To dress my baby boy in pink

[rockinrobins]

I have a 7 month old son. The other day I put him in a pink outfit and shared a couple of photos. It's not a massively 'girly' outfit really - not a dress or frilly - it's just pink. It has other colours on it too but pink is the main colour.

It's not a handmedown from a girl relative - I bought it new for him because I like it and it suits him.

The photos weren't specifically to show off the outfit, they were just pics I shared because he was doing something cute.

My son's grandad (who is in his 60's) has reacted strangely to this. Not argumentative but just a sort of 'hmm, that's a bit unusual isn't it?' raised eyebrow reaction. Kind of quietly making it clear that he doesn't approve without outwardly saying it.

There's a lot of toxic masculinity in my family and tbh I do get sick of it and I don't want my son caught up in it. For example, when male members of my family see one another they do this weird macho handshake where they squeeze each other's hands really hard. I hate it. They have done it to every boyfriend I've brought home and they do it to my husband too - I can't stop them.

AIBU to just quietly assert that my son can have a softer side?

I don't want it to cause arguments or impact my son's standing in our family. But the truth is pink suits him and I like the outfit. He also has plenty of clothes in blue, green, red, neutrals etc - in fact this is his only pink outfit. Honestly I think it's all silly but AIBU?

My DS is 27. He was always so cold at night as a baby so I bought him a fleecy pink sleeping bag thing. Then his younger brother had it in time. I thought it was adorable! And wow, they both slept so well.

It’s fine. I know plenty of people who dress their boys in pink. As long as you can cope with people assuming he’s a girl. We had people assuming our puppy was a boy because she had a blue collar FFS.

Rock that pink on your beautiful baby boy OP! Buy him dolls, play kitchens and a dolls' house and give a mighty two fingers up to that toxic masculinity. At best it's ridiculous and at worst it speaks to deeper bigotry, such as homophobia, sexism and misogyny which have no place in raising good, happy children. Granddad can bloody jog on!

Absolutely nothing fundamentally wrong in it - pink is just a colour

BUT - we live in a society where it will be commented on and others will make assumptions… it is just totally ingrained in many that ‘pink is for girls’

If you like it - you do you and just ignore the comments .

Both my boys wore pink! Did them no harm

All this just because he raised his eyebrow and said 'hmm that's a bit unusual'? 😳

You know YANBU

We know YANBU

And if you've ever read the 100s of threads on MN about boys wearing pink, you'll know the majority will pretty much say YANBU.

Don't pay his mildly surprised reaction another thought.

You aren't doing anything wrong. Colours do not have a sex. Or toys for that matter.

If everyone dressed/presented/acted/enjoyed what they wanted without having to worry about gender roles, the whole trans thing wouldn't be as big as it is currently!

The Victorians dressed boy babies in pink and girls in blue. They saw pink as the strong colour and blue as the feminine colour. Tell grandad he needs a history lesson. Even better, ignore him.

My DD was constantly being called a boy, even by total strangers, and even when she was in a dress, because she had lots of navy blue clothes and was bald. It's annoying.

Well my third baby. A boy is wearing a mix of, penguin rose and blade leggings, baby pink vest, zebra top and a fluffy pink baby pram suit. What ever is clean 😁. My eldest loved his pram and dolly and dotes on his sister and brother.

I had BG twins and a toddler. No way I was going to pay much attention to who ended up in what sleep suit or hat!
Anyway pink is pretty normal for men now.

I think youve got more to worry about than the reaction to him wearing pink... like what happens when he can hear what these people speak? When he can repeat and enact what they show him?

It's fine. It's just a colour. Anyone who think a certain colour signifies a certain level of testosterone is an idiot. Ignore.

YANBU if you needed something in a pinch and what did the job happened to be pink. Interim is fine.

My DGS often chose to
wear his sister’s hand me down dresses and hair bands when he was a toddler. It was not well received by older male members of the family. He is now a football loving 8 year old, and none the worse for his earlier choices!

You know YANBU. Ignore. These dinosaurs will die out.

Go for it OP. My boys both wore plenty of pink and at 6 it’s one of their fave colour still to this day. He has a pink fleece he’s obsessed with. It’s a colour!

People will probably assume he’s a girl but that’s just due to social norms. Most babies are pretty unisex in appearance so parents like to signal their sex by dressing them in pink (female) or blue (male). If that bothers you then you can just explain he’s a boy, no big deal either way.

I had my toddler in a red parka type coat in a red buggy and some older gentleman whom we don’t know advised me I made him look like a girl.

My DS wore pink as a baby and a toddler: I'd still buy him a pink t-shirt today! My DD wore his old clothes and I still often get boys stuff for her as she likes hoodies, like her big brother.

The best response to comments like your relatives are: "Unusual? Can you explain why?" Make them say the quiet bit out loud and then look surprised and say, "thought we left those ideas behind with horse drawn carriages, Dave!" and move on.

AIBU to just quietly assert that my son can have a softer side?

He's a baby! He's barely come to terms with being out of the womb and discovering that he has hands! He can wear literally anything -- DS spent half his first few months in floral handmedown babygros from one of my former students!

The toxic masculinity in the family your son will grow up in is a much more serious issue, and you should do absolutely anything necessary to protect him from it as he grows.

Well you won't be making sure your son has a 'soft side' just by dressing him in pink. It's just clothes and he's too young to choose his own. Others will assume he's a girl though.

Once he's old enough to start caring about that then you shouldn't make him wear pink if he doesn't like having to explain what sex he is the whole time.

But for now it's totally fine to dress him in what you like as long as it's comfortable and fits.

I used to put my toddler son in tights because he wouldn't keep his socks on and he wore every colour.

There is nothing wrong with children and babies wearing any clothes that their parent's / they choose.

When I was young (in the 70s) every child of either sex seemed to be dressed in brown or orange,

This nonsense of pink = girls and blue = boys is a relatively new thing. It's not at all progressive.

My 3 boys wore pink and are all raging homosexuals as a result 😭.
Learn from my terrible mistakes.

I forgot to mention.I let one of them push a toy buggy for a bit and now he is a really good father. Its really dangerous.