Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

if I think buying my son a toy pushchair with pink flowers on it won't damage him for life/make him gay/etc etc

74 replies

bohemianbint · 26/05/2008 11:44

He really loves the one at playgroup so I bought him one. It's his best thing ever, it encourages him to walk more (as opposed to making big pregnant me carry him) and he loves pushing his toys around in it. Only thing is they're all bloody pink everywhere you look.

Men push pushchairs. DS may grow up to be a father and push his own child around. So why do they only make them for girls, and why are my family making such a song and dance about it FFS?

OP posts:
Original poster
bohemianbint · 26/05/2008 12:36

Eddas, nothing wrong with it per se (I have the odd bright pink moment myself!) but I'm not going to insist every item she ever wears is pink from the second she's born - in fact, she'll probably end up wearing some of DS's cast offs anyway...(Which will no doubt make her a lesbian. )

OP posts:
Dolorescat · 26/05/2008 12:36

My brother wore my nighties and played with my dolls when he was little. Now he is built like an action man and plays with guns in Iraq (unfortunately). Doesn't mean anything.

edam · 26/05/2008 12:48

My ds had a pink pushchair. Was the only colour we could find. Dh didn't want to buy it but my sister was with him and told him not to be so bloody silly!

Ds is not quite five so who knows whether he will grow up to be terribly manly, or gay, or whatever, but I doubt very much that the colour of the pushchair will have anything to do with it!

Eddas · 26/05/2008 12:52

lol bb honestly, how could you make your son play with pink stuff and ,possibly, have a girl in blue

scotsgirl · 26/05/2008 17:50

I got my DS one (pink - all I could find at the time) when he was 1. He's now 6, still has it, and won't let me give it away because his girl friends play with it when they come over (and he still joins in!). He is also into cars, trains, football, cycling, climbing, and all sorts of typical boy stuff, like finding the words bum and boob hilarious!

NotABanana · 26/05/2008 17:51

You can get blue buggies too. I wouldn't have a problem with my child pushing anything pink.

BreeVanDerCampLGJ · 26/05/2008 17:58

My DS had a pink sippy cup and when he is really tired, it comes out again. (He is 7 today)

We also bought on a SeaFrance Ferry, a pink cup with a straw going around the outside of it.

To him they are only colours.

Takver · 26/05/2008 18:11

LoL Dolorescat - I was thinking the same as you. My best friends brother always wanted girls clothes and frilly things as a child - now he also is out in Iraq being macho.
Perhaps he got it all out of his system too much? And does that mean that if we made all of our DCs play with toy guns and nothing else that they would all grow up to be Quakers?

RaspberrySheep · 26/05/2008 18:49

DS has a doll which I bought for him when he was 3.5. At the time I asked the nursery manager what she thought about getting him one. She said that the children were able to play with anything at nursery and that it was perfectly natural for boys to choose to play with dolls. She said that problems can arise when boys aren't allowed to play with dolls and their feelings are suppressed until they get older.
Personally it wouldn't bother me at all if DS was gay, however dolly has since had her hair matted and is consigned to the bottom of the toy box and DS is growing up to be a caring little boy!

mumeeee · 26/05/2008 23:00

YANBU. All my nephews had pushchairs and dolls when they were little and they are fine.

ChirpyGirl · 26/05/2008 23:04

DD1's best mate (a boy, shock horror) has a blue pushchair and DD has a pink one, no reason other than when they had the same colour they fought like banshees over them.
They look like a little old married couple in the park
'Ooh, is you teddy okay?'
'Needs a snack, is you teddy okay, oh is sleeping, ssshhh'

Nothing wrong with it!
'

blithedance · 26/05/2008 23:06

Stick with it! What utter drivel.

DS has acquired an old Barbie trolley case - it's from the pre-pink era and is turquoise/purple with just a pink zip and bit of trim and tiny logo. He looooves it and uses it for swimming every week. DH suddenly came over all neanderthal and "no sone of mine..." but I'm having none of it. WTF does it matter!

