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.

I'd probably have dressed DS in all of those clothes but he used to get called she a lot. And DD used to get he as well. It really really doesn't matter. Please don't get grumpy with people about it
I once accidentally called a baby girl 'he' at water babies when she was about 4 months old. She was wearing navy blue swimming trunks and had no hair. The mum didn't speak to me after that! They all just look like babies

My dd was a little baldy and many times got called a boy. My favourite was "what's his name?" "Girl's name" "oh that's a funny name for a boy." I just gave them the look of death till they went "oh right"

Everyone thought my DD was a boy - I thought she obviously looked like a girl but looking back at photos now (now almost 2) she was completely bald and it was impossible to tell, and she wore lots of gender neutral clothes. People just make assumptions, and I would just go with it and smile and nod. She definitely looks like a girl now.

That outfit and the blue orange pram would make most people assume boy.

DS has 3 big sisters and he frequently wore their old stuff, especially if it was expensive and warm for Winter. I cared not a jot. His penis hasn't fallen off.

My beautiful dd1 was constantly mistaken for a boy up to 1 year, both whilst wearing pink, and another time whilst wearing a dress! Don't sweat the small stuff - she's too young to be offended

One interfering sweet old lady thought my dd (then a baby) was a little boy called Reggie.
No. She's a girl. And her name isn't Reggie.

I can see why that would annoy you op!
Just out if interest, I think I have the same pushchair as you! What exactly is the pattern like? X

My baby is 4 months old and at this age it's hard to tell if he's a boy, girl or potato.

He's just a baby... YABU they all look the same at this age

It always amuses me when 'cool parents' dress girls in blue or other colours associated with boys (and have a blue pram) then get snippy when people think baby is a boy.

It's often just bloody attention seeking imo.

People often assume my DS is a girl. So frequently in fact that I've made up a girl's name for him just in case I'm asked what "her" name is....The people commenting are just trying to be nice. You will never see them again. No need to correct imo. And certainly no need to be rude. If you're that bothered stick one of those horrible bows on her head....

I think getting annoyed that people default to "boy" in case of uncertainty is reasonable. DH and I have really had to work on changing our own tendency to gender toys and animals and other small children as male by default so DD doesn't grow up thinking being male is more common and "normal" and being female is somehow secondary. It's just so endemic in normal English usage. It's quite embedded in how people think. But not unreasonable to find it unfair and annoying.

On the other hand, people don't mean to be deliberately offensive. It used to happen to us all the time when DD was tiny (and had no hair), and when the answer to "what's his name" was a girl's name, they were generally much more mortified than I was. I generally just laughed and said something about how I hate pink, or said something about how babies are really quite androgynous aren't they, then left them to it. Pick your battles.

Yanbu to find it annoying.

I used to put DD in blue dresses and skirts and other non-girly colours but she always had a bow in her three strands of hair and I pushed her around in a pink pram. Still got told 'he' was lovely. Some people just can't get their heads around not putting a girl in pink. Although even when I did dress her in pink people still thought she was a boy.

She was mistaken for a boy up until she was about 15 months and she finally grew a bit of hair

When ds was a toddler he had longish hair and got mistaken for a girl all the time. I once encountered someone telling their dc to "mind out for the little girl" when ds was dressed in jeans with a camouflage coat, so not particularly feminine clothes. Ds responded with a very disdainful " mummy, that man just called me a girl and I am a boy!". It never bothered me though. I got it all the time with dd too if she was dressed in blue or purple as a newborn, less so now she's 3 and has more hair.

When DS and DD were both under 2 people were always saying "Oh, how lovely, one of each"
They always thought that DS was the girl and DD was the boy though. I never bothered correcting them as I was very unlikely to see them again.

My dd was about 18 months and dressed in a lovely lilac coat with fur around the hood and cuffs with a matching lilac hat. She was wearing a dress underneath so had on a pair of white patterned tights. She was mistaken for a boy, "ahh isn't he lovely?" I just answered "thanks" and went about my day.
I wouldn't let it get to you.

My daughter looked like Phil Mitchell for the first year of her life. I avoided putting her in dresses because lets face it, Phil Mitchell in a frock is not a good look. She was, of course, called a boy by all and sundry. She's now a gorgeous 7 year old with waist length blonde hair - not a hint of Phil.

My son is mistaken for a girl all the time. despite the fact that he wears boyish clothes, usually with dinosaurs or sharks or something similar on them . He has long hair you see (it's bloody beautiful, tumbling blonde curls with caramel-type flashes of colour. you'd pay a sodding fortune to have your hair coloured like that!) so he must be a girl! It amuses me these days. I rarely bother correcting them. he's 5, so he does sometimes pipe up "I'm a BOY!" and then I rather enjoy watching the commenter get all flustered!

Don't let it bother you. Just be happy your kid is cute enough for people to comment on!

Thanks reality but as I said before, I didn't put pictures of blue outfits on purpose. If you think I'm attention seeking then fine, that's your opinion.

magazine I'd describe it as an abstract flower pattern? Navy blue 'flowers' with white ones on tops d orange and turquoise squares on the inside, orange and white on a navy background outside.

Didn't realise just how many people have had this too. Not that I thought I was the only person whose child has been mistaken for the opposite sex of course.

senita hit the nail on the head. It's the default reaction of boy.

Streetcar did you make that typo on purpose??

I constantly ask what HE'S called after I've just been told the baby is a girl! Totally me as I have two boys and are used to saying he and his not she and her. It drives my niece nuts, I do try but it seems ingrained in me.

Very common. Most people are reminded of their own DCs when young so won't be thinking of your baby's gender, just thinking you have a gorgeous baby.

YWBU to be rude, yes.

But it is frustrating. People just don't always pay attention to details! Both my DSs, but particularly DS1, had very fine blond hair and huge long curly eyelashes - both were called girls for ages, despite being frequently dressed in blues and browns.

OTOH, my oldest niece's hair didn't grow in for ages (had a head like a tinned potato, bless her) and despite being dressed in pink dresses, the lack of hair got her called "boy" up until she was 2!! Also blonde with blue eyes (not such good eyelashes though )

I was called a boy in Spain at age 2, because I didn't have my ears pierced.

Stick one of those hideous flower headbands on her.

Tell them that your baby is a she but you wanted a boy and therefore you dress her as a boy and watch them squirm!

I think that's why blue for boy/pink for girl clothes were invented

But then people didn't want to gender stereotype with the colours. Fine, but it can lead to confusion as it really isn't possible to tell when a baby is so young.