Arrrghh! Embarrassed.....

[Lethal]

I was chatting to a mother (who I know) in the playground yesterday and her toddler started having a tantrum. I said jokingly to her, "How old is he? Two?" She was quiet for a moment and then said "20 months" and we spoke for a couple of minutes about how difficult kids can be at that age.

Anyway a few minutes later I was talking to someone else, and I heard her call her child by a girl's name... then realised that I had referred to her daughter as "he". I felt really embarrassed for assuming it was a boy, but she looked quite masculine and was dressed in jeans and a shirt - now the mother probably thinks her little girl looks like a boy

Has anyone else put their foot in it with similar comments? I remember someone thinking that my son was a girl when he was about 18 months old (even though he had short hair and was dressed in overalls and boots), & I wasn't very impressed that they couldn't see he was a boy. Sigh.... I hope she's not insulted.

I just had someone call my 9 mo old son a girl today. He has quite long hair as we are waiting for grandma to get better so she can cut it. He is very "pretty" with long eylashes. It just made me laugh, I think quite a few kids look pretty generic for their first few years of life.

My DD2, aged 2, looks like a boy when she is wearing jeans and t-shirt. On monday it was very warm here and she was wearing a pair of black and white striped shorts and a vest top and she looked like a boy (suppose it doesn't help that she has short hair ) and even my sister said she looked like a boy lol, to be honest, I just laugh it off, she is my third child and people make mistakes......

DS3 was frequently mistaken for a girl until I finally took the plunge and had all his long blond curls cut off. I was often confused when people would start referring to my "daughter" as I only do boys. I was never insulted, but it might have been different if I thought I had a very pretty girl that people mistook for a boy.

When my ds was a baby so many people used to say (as they do) "he's so cute a real little lad". I so wanted to dress him in a little frock and see how many people would say "Isn't she lovely" DH wouldn't let me

I'm frequently confused, although sometimes checking out socks/shoes can help.

DD is VERY into defining by gender and managed to ask very loudly in a shoe shop "why has that boy got girl's hair?" Cringe!!

When my daughter was about 8 months, sitting in the trolley at sainsburys, an old man came up and said "Cor, he's a big'un - play rugby for England with them knees!" She was going through a rather beefy stage - but was wearing rosebud printed pink bloomers! I just thought it was funny.

When I was about 10 I helped a lady pick up her shopping which she had dropped in the road. She said thank you sonny! I felt like grabbing her bag back and chucking her stuff on the floor again!
But at 20 months it's much more understandable. People were always thinking dd was a boy as she was bald for quite a long time, even when she was all dressed in pink

Absolutely I get this a lot as I don't really dress dd in a very girly way most of the time, and she has short hair.

I just ignore it and it doesn't upset me. Sometimes it does make me think that people must be blind and/or bonkers - for eg met woman the other day who was admiring my dog and dd - she said "oh aren't they a handsome pair of boys!" I pointed out that they were both girls (and dd was wearing a pink dress and pink shoes) but she continued to call them "he". Sigh

I've been called "sir" multiple times. People are humiliated when they look again -- at 38DDD I'm
not very boyish! But I'm a low alto and usually they didn't really look at me.

Everyone always thinks DS, 2, is a girl...he has a mop of dark curly locks and I just can't bear to cut them off! I'm never offended, it's not easy at that age. And I'm sure the other mother isn't, either, Lethal!

My DD is often mistaken for a boy and i dont even correct them anymore. Dont worry it has prob happened to her before