The colour stereotyping of toys drives me mad. What if you have boys and girls in your family - are you meant to throw everything away and start again?

TinkerbellesMum · 26/05/2008 23:16

Carry on! I think it's great today that we can encourage children from when they're young that we don't need to stick to stupid steroptypes. Tink loves to play with her cousins cars, but she does sort out the pink ones or ones that have pink on them!

Bucharest, I don't think she was saying it will, I read that she has been told things like that and was asking people for their opinions and listing opinions she's already heard.

findtheriver · 26/05/2008 23:22

Can hardly believe this thread! Why on earth wouldn't you buy something for your ds just because it's pink!! I think the OP answers her own question: 'Why do people carry on this ridiculous stereotying?' .....er , because people like you start threads like this?

GreebosWhiskers · 26/05/2008 23:28

Last week at toddlers 18 month old ds & his pal (also a boy & the same age) played with the kitchen while all the girls got stuck into the messy table - ds made dinner while his pal held the baby. The week before they spent the whole session taking their babies for a walk in matching pink buggies

ds has also been known to wear his 3 year old sister's tutu & tiara while she wears her fairy wings - they hold hands & skip around the room.

berolina · 26/05/2008 23:39

ds1 has a pushchair and a doll's sling (they are both blue, more by accident than design), a beautiful wooden toy oven and various pots and pans, a baby doll, a train set, trucks and fire engines. Despite being at kindergarten, the whole gender stereotyping thing has completely passed him by thus far. Long may it last.

We bought the pushchair while out with PIL and MIL was horrified - actually slightly panicky.

RosaLuxembourg · 27/05/2008 00:16

How many gay men do you know who have pushchairs?
I find this whole thing completely bemusing. Imagine my surprise when my apparently sane and rational brother wouldn't let me give my nephew a doll one Christmas, even though he loved my DDs' dolls and always wanted to play with them when he got the chance.
(I gave it to him anyway.)

wrinklytum · 27/05/2008 00:18

ds loves playing with his sisters dolls and pram They have a pushchair each to prevent arguements

bluewolf · 27/05/2008 00:21

fennel -I absolutely agree - what is the problem if son is gay? You can't MAKE anyone gay anyway!!!! But garenteed confusion if someone stops a kid doing something it loves for no reason...angrily...

chunkychips · 27/05/2008 00:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

bluewolf · 27/05/2008 00:40

because obviously its so gay to care about babies

colacubes · 27/05/2008 01:00

My ds is 12 now but he loved his little pram with teddies on it, pushed his teddy everywhere, and he is not affected in anyway, he is a perfectly adjusted boy, in the rugby team and everything, and his granny still has the pram in the garage, uses it for when others come to play!! I see him looking at it sometimes with a little wry smile!!

No worries, if it makes him happy so what, my dd whos 2,2 yrs loves her steering wheel, runs around saying brum brum!!

TinkerbellesMum · 27/05/2008 08:43

I think a lot of people aren't reading the question properly:

Am I being unreasonable if I think buying my son a toy pushchair with pink flowers on it won't damage him for life/make him gay/etc etc

The OP thinks there is nothing wrong with buying a pushchair for her son but has obviously had a lot of negative comments about it and wants to know if we agree with her.

Why are people putting her down? She never said she thinks it will make him gay or that she has a problem with him being gay. I do wish people would read questions properly before they start having a go at people.

saltire · 27/05/2008 08:54

YANBU. DS2 had a pram. Well admitedly it was a second hand one I picked up for childminding, but he loved it, took "baby" everywhere. MIL and my mum were horrifed, DH and I couldn't have cared less.

findtheriver · 27/05/2008 09:14

Tink - to even think about posting such a bizarre AIBU shows that the OP has reservations about it! That's what so many of us find astonishing!