Calling my unborn baby they/them

[Irish24]

I am keeping the gender a surprise and the amount of people that are confused when I refer to the baby as they/them’ is starting to aggravate me. I don’t like referring to them as ‘it’ or just ‘baby’. They/them is a word and has been going around for centuries. It also is a singular pronoun and does not always mean multiple. My friends say they can’t get their head around it. I don’t understand. I know they/them is a controversial topic these days and more people are perhaps finding out the gender. I still don’t find it confusing at all and it never even occurred to me that it would be. Anyone else experienced this or am I being over dramatic here? It’s just tiresome having to constantly explain to people, I don’t know the gender so that’s why I’m calling the baby ‘them/they’

I'm not sure if these posts are joking now. Loads of baby clothes are available in cream/white/yellow type colours, loads of toys like Sophie the Giraffe are "neutral", stuff for the nursery like gro clocks or thermometers or mobiles. Blankets. So much choice. Or; they waited till the baby was born and went shopping then.

Totally wrong. See here from the OED: https://www.oed.com/discover/a-brief-history-of-singular-they?tl=true

And no, you do not use the third person singular when using it as a singular pronoun (which people regularly do). It retains its usual verb form. I posted a perfectly normal and standard example of this upthread.

'If your child is going on the trip next week, they should hand in their slip by Wednesday. '

The latter.

Yeah, but that's new. I mean, there's precedent. 'You' used to be only plural, but now serves as both plural and singular. But I don't think that 'they' has become that established as singular yet.
You should read the thread. Singular ‘they’ has been in use since at least the 14th century 😊

Whoa lots of assumptions in that post.

Buying baby gifts without knowing the sex isn’t rocket science. If clothes, clothes come in more colours than pink or blue, and a girl will not combust in blue nor a boy in blue.

In fact I can’t think of a single gift I’ve ever bought for a baby that was contingent on knowing the sex. Aside from which don’t most people buy baby gifts after the baby is born, so anyone bizarrely insisting on a gendered gift can simply wait…

That’s just not true.

Lots of posters have posted facts about this - singular form of they in use since at least the 1300s.

Do you seriously think saying ‘someone lost their umbrella, I hope they don’t get wet’ is some sort of new formulation? That it would have sounded alien 20 or 30 years ago?

I called mine ‘the bump’

I had HG so called mine "the spawn". Or occasionally "the parasite".

It isn’t new!!!! As a singular it’s been in use since the 14th century as has been pointed out repeatedly. It does look like people are being deliberately obtuse now.

That’s a pretty ridiculous statement. Plenty of young people have great imagination, plenty of old people don’t. Imagination isn’t age related.

Because people have this wonderful thing called an imagination where not everything has to be gender specific like pink or blue. There are other colours in the world that both men and women wear. Though who really cares anyway

That's was the point of ops thread. Her friends wants to know the sex.

I think some people just use that as an excuse because they want to know the gender themselves. People can’t seem to handle not knowing which is fine but there are plenty of things you can buy a baby in general that isn’t gender specific I.e nappies, wipes, blankets?

Why quote me?

Sorry wrong post

Yes if you say so I however will keep my opinion.

That's the point of the thread ops friends wants to know the sex so it's easier for them.

The ops friends want to know if she is carrying a girl or boy it's as basic as that.

The ops friends wants to know the sex that's the point of the thread. They don't want to hear they/them or whatever they want to hear she or he.

You could look at in one way you are lucky to have close friends who are excited with you but it must be annoying for you. Happy mother's day.

Tough shit, they’re going to have to wait.

Well that went right over your head.

Sex not gender

And that in a nutshell, is the whole point of the thread. OP is complaining that they all think she is having multiple babies. But she brought it on herself 🤷🏻‍♀️

Rubbish. Their lives are in no way impacted by knowing or not knowing the sex of OP’s baby.

They don’t need to buy gendered gifts. At all.

The only way in which she brought it on herself is by having friends who are deliberately obtuse about a correct and common usage of English.