She's a GIRL

[Cashewnutts]

I'm fed up with my 4month old being labelled as a boy. Near enough every time I'm out with her, someone will remain to her as a he: how old is he? Isn't he cute! Oh look at him etc.

AIBU to be increasingly rude to these people when correcting them? Of course it's always random strangers and never the same ones, I'm just hugely fed up with correcting people, especially when she is clearly wearing girls clothes. (Or at the very least, something that identifies her as a girl such as a girls sun hat or cardigan)

Just to illustrate, here are some of the outfits she's been wearing when people have assumed she's a boy. We also have a Cosatto pram with blue and orange pattern but IMO it's very non gender specific.

YANBU

This bothers me too a bit. I dress my daughter in various items of clothing, often gender neutral, as I think it more practical and she is often still mistaken for a boy....even on the occasions she's in a pink bib & flowery leggings, coz they happened to be on sale in Tesco.

It's not the worry that she looks like a boy that bothers me, she doesn't. It's the automatic assumption that she is a boy! It's almost like the first phrase that comes to mind when people see a baby (and its older people, always older people!) is 'Isn't he lovely, what's his name?'. I don't like this assumption that a he comes to mind before a she.

Sorry, I haven't read anyone else's messages. I'm likely to be widely disagreed with as a) I'm drunk and b) this is Mumsnet, so of course someone will disagree with me for the sake of disagreeing but, er, I don't care. Ha.

So actually from the testimonies here it sounds like it's not much to do with the colour/style of outfits at all but rather that people tend to presume babies are boys?

Weird.
The patriarchy knows no bounds.

Feel your pain totally! Have the same thing with my daughter, its like because she hasn't got long flowing hair in pig tails - she must be a boy!
My mum used to have the same thing with me. I had very short hair until I was about 5 - and she would dress me head to toe in pink and people wouldn't still say "Oh, isn't HE lovely?!'
I got so fed up of it in the end with my daughter that I used to just say - "sorry, no eeengliiissh" and look away. Funniest time was I did that and then 5mins later my phone rings, it's my best mate and I answer all 'alriiiiight love!'
Fuck 'em is what I say. I went through it as a child, and I have no scars

Terry wogan called dd 'a happy little fellow' while she was wearing a pink striped ruffled dress... He did correct himself, but still!

I never put my dd in pink or 'girly' clothes as I'm not into that I don't think just because she's a girl she should wear pink I used to get quite annoyed when strangers called her a boy, then I made it fun for me lol. I basically would go along with it for a while then at the end of our conversation would drop in a big she or her so they are aware. Used to make me chuckle seeing them realise. In all honesty, it can be hard to tell with babies and people aren't doing it to be nasty, they are trying to compliment you on your beautiful baby, boy or girl. Just accept the comment and ignore the gender, or play my fun game!

Yeah, embarass people who were complimenting your child. Way to be a dick!

Grow the fuck up, people. This could not matter less. It is the stupidest non-problem that you could ever have.

I feel your pain. Everyone took my dd for a boy. I don't suppose it helped that she was as bald as a coot and looked like Phil Mitchell's love child until she was about 4, when. This mane just appeared out if nowhere..
You'd never think so to look at her now.
Her hair's really thick and down her back

My toddler wears hand me down dresses and a pink raincoat. He's a boy.
Who cares what people think? IDGAF
What is so great about artificial gender constructs anyway?

But for the people talking about feeling aggrieved about the automatic assumption that a baby is a boy and linking this to patriarchy - how do you explain the sizeable proportion of people of this thread that are saying their boys were regularly mistaken for girls? If what you're suggesting is true then that would never happen would it? For me I think it was DS's long curly hair and reasonably pretty features that garnered all the 'isn't she pretty' comments - patriarchy affects our lives in lots of ways but I'm not sure this is one of them.

Yes my DS is regularly assumed to be a girl by strangers. It makes me laugh as he's often wearing blue head to toe, literately nothing remotely feminine on him or on the pram. People are strange. Doesn't bother me a jot

Hedda

I unashamedly dress my 10mo ds in 'boys' clothes. And strangers still think he's a girl. I don't mind. The exvise given when I correct them is 'oh, sorry but he's so beautiful!'. I know they're totally back peddling with a compliment, but I'll take it anyway.

Exvise?! Excuse.

My son is 7 and often gets called a girl! He used to correct people but now he can't be bothered he says he is 'so over it now'
He just looks at me and rolls his eyes!

My DD was called a boy in a light purple floral top with stripy purple leggings. When I said she was a girl I got an outraged "but she's not in pink!" People are very odd.

Someone I knew once said 'ooh he's gone big hasn't he'?! About my 2 year old girl, I just said 'aw yeah,' etc.... Didn't really bother me

One time I was out with my DD she must have been about 18 months old, she was in her pushchair, she was wearing a blue dress, blue tights and some blue and pink trainers and people still were calling her a boy. I know it was blue but it was clearly a dress and tights. Even when she was in something pink people would call her a boy. It used to drive me mad.