It's a she but I don't like pink!

 

I bumped into a former work colleague as I was walking home from a city lunch this week. The usual kiss kiss 'hey! long time no see!' bladibla was completed by a polite ‘and you're a mother now, incredible' bladibla... as well as - a classic when people want to ask something nice about your baby - 'and how is HE called?'

 

I nearly choked. 'It's a she but I don't like pink!' is all I managed to answer.

 

Granted, it IS difficult to distinguish a boy from a girl at those small ages - I barely can - what annoyed me the most is that my former colleague just assumed that Baby Lifestylette was a boy because well, yes, she was wearing a blue jacket and a pair of jeans with a raspberryish colored jumper.

 

I just don't understand why little girls HAVE to wear pink.

I never liked to wear pink as a child.

In fact with my best friend at the time, we used to nickname girls at school who only wore pink and we considered 'too girlish', the 'pinkie girls'.. Haha...we were the cool ones who wanted to wear not only 'party frocks' but also jeans and run in the woods and never mind if they got ripped and dirty.

 

Now after some years (!) have passed, I have come to appreciate pink from soft pastel pink to flashy fuchsia pink matched with all sorts of other colors, with all sorts of accessories and for all sorts of occasions.

 

But as I was expecting Baby Lifestylette, I still gave clear instructions to our family and closest friends to please don't get us anything in pink.

 

Did I get criticised for this? Oh, yes! A lot. In front of and behind my back.

 

And did we get a whole amount of pink clothes and toys? Oh, yes! But probably by far less than it would have been, thanks to my clear instructions (my view) or being a pain (everyone else's view).

 

There are so many other colors that a baby can wear, why only narrow down to one?

 

Plus I hate going along with the flow.

 

Anyways, who decided that little girls should wear pink?

 

Not so long ago, babies all wore white for a fact. Another fun fact: at the beginning of the 20th century, pink was the color for boys, it being considered stronger than delicate blue (thus the color for girls). Somehow the girls-should-wear-pink phenomenon appeared in the second half of the 20th century and out of nowhere. However as mass production & marketing were flourishing at the time, the trend stuck until today.

 

But today, as mass production & gender-neutral baby fashion are flourishing, I am so happy to have an overchoice in colors and stores for Baby Lifestylette that I certainly will not stick just to one color and make a 'pinkie girl' out of her.

 

And for those of you who want to be polite to your colleagues, just ask nicely first if it's a she or a he if you are not 100% sure. It won't hurt anyone's feelings but it sure will be a nice change for parents like myself.