Nothing will change while parents are so sexist

[12Thorns]

Just in the last half hour on MN I’ve read posts from a pregnant mother wanting to know if her ‘gender scan’ is likely to be correct before she goes shopping for her newborn, and a mother arguing 7 boys should be allowed to play football at break times when they are excluding a boy with ADHD, and not half a thought for the girls being not only excluded from the game, but also from the space the game is played in, and we all know football takes up most of the playing space available

what hope is there for any sort of equality when such attitudes are so deeply ingrained and passed on to babies and children?

As a medical professional involved in mental health I can assure you most of our patients are getting out help for reasons other than being males dressed in blue (or pink) or females who were forced to play with dolls. If only!

@RancidOldHag - though it’s not like sexism was better in earlier 20th century than now - even if they had gender neutral baby clothes.

Nothing wrong with putting little boys in smocks when still in nappies - look at how the Royal family put little boys in dresses or very loose shorts. Those are the convenience clothes up until the post-war period. Unisex and capable of being handed on, and worn by both sexes until out of nappies.

You've nailed it. It's a clever marketing ploy, meaning that if you have children of both sexes you have to start again from scratch. Different sexes apparently require different provisions from clothing to toys - boys with bright primary colours and girls with sugared almond hues - thus parents end up spending double. Shame it didn't work out for Toys R Us and Mothercare, but that's likely a separate issue of internet shopping killing the high street.

Mine always wore white as babies: easier to wash on high temperatures!