To think there's nothing wrong with zoo animals for a girl?

[Endofrelationship]

I'm expecting DC2, we have been led to believe from the scan that it is a little girl. We have DS already.

I went to John Lewis yesterday to pick up some baby night gowns for easy night changes. They were in the sale and the only ones they had were grey and white striped and zoo animals, in a set of two (one of each).

My mum and sister told me I couldn't buy them as they weren't 'girly' enough. My sister even went as far as to ask the assistant if they had any girl ones (which they didn't). I told them to stop being ridiculous and bought them anyway.

Mum wouldn't stop going on about how everyone would think I had a lovely little boy in those. Firstly, who gives a crap? and secondly - THEY ARE FOR NIGHT TIME! Also thirdly, DS was about 6 weeks old, dressed head to toe in blue and two people told me what a lovely little girl I had!

AIBU to think that zoo animals on a white background are unisex? And that it wouldn't have mattered even if they'd have been boy ones? FWIW I fully intent to dress DD in some of DSs old clothes, including a cute little baby grow with blue robots on, just because I like it! DD has plenty of time to assert her desire for pink sparkly clothes when she is older, which is her right and will be honored.

You are completely correct in your thinking, I would have been annoyed too.

One of the things I dread about when I hopefully have my own children is people buying clothes for them as gifts - my DP and I both prefer quite neutral clothing, however his DSis dresses her girls top to toe in pink and unicorns. Completely her decision, they look lovely, but it's just not my thing!

How dare you dress a girl in anything but frilly pink lace!
My friends daughter was dressed all in pink, with a pink bonnet and in a pink pram and an elderly lady still commented ‘isn’t he handsome!’

Are your family complete fuckwits?? Ignore them!

Babies don't care. They don't care of you prefer nightgowns or babygrows and they certainly don't care about the colour. And at that age, if it doesn't upset the baby then it just doesn't matter!

@Purplecatshopaholic I do sometimes think I must have been adopted. We are very different and have very different views.

@MyDCareMarvel the JL nightgowns are like baby grows at the top but very long at the end with electric along the bottom hem. So they are just as cosy (baby is completely covered) but quickly for nappy changes

I know the set you mean, it's completely neutral (and lovely). The gendering of baby clothes is so sodding annoying - even the non-pink stuff often has frills or silly girly slogans if it's being aimed at girls.

That sounds unisex to me.

Having said that, I'm probably no judge as I'm in the "as long as it's clean and baby-sized it's perfectly fine" camp. DS wore mainly pink hand-me-downs for the first month; he was a newborn, all he cared about was that the milk kept coming, plus he wouldn't have had the visual acuity to tell the difference anyway.

How stupid. I really loathe stereotyped gendered clothing and I think it's getting worse; it's increasingly hard to find things in a gendered kids' section that aren't blue/covered in robots or trucks for boys and pink/sparkly/flowery for girls.

DC1 is a boy and DC2 is a girl. I refused to buy more babygrows just because the ones we had were the "wrong" colour so DD was often in blue/green/brown "boys" coloured things that we'd been given for DS.

People occasionally commented on what a beautiful little boy she was. I would just nod and say thank you and carry on with my day. Why would it matter to me that a stranger thought she was a boy?

She's very into pink now - and dinosaurs and lego - it's not done either of us any harm.

You are all BU to assume the baby's gender! OMG.

I hate the way boys and girls are dictated to about colours and styles to wear from birth. I had DS recently and deliberately bought lots of neutral babygros because I hate the thought that 'boys should wear this and girls that', dictated by shops.

Sadly, as he gets older I know it's going to be harder to buy gender neutral clothes. Just the thought of shopping in Primark or somewhere with their rows and rows of pink for girls and blue for boys makes me shudder.

Well my 4 year old son was always in blue or 'boy' clothes when he was younger. He now likes to wear dresses so you quite obviously can't force the stereotype onto the child (not that I was trying too) 😂

Prepare yourself for incoming huge pink flowerly headbands from your family because everyone must know that the baby is a girl (or possibly an Easter egg). I bought what I thought were gender neutral colours (red, green, orange, purple, grey, white) and usually got asked when my boy was due!

It’s awful isn’t it?

Every teen swimsuit I looked at was pink! Teens want black (generally)
Every girls PJs were pink or had pink unicorns and sparkles - no thanks

Ended up getting them boys dressing gowns

FWIW DS lived his sisters pink dresses and dress up shoes - and (gasp) we even went out like it

That’s ridiculous. YANBU. Jungle animals are awesome for everyone.
And tbh, my nephew wore a lot of his sisters pink baby gros / sleeping bags because let’s face it, children are expensive. Rock the jungle animals! xx

@GrumbleBumble Easter egg! Hilarious 😂😂😂

DD had brightly coloured jungle animals all over her babygrows. And robots, and rocket ships.

In fact, I had two favourites that I kept and still melt my heart a little bit when I think of how tiny she was; her 'tiny baby' blue one with an elephant on one side, and her 'new baby' one in bright red with an all over print of rocket ships and moons. She looked adorable with a mop of thick black hair and big dark blue eyes. She looked like a happy, cute, wiggly little baby.

"My mum and sister told me I couldn't buy them as they weren't 'girly' enough."

Hang on though-night gowns aren't they fairly "girly" whatever design/pattern?

I had girls - and, as I love the colour, they wore a lot of pink! But I would happily have bought the set you described; sounds entirely unisex to me.

OP. I think a letter to John Lewis is in order, clearly they are confusing people by using neutral colours but then putting the wrong sort of animal on the baby grow.

Maybe they need to do a survey about what sorts of animals are girly, boyish or truly neutral.

Clearly kittens, squirrels, meerkats, koalas, bunnies ,baby pandas ,chicks , Pomeranians and chihuahuas are girly because they are fluffy and or cute.

Lions, sharks, dinosaurs, honey badgers , anteaters, Cobras and crocodiles are boys animals because they are fierce and have teeth and
claws and could kill you if they wanted too.

Penguins are neutral because who the bloody hell knows about penguins.

It's obvious really isn't it?

My two children (1 of each) were both born in the spring as all the sleeping bags we bought for DD Wwere the right size and tog rating for DS we’ve just reused them for him. Some of them are bright pink and very “girly” (I didn’t buy them deliberately that way, just bought whatever was in the Sale in the right size as they’re damn expensive!) but he still wears them, who cares!

Point out to your mum that JL actively market their own brand children’s clothing as gender neutral.

I bought a blue and white stripy baby grow for my DD because I loved it, and I am now 52 and didn't have my babies at a time when being gender neutral was a thing.

Enjoy your animals!

My DD wore dinosaurs onesies as a baby as DH and I both love dinosaurs. At 3 she is also obsessed with zoo and animals. She's not girly in the slightest.