Pink for a girl/blue for a boy

[Smowball]

A friend of mine has just given birth last week to a little baby boy. She already has 2 boys and 2 girls, so had kept all their old baby clothes. When I went to meet baby she she was wearing all blue - blue babygro,blue cardi and blue bonnet. She said that she is just using whatever baby clothes she has, but to look at you would swear she had had a boy. You wouldnt dress a baby boy in pink if you happened to have pink baby clothes in the house would you??

[woofgang]

why on earth not?

[Mamyalynne]

First sentence is a bit confusing...boy/girl?

But in answer to your last question - if money was really tight, then yes, why not! As long as baby is warm and clothed.

[ummmm]

Yeah, I would. I'm not fussy like that.

[Lie-in King]

Extract from QI -

The people who were traditionally dressed in pink and called girls were boys. Pink was considered the traditional colour for boys and blue for girls in the 19th century. In 1927, there was a report about Princess Astrid of Belgium who had decorated her son's room pink, only for her to give birth to a daughter. Part of the reason why blue may be seen as the traditional colour for girls is because the Virgin Mary is dressed in blue. Right until the mid-15th century, all children were referred to as girls, boys were called "knave girls" and girls were called "gay girls". The word "boy" originally meant "servant".

[EvianBaby]

I regularly dressed my nephews in dresses when they were babies. I'm just waiting for the best time to release the photo's for maximum impact.

[joggerjayne]

Maybe not a baby, but I love guys in pink.

[Smowball]

Well I didnt know that Lie-in King.

[Smowball]

Agree JJ, boys shirts in pink look nice, but baby boy in a pink babygro just seems a bit funny

[rockyracoon]

If I was only indoors I probably would but if going out definitely not, my poor daughter was bald til she was two, anything other than pinks had people saying what a bonny boy!

[rockyracoon]

I've just noticed the word bonnet, do people still put these on babies?

[joggerjayne]

Yes, guys need to look like guys before they can wear pink.

Most babies look a bit unisex.

[bednobs]

bbay clothes are so blooming expensive - everyone always calls phoebe a boy and "he" cause she doesn't have much pink. (in fairness she doesn't have much blue either, things are bright colours and she has a lot of stripes

[Smowball]

Well this baby definitely had what I would call a bonnet.

[joggerjayne]

Wasn't he a bit hot in a cardi and a bonnet?

[ummmm]

It's not just the fact that the clothes are expensive. Sometimes it felt like by the time an item had got through the wash they no longer fitted.

[bednobs]

ps i think it's easier for girls to wear whatever colours they want thatn it is for boys.
PPS as mamya says in your first line you say it's a boy, then you say "she"

[bednobs]

ah umm, have just been selling Phoebe's stuff on ebay - was able to truthfully say "never worn" about a lot of it!

[EvianBaby]

Actually, I just thought. When my brother and SIL were expecting their second they were told at the scan it was a boy so they just decided to re-use all the clothes their son had. When the baby came out without a winker I'm pretty sure they just dressed her in the same clothes still, aside from the ones people bought for her, because it would have been such a waste of money to go an buy new ones that wouldn't fit in a few weeks.

[Smowball]

Lol, just noticed my gaffe in the opening Q _ it is defintiely a baby girl!

[NOX]

It's a baby as long as it's clean warm happy and hugged it wont care what colour it's dressed in and I think it's a bit weird to attribute a sexual identity to a baby. My one daughter is a real Tom Boy the other is all pretty dressses and dolls, likewise my lads are a really broad spectrum from really blokey to a bit mincey-and we dressed em all in whatever was to hand, so can't see it makes any difference tbh.