for a party or at the weekend.

And it's about teaching tolerance, rather than bowing down to bullying.

We were talking about this at work - a couple of people had brothers who loved pink and dolls and dressing up - neither are gay as adults(not that that matters), and don't really do it anymore as adults. But no-one stopped them as children - because there was no reason to.

I can understand how your past experience has made you wary. But I think you are very wrong to think 'poor child' about a wee boy who wanted to, and was allowed, to wear a princess dress to a nursery Christmas party.

Some boys really do like 'girly' things (I mean of their own accord, nothing to do with parental interference) - doesn't it make you sad to think that from an early age some people think that should be discouraged? I would hate to think that someone might tell DD that she can't play with her favourite thing because society says it's for boys.

You did imply she was not intelligent and then switched.Am I the only one who read that???

I really wasn't being passive aggressive at all.

I didn't understand something!

I KNOW you didn't call me thick, I called myself thick!

Wasn't that long ago that society said women couldn't wear trousers.

You dont have to say 'only girls wear x y and z' for a child to understand that your actions are saying 'you can't be yourself and be accepted by society'. And since, you can know, you're part of society, that means your acceptance of your child hinges on them conforming.

And I wouldn't give a toss if my son's teacher wore a dress, or if a male nurse was wearing a uniform that is usually reserved for women. What does it matter?