Does anyone else get irrationally irritated when...

[SoupDragon]

...people think your baby is the other gender to what they are?

Four times in the last week strangers have referred to my DD as 'he' or 'him'.

She wears pink sometimes, but I don't often dress her in a 'stereotypical' girly way. She's just as likely to be wearing blue, grey, green, yellow, red, white, purple, etc etc. There will usually be e.g a bit of crochet on the hem of her leggings, or a tiny satin bow at the neck of her t-shirt, but I don't do ruffles and frills really. She does wear dresses (though not often if we're going out somewhere where she'll be crawling, as they tend to impede her progress if not tucked into tights!), and there are flowers and hearts on some of her clothes, but for instance I don't ever put a headband on her, even though she's got a ton of hair. I'm not a fan of them personally, she doesn't need one to keep the hair out of her eyes, and she'd never keep one on anyway!

I'm probably not being fair, as it can sometimes be hard to tell with an under-1 whether they're male or female, I have trouble myself of course. And there are generally no clues from her buggy or sling, as both are pretty gender-neutral and she's only got a couple of 'girly' buggy blankets. We were so all her clothes were gender-neutral at first, and my Mum told me when she was newborn that the first time someone called her 'he', I'd run out and buy her something girly. I laughed at her when she said it, but I totally did it

It doesn't matter to me what a stranger thinks of my baby or the way I dress her, because I love her to bits and I think her wardrobe is a million times better than mine, but I do feel this irrational 'aaargh, she's clearly a girl, why do you think she's a boy?!'. I don't think it'd matter actually how I dressed her, as I've still had 'he' even when she's in a dress or wearing a good amount of pink

 

[confused87com]

My son got called a girl all the tint when tiny. He would be wearing blue jumpers. Dungarees etc. Some people are clueless! When I corrected people they just said he looked to pretty to be a boy. God They wouldn't say that now with
my mucky boy. It used to really annoy me to

 

[LoveCakes]

My LO is pretty baldy so she gets this a lot. It doesn't bother me I just find it confusing as though like you I'm not a big fan of ruffles or headbands she does wear dresses.

Most recently she was wearing a yellow cardigan in her lime green pram and a few people thought she was a boy. They blamed the pram.

I think a lot of people think not pink equals boy

 

[LoveMyBaby786]

I know the feeling. My dd was wearing a purple dress with tights in a bright pink and purple pram (mamas and papaz sola2 in delphic pink) and i STILL got asked what gender the baby was!

 

[Tattoo]

I put my girls in a lot of boys' clothes, just because I think they're funkier and more practical than clothes designed for girls. So mine are always being mistaken for boys. And it certainly doesn't help that my older daughter has a unisex name!

 

[kathryn06]

It drives me mad when this happens!! I bought the icandy peach in sweetpea when pregnant with my eldest Daughter, and people constantly ask me if I bought it because I thought I was having a boy. When I bought it because I loved the colours.
I do tend to dress my girls in girly clothes, mainly pinks and purples. So when people look in the pram and ask how old 'he' is, while she's wearing a pink baby grow with a pink cardie, while covered with a pink blanket I do have to stop myself from screaming lol.

 

[EcoMama]

I get this all the time, I dress my dd in her older brother's old clothes, but I think they're unisex as they never wear character or picture type clothes (such as tractors on tops) and I like earthy colours like orange, red, green, brown, yellow.I also like plain clothes or stripes and checks.

It's mad though, as my dd has one hat which has a small bit of pink on and automatically she's a girl, from this tiny spec of pink!

 

[MindUtopia]

I've just learned to take it in stride now. My daughter is nearly 2.5 and people still think she is a boy! We do wear a lot of relatively gender neutral ish clothes (as in not pink dresses...like a yellow shirt with a ladybug on it and blue leggings, not obviously boyish, but not pink dresses either). Admittedly, she's never had much hair and her hair is still short and curly and there's not much that can be done with it other than just letting it go wild, and I think people expect toddler girls to have long hair that's clearly cut or styled to look girlish. I look at her and I think obviously she looks like a girl. But short hair and not in pink dress = boy for a lot of people. I just correct them and roll on now, I've gotten so used to it.

