Just say no to pink?

[Mollusk]

We've decided to find out the gender of our Feb 2013 baby - but I really want to avoid gender-stereotyped gifts. My mother and sister are big fans of the pink/glittery/princess oeuvre that my feminist instincts can't deal with - but if it's a girl, is it rude to say "We will be grateful for any gift, but please no pink?" Anyone else been in this situation?

I love pink, I wasn't a very girly girl when I was younger. But I do love pink now.

I have got quite a bit of pink stuff as after 2 boys it is a bit exciting. But I wish I could find some nice bright colours. The Polarn O. Pyret stuff is great but it's expensive. £14 for 1 vest is a bit much when you can get about 14 in Asda for the same price.

yes its rude! they're gifts! use the pink babygros at night if you don't like them! One bout of voming or teething poo and you're glad of ANY spare baby clothes you can get your hands on!

or take a photo of DD in the pink frills, send photo to rellies who sent it so they've seen her in it, then sell it and buy other stuff

but it is rude to demand certain gifts, people get such joy out of baby shopping!

I hate pink too (don't own anything pink it's so not me!) but I wouldn't dream of doing this!

BTW its not hard to get lovely non pink girls stuff! H&m and primark has tonnes!

I have five girls and loathe pink. This is how of solved the problem:

1. accept graciously.
2. write thank you note
3. take of baby in pink frilly horror.
4. give to donor.
5. re gift or ebay

Are they all betrothed yet silent?
I have four lovely boys with good prospects

We did!! Well, tactfully of course. We found out at 20 wk scan and told family/friends. Just through conversations we were saying things like 'we just bought the loveliest set of onesie's...all bright, bold colours. We're really not into all that girl is pink, boy is blue stuff or any frilly, pastelly things. This LO is going to be in lots of lovely bright colours' etc etc. You could also just be direct and say 'please no frills!' that being said, we did get quite a bit of baby pink stuff and DD looked gorgeous in it. No frills though. Just no!

I also vetoed any Disney or Winnie the Pooh crap! Hate it!

I just kept sayin how much i dont like pink n that there are other colours. Hopefully people will take the hint! Haha

Hear hear to the disney crap. puke.

an example of next

so, not only do you have to search under "girl baby" "boy baby", but the front page of girl baby is awash with hideous pink crap - there's no variety!!

here
every chance of being neutral (because everyone looks good in red and hearts), but no! the binding and piping has to be pink.

oooh! but this can be netural

I like these hippos

I was very clear to my family/in laws on my/our views about it. It's not harmless, it's pre-determining and limiting. Girls are only pretty in pink, boys need clothes to romp around in because they're so active. It's not just about pink for girls but the way boys clothes have messages on them like Little Rock Star or Little Trucker (what, only boys can be rock stars or truckers?) or other sex-assigned messages like Little Monster - what, so girls are all sweetness and light are they? I particularly dislike the Daddy's Little Princess motifs!

It really irritates me and I couldn't give a damn if my baby is mistaken for a boy or girl - because I am not going to colour code them in that way. We don't know what we're having but I've made it clear, in very polite terms, but we would be very grateful for any presents!

Stripes, stars, spots, animals - especially animals! All lovely. You don't have to go far to find animals. My mum went a bit crazy and bought a whole range of white/yellow/green colour combination hooded towels, hats and snowsuits with animals on them and they all had ears

Sign me up for one of these! www.next.co.uk/x492886s7 (sorry, don't know how to do hyperlinks)

Sounds like my baby might be dressed similar to yours Bettybat, I agree with most everything you've said.

The one that annoys me most (because it hits my anti-violence buttons as well as sexism ones) is 'Mummy's Little Soldier' with little graphics of male soldiers. It's practically, 'boys don't cry' combined with 'girls don't grow up to be service women'.

