Pink and blue at NURSERY

[creepymumweirdo]

WTF? Am I being thick/twattish here but why the hell would nursery do this?

They're thinking of having polo shirts for the kids so parents don't get upset if their kids clothes get messy (send your kid in scruffy clothes? Another issue). They have suggested pink polo shirts for girls and blue for boys.

Surely we're all trying to help kids break out of gender stereotypes not reinforce them? At 1 year old!

Some girls might genuinely like pink (I'm not one of them) and boys blue but why differentiate at all? Just pick a nice neutral colour that washes well and have done.

I've got my propper outraged face on right now. A rare thing.

AIBU?

YANBU.

Ours is yellow. Yellow for boys, yellow for girls.

One primary school on a nearby city has a great uniform.

They wear school logo sweatshirts /cardigans in one of about 5 colours to choose from.
Polo shirts in any colour (no logo)
Any bottoms in any plain colour
Gingham dresses in the summer in any plain colour.
They look brilliant, yet still practical.

Wow that's totally ridiculous and annoying. Why not just go for ONE colour of tee with the nursery logo on that subsequent siblings can use. Both our local nurseries do this and it's a bit of branding for them. One is a red tshirt and one white polo with a green logo.

That's ridiculous. Why can't they all have the same colour?!

God it's just insidious, isn't it?
DD2s favourite colour used to be blue but in the last few months she's been telling me that it's now pink because "pink is for girls" apparently
She's 5, so in reception. I wouldn't have a problem with it if it was right from the start, it's just the fact that she's picked up from somewhere that she has to like pink because she's a girl. Why can't they just give all of the children the same colour?

YANBU, I wouldn't allow my son to wear the blue one. I'd stick him in pink. Absolutely ridiculous

@bikerunski that sounds great, and practical for parents.

Aside from the gender stereotypes it's a pain if you have twins (girl/boy) and have to buy 2 sets, or if you want to hand down. Dd2's preschool had turquoise for all with logo, DD3's had white plain polo shirts with a burgundy logo sweatshirt. Sweatshirt was about £10, think the polos were less.

My eldest DS used to dress up in the Snow White costume at nursery when he was about 3 he didn't care.
My younger DS used to delight in telling anyone who'd listen that he wanted to be a girl when he grew up. He loved having sparkly nails and lipstick on 😂😂
Both much to their father's disgust but he's an ex for a reason...

What would happen OP in your nursery if they suddenly had far more of one gender than the other? One colour for all makes far more sense.

Ours is green but literally no one bothers. 25% off at Sainsbury's several times a year I couldn't be arsed with keeping clothes for best/preschool

And school uniforms often don't have different uniform, particularly at primary level - usually a polo shirt for all, optional shirts (if they can do their own buttons!).

In those circumstances I wouldn't think twice about removing him from the nursery. And I'd tell them why.

The shirts are the bits you see. This will go further. I can't think of a better way to artificially segregate children than marking them that way.

My 3 year old DD adores the colour blue. She would be devastated if she was made to wear pink instead because she's not a boy!

Why the fuck would they do that?? One colour of polo shirt for all children. My son's nursery had an optional uniform of purple tshirts/polo shirts for all. Nothing was divided into boy/girl - same colour shoe bags for them all too, with a label with their photo on it.

And for £10 a pop, no chance.

Maybe you could suggest different colours for different religions OP?

Or different nationalities?

Or for the kids from the 'posh' end of town maybe?

I love the pink thing. Never understood the problem with it myself.

Yanbu. That's just dumb. On all counts.

One year olds don't need uniforms to begin with.

Well there are a million studies and articles headifthehive on the problems with pinkifying girls, should you wish to enlighten yourself

My dd2 preschool has a red uniform.....no problem. Put them all in whatever colour they want

When DD was at nursery they had a range of colours for the polo shirts. We had a 2 - yellow and navy. Also a red sweatshirt and a purple hooded sweatshirt. Light pink was an option too but not many parents picked that colour as it stained easily (same as the white). The green was also a popular colour and appeared to hold its colour the best in the wash.

It was nice to see a rainbow of colours at nursery. They are in bland samey school uniform for such a long time.

OP could you ask the nursery if you could just buy the blue polo shirt for your DD? I know I would have at that age as DD has never been a pink fan.

I see nothing wrong with 2 colour options so long as they don't make them specific to each gender. If they insisted on pink for girls and blue for boys then I would have an issue with it.

Totally agree that kids shouldn't be differentiated at 1 if at all and certainly not in easily dirtyable colours. What's wrong with specifying a dark colour you can get from Tescos or Morrisons cheaply?

And I'll say this again - until the 1920s blue was for girls (especially in catholic countries) and red (with its derivative pink) was a more expensive colour and for boys. To say nothing of the fact those who could afford to choose and clearly had laundries or laundry maids put both boys and girls in white dresses until they were three or four.

Pink was just a marketing construct.

they should pull all the children in brown clothing and be done with it

Yes, because there are NO other colours than pink, blue, or brown. None. Nada. Not a single one.

why are you moaning? you want a nice neutral colour for everyone and that doesn't show the mess too much, what's wrong with brown?

I am not putting my boy in purple or turquoise!

Why?

Sorry why didn't anyone tell me we'd gone back in time? Is this a village?