So Baby Boy is Supposed to Wear Blue?

Posted in Mama on a rant, Material Baby, Pregnancy by

When I was carrying this little bumblebee in my belly, me and my husband chose not to know if we’re expecting a boy or a girl. I am a bit old fashioned in these things – if God wanted us to know, He’d give us x-ray vision, you’d hear me saying.
“But how will you decorate the baby room?” I’d hear EVERY SINGLE TIME when people asked for the gender of the unborn baby. Well, first, this baby will not have a room (about that later:), second – I honestly failed to see a problem there… until I was a guest at a joined baby shower for two friends, who were carrying a month ahead of me. Nothing was gender neutral except for some books and toys. It seemed that every gift either had “Daddy’s little princess” smeared all over it or it had to have trucks and screwdrivers (one friend was expecting a girl, the other a boy).

I never noticed a ‘problem’ like this in Europe. Things are changing, of course, thanks to imported things that are popular in the USA, but in general, finding colourful and gender neutral clothes and decorations is not a problem. Nor it is a problem in India (my husband’s home country) – a country where any guy can pull off a pink dress shirt.

I think the big sellers and department stores are screwing with us, people. It’s like bad pharma, but in baby clothes and toys – good marketing is making victim of a nation.

And then there was my baby shower. You’ve never seen that many yellow onesies! I love yellow colour, it’s actually my (second;) favourite. But on everything, seriously? So boys have to wear blue and girls pink? And poor babies of granola parents like us have to put up with tons of yellow and green? Are there only 4 colours in this world?

Once upon a time childhood was the time of innocence. Time of play and freedom. Time where everybody wore cute white cotton dresses that mums could easily clean. Time when strangers didn’t have the need to see the gender of a baby the moment they laid their eyes on them. Time when babies and children wore baby clothes, not shrunken adult clothes.
European royalty and noble class had another reason for dressing little boys into dresses – male heirs were in danger of kidnapping for ransom. But when nobody could recognize young boys from girls at a glance, there was less chance of them being taken!
I find it interesting, that originally, when colours were introduced to baby clothing, blue was mainly reserved to little ladies, because blue is the colour of Virgin Mary, and pink was considered a strong, manly colour.
But now, when I have my own little man, I just moan every time I go baby clothes shopping. Why, why in the world, are the boy clothes so boring? And sad, colourless? Can a boy not wear flowers? I could buy many girl shirts and onesies, but many of the companies put cleverly some sort of girl detail on girls’ clothing – frills, bows, princess pictures…
Here is what I do. I always look in the girls’ section first. If the only girly detail is a bow, I buy it and cut the bow off. If there’s no specifically girly detail – well, it just became unisex.
Only one thing consoles me deeply despite boy clothes being excruciatingly boring: I have already saved so much money!
How about you? Do you have a baby boy and a problem finding fun clothes that don’t break the bank?

 

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