Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To throw away pink things?

483 replies

JustAnotherBadMother · 24/03/2022 15:14

I have DDs aged 15 mo and 1 mo. I hate pink. I hate the way so much girls stuff is pink. I mostly buy them boys things, although I've no problem with dresses and dolls (which I do buy), providing they are not pink. My SIL is the opposite of me in just about everything. She is very OTT in quantity of presents which I find overbearing, and makes me feel bad, and her tastes are the opposite of mine. She buys masses of stuff for my daughters (which I do not need or want), and the vast majority of it makes me want to vomit. It's almost all really expensive (JoJo, Boden, etc), whereas my stuff is almost all a mixture of freecycle and Primark, partly because of money, but tbh personal taste probably plays a bigger role. My mother recently bought some things for my DDs and they were really heavily biased towards pink. She noted herself regretfully that they were overall a bit pink, and commented on how one dress was largely pink but had other colours, when it was 90% pink. My SIL bought an expensive jacket for DD1 a few weeks ago (JoJo, obvs), and said although it was pink she thought I'd still like it.
I don't know why they do it, because they know I absolutely hate pink stuff and it won't be worn. For more than a year all this pink crap has simply been in the cupboard and literally not worn at all.
Today I was just feeling miserable and put a lot of the pink stuff in a bag (inc the new dress my DM bought a couple of weeks ago) and put it all in a public bin. I felt guilty for a few hours and went out to try and find the bag (just to put in the attic, not use), but the bins had been emptied. I think I'm glad about this, but just can't stop thinking about it and feeling miserable about the whole situation.
Why do my DM and SIL do this? If it really was very very occasional and pink was just one of 100 colours I wouldn't care. But it's not. Almost everything my SIL buys is pink pink pink, and a fair chunk of what my DM buys is pink too. I'm fine with pretty dresses which they like buying, but just draw the line at pink.
(NB I would normally give it to charity - I've got masses off freecycle myself - but I have issues with pink and poorer girls been limited by it. That's why not. Plus I'm cross with my SIL and DM for buying all this pink shit when they knew I hate it and it won't be used, and somehow this seemed more appropriate. If they ever find out there'll be more pissed off, which is what I want bc I'm getting upset about all of this. It feels like they are criticising my values and my abilities as a mother.)

OP posts:
SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 25/03/2022 17:29

[quote RedWingBoots]@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius the one month old doesn't get a say as she won't give a shit.

Once the 15 month can say what colours are - and this can be as early as 2 - then she should have some choice.

Hence I have lots of red clothes and other items....[/quote]
I agree, @RedWingBoots - sadly my mum was not as wise as you, and I was entirely pink-deprived until I left home and could make my own choices.

Everything in moderation is my motto.

SquirrelG · 25/03/2022 19:36

Oh how wonderful to have the privilege to throw brand new clothes away, because you support not dressing your daughters in pink, but yet you are happy to pay for cheaply made, mass produced clothing, probably made by some poor kid in a factory somewhere. Sold in this country by staff on minimum wage. All I can think is how tediously hypocritical.

Well said.

HELLITHURT · 25/03/2022 19:37

@SquirrelG

Oh how wonderful to have the privilege to throw brand new clothes away, because you support not dressing your daughters in pink, but yet you are happy to pay for cheaply made, mass produced clothing, probably made by some poor kid in a factory somewhere. Sold in this country by staff on minimum wage. All I can think is how tediously hypocritical.

Well said.

100% give your head a massive shake OP!
tkwal · 26/03/2022 21:10

MarshmallowSwede

Wearing pink doesn’t stop a girl from climbing a tree.

This is so true. At my daughters wedding I went to round up the flower girls. 1 was attempting to stand on 1 foot on the back of a stone lion. The other 3 were climbing up treetrunks because the pageboy s had thrown their flower wands up into the lower branches. They were in their gorgeous dresses ( pink taffeta overlaid with cream lace) and when they came down not one of them had a mark on them

Bagadverts · 26/03/2022 21:38

If these are brand new designer clothes then there might be less chance of them being worn by a poorer child if they go to a charity shop. Quite a few shops can be pretty expensive, though much less than the original price. idea being to raise money rather than necessarily for clothes forpoor people. You see a lot of posters here and other forums proud of the designer stuff they have bought or that they are fashion conscious bugg the only shop in charity shops.

liveforsummer · 27/03/2022 12:05

A friend of mine volunteers in a charity shop (well known charity) in a posh area. They keep all the posh designer stuff and send the primark etc to the branches in the less nice areas. I was shocked tbh but apparently common practice

CharityShopChic · 27/03/2022 12:22

@liveforsummer

A friend of mine volunteers in a charity shop (well known charity) in a posh area. They keep all the posh designer stuff and send the primark etc to the branches in the less nice areas. I was shocked tbh but apparently common practice
I'm a charity shop volunteer (well known charity) and we don't do this. We sell anything and everything which comes in the door. We don't have the space to store up loads of stuff we're not going to sell, and it costs money to move stock around. Especially stock from places like Primark which isn't going to earn much money at the other end.

To be honest we very rarely even bother selling Primark/Boohoo/Pretty Little Thing etc. It has to be either brand new with tags, or IMMACULATE. And more expensive things like dresses, coats. Used Primark jumpers, jogging bottoms, t-shirts, blouses - straight int the recycling.

RandomMess · 27/03/2022 12:35

Regardless on what anyone else thinks about you not wanting the DC to have anything pink they are being utterly RUDE to deliberately buy things you have specifically asked them not to.

It's not like they found a designer super practical coat as a bargain 2nd hand in immaculate condition but it happened to be pink and handed it over saying "pass it on if you prefer but it was too fantastic to not buy".

New posts on this thread. Refresh page