Having fully entered the world of solid foods, it seems that we can never have enough bibs. We found a great deal on some bibs with waterproof backing at a baby store last week, and bought 1 "girl" pack and 1 "boy" pack (with the intention of letting either baby wear bibs from either pack). All 10 of the boy bibs boasted of the wearer's superb athleticism. The girl bibs were more of a mixed bag. Some cupcakes, some ladybugs, etc. But the bib that really got me was the one that said "Kisses, 25cents". Really? What's next, a onesie that says "I'll flash my tits for a 15 second spot on "girls g0ne wild"? I know that the bib company intended this to be cute, and maybe I'm making a big dea lout of nothing, but somehow I just can't bring myself to put this on either of my kids.
We're not trying to put our daughter in strictly gender neutral clothing. We try to mix it up as much as we can. As she gets older and finds her own style and sense of self, we want her to know that we'll love her in ballet slippers as much as we'll love her in combat boots. Though as the multi-pack of bibs proved, sometimes the "girly" options leave a lot to be desired. And it's harder and harder to find clothes that don't play into the gender stereotypes in sizes larger than 6m. Anyone out there have a great source for kids clothes?
5 years ago
11 comments:
We like to dress Will in nice bright colors. The best sources we have found are Hanna Anderson, Boden, American Apparel. They're pricey, but hold up fabulously. Look on eBay, craigslist, or your local used baby clothing store, so you don't have to pay full price. It's so tough to find cute gender neutral clothes- good luck!
Zutano is fabulous for bright, not-too-gender specific clothing. We only bought one or two Zutano items new, but always keep our eyes open at nicer resale stores.
Also, just going with really plain color stuff (from Old Navy, etc.), then adding flair with a pair of Baby Legs or a wacky hat always worked well for us.
For what it's worth, we were adamantly gender neutral with our first, a (bald) girl, then found it was fun to be gendered (within reason) with our long-haired son. As long as you allow yourself to be flexible, it's super fun to dress either gender.
We aren't anti-gendered, just trying to find a little balance. :)
I'm right with you in thinking that bib is disturbing, demeaning and degrading. Reminded me of the credit card knickers - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316580,00.html
We love H&M clothes which seem mostly gender-neutral to us. We've gotten Curly purple things there before :) Also American Apparel and Polyrn O. Pyret (online). Join zulily.com and totsy.com and you can get great deals on really cool and unique baby clothing.
Honestly, I've always been appalled by things like that bib, and it can be just as bad for boys' clothes. G.ap often has a lot of cute clothes, but then they have these horrible shirts with things like, "Lock up your daughers," written on them. Seriously? For a toddler?
We really like Zutano a lot. Charlie Rocket is also fantastic, as is Tea. We find these at consignment shops and on ebay to avoid paying crazy prices for them, but these companies do a nice job of making cute clothes that are age appropriate and not overly gendered.
I never realized how much daddy themed clothing there is for girls until I got a bag full of secondhand clothes including at least 20 pieces that had some version of "daddy's girl, daddy's little princess, daddy's precious girl" etc. My friends with boys assure me that there is not nearly as much daddy or mommy clothing for boys.
Even though I'm really cheap and I love to reuse, I just couldn't dress my daughter in little pink outfits that said Daddy's girl. My feminist childhood is vomiting.
Mary
Same happen for me anonymous. I got a secondhand bag of clothes from a friend and I couldn't use all that "Daddy's little princess" or "Daddy's girl" onesies and jammies.
Sigh! I don't know, for a girl that has two mommies it doesn't seem right.
we do a lot of gap and old navy clothes that don't say anything. we saw that everything in a package was obnoxious. i totally feel you.
i also hate the "daddy's little..." shirts. at some point, i wanted to start a trading website for two moms and two dads families to trade this stuff.
we've been using basicbrilliance.com just plain 'ol, brightly colored basics (t's, onesies, pants etc)
I agree, the 'daddy's girl/boy' stuff irritates the hell out of me.
I like lots of red and navy blue, brown, heather gray, etc.
I picked up four 10-packs of solid color bibs (no sayings or pictures) on clearance at ShopKo for $4.99 a pack and thought that was the deal of the year!
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