My sister-in-law happens to be pregnant. Which, is utterly beyond exciting to me because it's another birth experience I'll hear about, another baby to hold one day, and another woman entering motherhood. The close proximity of all of this brought on by our familial connection just makes it all the more wonderful.
Anyway, since it's not my OWN baby, I'm finding that there are all these adorable little 'gift's for babies that you just wouldn't buy for yourself, but suddenly become too cute to resist when you imagine the item going to someone else and their new child. Which, is weird, and I know I should have better self-control because babies really don't need much of anything beyond love and mother's milk, but...well...maybe time will help me to resist.
To come to the point of this blog post, I found myself in Kohls today...don't ask me why. And, saw literally twenty mothers with practically newborns shopping in the baby section. (alright, I might be exaggerating a bit here, but, trust me, it's more mothers with newborns than I've ever seen in a store before!) I assumed there was a sale, so wandered over to have a look at the gender neutral selection. And, I remember feeling this way while shopping for my son, but it's utterly amazing how ridiculous some of the baby stuff IS. Not to mention how incredibly NON-gender neutral. I saw lots of brown...which I actually like on babies...good camouflage for all the mess...but brown is only available with complimentary colors of pink, purple, blue, or green. With boy puppy dogs, or girly bunny rabbits. *sigh*
There was an article out not too long ago about a family who was choosing to raise their child gender neutral. And, I still think it's a bit odd, and far-fetched to put into practice to the extreme that they have chosen to go, BUT there's some valid points about why must we classify our children by sex from the moment of birth! Whatever happened to the white layette? or yellow? or greens and blues that don't instantly bespeak BOY. I mean, what about grey? It's handsomely appropriate for a baby in a light color, and yet, it's nowhere except in hand-knit sweaters!
It's not that I really think you should avoid gender identifying clothing, it's just odd that there's no other options. The conspirator in me wonders if perhaps it's contributing to all the ultrasounds to check the sex of the unborn child. It's a legitimate thing new parents wonder about, and when surrounded by very little in the way of gender neutral options to prepare for baby, well, it can only encourage those sorts of ultrasounds right?
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