Mistaken gender
caybeh
member
My little guy has lots of hair and from day one. He has only lost a part of it on the side, but new hair is already growing in. Anyway, he has like a double cowlick in back, so his hair sticks up. It kind of reminds me of a rooster, as it is strawberry blond. Some days, he has a natural fohawk
The other day, I had a lady ask me if he was a girl. I politely said no, he's a boy. I wasn't offended as I know that sometimes it is hard to tell the gender of a baby. I always try to dress him in boyish clothing, and this particular day he was wearing a "Handsome Like Daddy" onesie. However, the lady couldn't see it, as he was playing with his blue stuffed animal. I later asked my husband what he thought made the lady ask me if he was a girl. My husband responded that it was probably his hair. Oh his hair!!
Re: Mistaken gender
This has happened to me. DD also has a ton of hair, and on the day it happened she was dressed in pink with a bow in her hair.
When I pulled her out of her seat and gave her a hug to show her to the woman, she was a bit mortified... but she blamed it on the carseat/stroller. We specifically bought a gender neutral one with DS so we could reuse it. I don't remember the pattern though. Anyway, my point is that people don't always notice all the details!
Nobody has mistaken Lil' Man yet
However, my mom loves too tell the story about how I was mistaken for a boy by an older woman. My mom said I was only a few months old. She had me all decked out in a lacey pink dress, socks with lace, the whole get up was feminine. The woman flat out asked if I was a little boy. My mom was a bit stunned but corrected her.
In the old days they did dress all babies (boys and girls) in dresses. As it was easier to change them...at least that's how my great grandmother explained how the woman may have been confused.
BFP #2 7/18/11 - EDD 3/29/12 - Born 3/13/12
BFP #1 4/4/11 - Natural M/C - 7w1d - 4/30/11
I kind of think most babies, by default, look like little boys until they grow hair and their features start to fill in. It really is dependent on clothes for girls! I was bald until I was almost 2. My mom would dress me in the frilliest, most ridiculous dresses and tape bows on my head and people would still say, "aw, what a cute little boy!" My mom still gets heated about it when she recalls it!
I think my son is about as boyish as a boy could look but we had one person look at him, wearing a blue plaid, masculine cut romper and brown man sandals, ask "Boy or girl?" I was so surprised that I just laughed and asked "Really?" Then the woman looked at him and said "Oh, it's a boy." Sometimes I think people are just too lazy to use context clues to confirm what they already know.
On a similar note, my neighbor has 9 week old fraternal twins that couldn't look more different and people regularly ask her "How do you tell them apart?" it drives her nuts.
This happened once to DS when he was wearing an orange striped romper. A lady in the neighborhood referred to him as "her" and then asked, "oh, boy or girl?" I wasn't offended at all. But, I could just feel DH's eyes rolling behind me because he already had told me that the orange romper was kind of "girly". Sorry, DH, I guess I should break out the camos for our 4 month old so people know for sure he's a boy!
I told DH he's got to let me get my fashion fix with DS now and dress him in lots of cute outfits while he's little because someday I'll be dealing with a stubborn preteen/teenager who refuses to wear anything but baskeball shorts and a t-shirt!
Same.
I have had people refer to her as a boy even though she is dressed in all pink. I am pretty sure it is her hair (or lack of it) that make people think she is a boy.