Animals and colourful patterns all the way. Though my train-obsessed husband might sneek in some transport related clothes, he's at least with me on the gender-stereotypes, a little daughter will be encouraged to like trains too.

but not Thomas merchandising because its rubbish

Interestingly enough, I'm a huge fan of Disney movies (with appropriate critical commentary on sexism... ), but still will keep the merchandising down to the bare minimum, I think it just encourages ridiculous commercialisation, like disney character branded grapes, apples, nappies and yogurts

Just to say that you will laugh at yourselves in a couple of years, looking back on how obsessed you were then about avoiding pink I was even more militant than you sound, and am far more relaxed now. Particular bug bears of mine are vapid princessy role models, slogans on clothes, overt branding, and the fact that although people say you can avoid pink - well, yes you can if you shop expensively (and lawd knows I can do that - for beautiful children's clothes I'm afraid I'm rather addicted to Smallable, Elias & Grace, Caramel Baby & Child - they are often fiendishly expensive but do excellent sales which is when I buy most of the stuff for my twins. But if you nip into Sainsbury's, Next, M&S, etc - it's almost impossible to avoid buying pink - everything comes in pink sparkles and often the stuff that isn't pink is vile anyway. I quite like Polarn OP stuff but it's all a bit too BRIGHT for my liking... why can't we have subtle unisex stuff which isn't all screaming Scandi patterns?

I also said I wouldn't give a shit if people mistook my girls for boys. Bizarrely, I really DID care. (Although often old people thought they were boys even when they were wearing dresses.... )

I don't care when DD gets mistaken for a boy.
i used to get it myself - in fact, in pictures, i really did look like a boy as a baby.

she's got hardly any hair.

I say, it's a baby, it really doesn't matter!
and some people say "he" even when I've told them "she". (regardless of what she's wearing)

Yes, perhaps I'm talking more about them as they've got older. Even as 2 yr olds I still get one of mine being more taken as a boy than a girl - she's got short hair so of course must be a boy - and I have to say I feel quite indignant on her behalf

OP and any others who don't like pink what do you think of the clothes on my thread? If you'd like to reply on there I'd be grateful for your opinions :)

I thought your OP said they charge VAT on those clothes

Nappy, Im a bit meh about most of it. Though I really like the blue tights with the daisies on.

these are my favourite of all of DDs sleepsuits. I love them, especially the striped one. Will be sad when she oputgrows them.

Gnocchi they are AWESOME!

Gorgeous arent they MIL said "it's so hard to tell if DD is a boy or girl due to the fact that you dress her in boys clothes" to which I replied that "if putting a girl in something NOT pink makes other people think she's a boy then that's their problem, not mine! And do remember to check boy/girl next time you do her nappy if you've forgottten".

They are awesome Gnocchi... and apparently they do them up to size 2-3 years

Unfortunately, my rubbish laundry skills mean that I'm unlikely to be able to avoid pink. Last week an accident with a red tablecloth (apparently not colourfast) resulted in new pink clothes - for me, two pink vest tops and a bra, and my DH now has a new pink shirt and matching hankerchief... not to mention the slight pink tinge to a pair of jeans.

All those gorgeous neutral baby clothes are doomed!

I think the obsession for a baby not being mistaken for the opposite sex is a bit weird. Its like, if a girl is mistaken for a boy its a suggestion that she's not pretty and attractive, and if a boy is mistaken for a girl that he's somehow effeminate. Things which shouldn't really matter at all, but certainly not at that age.

My DH remembers that there is a photograph somewhere of him wearing a yellow dress as a baby. His mother had recieved it as a gift from someone who'd bought it before he was born. As far as she was concerned it was clothes! He's certainly not any less masculine because of it.

Yesterday we finallly got around to buying some clothes. They aren't brightly coloured (there wasn't much of that tbh) but they are mainly white with pale yellow and blue bits. Though as they were multi-packs there are some plain blue and white striped vests. I don't see anything wrong with a girl wearing them.

Gnocchi you just made me spend £25 in next! You should get commission