 

[modified]

No.

I struggle telling whether a baby is a girl or a boy unless they're in very obviously gender biased clothing. Until a certain age, they all look the same in terms of gender to me.

My daughter has been called a boy when in a pink pram and pink outfit. Meh.

I dress my daughter in clothes from the boys section and her pram has a bright blue hood so it's a good thing I'm not bothered really! There are some days even I look at her and think "yep, I can see why they thought she was a boy."

 

[SoupDragon]

I'm glad it's not just me! I know it's totally irrational and I don't get worked up or annoyed about it, just a bit bemused. I mean, to me she is so obviously a little girl, but then I know she's a girl, lol.

An elderly gent asked me when she was 6 weeks old 'little boy?' - she was dressed in a pink knitted cardi and bonnet my Mum had made her, and she had a pink blanket in her pram I almost asked him if he was joking, but thought that would be rude I really don't know if he was joking or not, lol.

 

[ElizabethK_]

i know how you feel! the other day my DD was wearing a dress AND a bow on her head but still someone referred to her as he... I mean... ARE YOU BLIND??? Hahahaha

 

[cazi77]

Yes!!!
Here is my little 'boy' in a pink pushchair wearing a floral coat!! Seriously!!

 

[misspriss]

It's funny, DS was always assumed a girl, he had quite the angelic face and long curly hair, and wore an amber teething necklace, so I think that made him look "girly" to some people. So far DD has been called a boy by just about everyone who has seen her, but she is so new it's really hard to tell.

 

[EcoMama]

Haja cazi! Nothing like a boy!

 

[EcoMama]

This is my dd, who I think looks like a girl! But I'm not offended when people say he.

 

[Larkspur]

I had this with both my kids! More than 80 percent of people thought DS was a girl, and about the same amount think DD is a boy!

DS is a very 'pretty' boy though, with huge eyes and long hair, so I can see why he got it. DD is a little pixie, and I think she's very pretty, but she does wear a lot of gender-neutral clothes. I guess once her hair grows in properly, the mistakes will stop.

I think it's pretty easy to make mistakes, especially when a baby's clothing doesn't give obvious clues. It's not something I get very irritated about.

 

[staralfur]

My LO still gets this now at 3 since she has short and curly hair that sort of just sits like a mop on her head. There's also nothing girly about the way she carries herself at all, she's a bit of a tank, so unless she's dressed head-to-toe in pink people mistake her for a boy sometimes. Doesn't really bother me. She's old enough now that she can say "I'M A GIRL!!!!" to people who get it wrong which is pretty funny. When she was little I just corrected the person and that was that. One time there was an older gentleman that insisted on saying he/him even AFTER I had told him she was a girl and that was just kind humorous to me.

 

[UponAStar]

My 13 month old son gets mistaken for a girl all time. I usually don't mind if they are sweet comments -- "She's going to be such a heart breaker", "She's such a good helper", etc. He does have longer hair and wears an amber teething necklace sometimes so I can see how people can make a mistake at first glance. It seems like most people are just trying to be nice so I don't usually correct them. I just say "thanks" and move along.

I did get super irritated one time at a store though. The cashier had mistaken my son for a girl, I just went the usual route of saying thanks and trying to make my son wave hello. The cashier then asked his name. People usually get the hint that it is a boy then because he has a masculine name and it is no big deal. The cashier then made a face and was like "you named a GIRL that?!?!". It was just really rude because what if my baby really was a girl? Then I had to explain that my son was in fact a boy...which was obvious because he was wearing a blue onsie that said "Mommy's Little Man" on it.

 

[Bevziibubble]

It used to happen to my LO a lot as she has short hair but it never really bothered me. Sometimes I would think it was a bit weird if she was all in pink or something, but never mind. I felt worse for them as they always got embarrassed when I pointed out she wasn't a boy!

 

[bdb84]

The head full of dark hair that my DD has confuses most people. Truthfully? If she's not wearing any pink (or even if she is ), she can easily pass as a little boy. It doesn't irritate me.. it's an honest mistake. I do get quite the giggle, though, when she's wearing pink AND a head band and still is referred to as a boy.