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Pink for a girl?

(34 Posts)
Grannyjacq1 Thu 22-Sep-16 19:49:54

Am I alone in wanting a 'New Baby Girl' card that isn't pink? Having trawled all the shops in our local town, I couldn't find any that weren't pink or had references to fairies/princesses etc. I assume there was a similar gender bias to cards for newborn boys. I could buy 'gender neutral' new baby cards, but that was all. Other than make my own, does anyone have any suggestions?

HildaW Thu 22-Sep-16 19:57:59

You are not alone Grannyjacq! To be honest I find most commercial cards lacking in taste and prone to stereotypes. We have a lovely independent gift and craft shop near here that stocks cards made by individuals or very small firms that I see no where else. They show much more imagination and individuality. I tend to buy most of my cards from them.

The daft thing vis a vis blue vs pink is that in Victorian times it was Red for boys and blue for girls!

NanaandGrampy Thu 22-Sep-16 19:59:35

What were you looking for specifically?

I'm interested as a card maker . I am usually asked for pink girlie or cute blue boy , or occasionally lemon or mint but using not baby images .

ninathenana Thu 22-Sep-16 22:37:39

Have you tried Moonpig ?
Or similar on line companies.

whitewave Thu 22-Sep-16 22:39:10

Make one -

baubles Thu 22-Sep-16 22:49:59

What about this? goo.gl/images/474MW4

Elegran Thu 22-Sep-16 23:06:47

Or this Personalised owl baby card

Elegran Thu 22-Sep-16 23:09:23

Or this personalised elephants

Elegran Thu 22-Sep-16 23:12:53

In fact, here are a whole load of hand-made new baby cards.

Dee Fri 23-Sep-16 10:42:44

My children are now 33 and 38. When they were born I got dozens of cards, nearly all with cute pink babies on them. As my kids are Anglo-Barbadian none of the babies looked remotely like them.
Now its the pink for girls, blue for boys rubbish.
You can get good cards from Oxfam and a few other places but there's a real gap in the market for more gender neutral and racially diverse cards.

Juggernaut Fri 23-Sep-16 10:42:58

johnlewis.com have a good selection of 'different' baby cards!

goose1964 Fri 23-Sep-16 10:48:36

Not just cards, it's the same for clothes, DD is haveing another boy but if you want anything other than powder blue be prepared to pay through the nose

Craftycat Fri 23-Sep-16 11:23:42

Yes I agree with NanandGrampy- I am always asked for blue or pink cards. I made some lovely lemon & jade green ones with little hedgehogs on them- really sweet & they didn't sell at all. Did same design in blue & pink & they sold like hot cakes.
Supply & demand

Lindajane Fri 23-Sep-16 14:10:52

I find the whole gender bias so sad. I'm sure it wasn't so bad when my girls were small! I was really annoyed when I went into a toy shop recently and one section was pink, filled with dolls etc and the other blue section contained all the action toys. I was delighted the other day though to see my grandson pushing his new pushchair that his other grandma bought. He loves it as well as his kitchen.

grumppa Fri 23-Sep-16 14:51:42

And the two colours don't have the same "value". Blue comes in a huge range of acceptable shades, while pink tends to be either or shocking or just pallid. Red would provide a better gender balance. [N.B. This comment is purely aesthetic; I find the whole colour coding of children ridiculous.]

Jan51 Fri 23-Sep-16 14:53:07

Goose1964. I spent ages looking for gender neutral baby clothes before DD2 found out her bump was a girl. Boots have some lovely baby clothes in mint green. This was the only place I could find this colour at a reasonable price. Primark have some nice stuff in grey and white/brown and white.
Quite agree about toys Lindijane. DGS was about 5 when he was looking through a toy catalogue and the toy he wanted was on a page marked 'toys for girls'. He was most annoyed and put the catalogue in the bin saying it was stupid because he liked playing with that toy lol.

shysal Fri 23-Sep-16 16:10:04

Have you tried Ebay? I buy most of my cards on there. I like the Word Art personalised ones, for which you can choose your own set of words and colour palette. there is quite a selection of images.
Word Art baby card

BRedhead59 Fri 23-Sep-16 16:23:14

It's the same with clothes they are also covered with little princess twaddle. My granddaughter may want to be an astronaut or an engineer!

Legs55 Fri 23-Sep-16 16:25:59

I agree Lindajane, my DD is 36 & there was never quite as much blue/pink around. My DD was never a "girly girl" & was often dressed in blue (quite often mistaken for a boy when she had short hair). My MiL knit lots for me but would not knit pink until she was born, so I had lots of white, lemon,mint green & blue.

I do get frustrated when buying cards especially age ones as people get older, my only hope is when I find specialised shops smile

Alima Fri 23-Sep-16 17:03:09

grumppa, I thoroughly agree with your description of "colour coding children". Why can't they just be treated as small people? My 2 daughters were.

Jayh Fri 23-Sep-16 17:17:35

What on earth has happened? This gender stereotyping is everywhere. I was recently looking at a video of a friend holding her baby in the late 70s. It was not possible to tell the gender of the baby who was snuggly dressed in a navy snow suit with a multicoloured hat. I had to work out that it was her daughter. My son could wear his sister's jumpers and coats as they were gender neutral. But we were into gender equality then.
Is it a good thing that girls are encouraged to be pink princesses these days? I admit I am guilty of this, but don't actually like it. What about boys? I only have granddaughters so I don't know.

f77ms Fri 23-Sep-16 20:49:02

I have been trying to buy some baby clothes for my expected Gc , the parents don`t want to know the sex . I have not managed to find anything neutral which is not just white with a teddy or something on the front . I also hate the princess thing , I think it demeans girls and is as if they are silly, frivolous airheads . I would love to buy something in a bold colour as the baby will be dark , but there is nothing .

Rosieroe Fri 23-Sep-16 23:10:43

Love this card

Parsleywin Sat 24-Sep-16 01:01:17

I really dislike the entrenched use of colour for babies and young children. It is so unimaginative and narrow minded! It seems to be less of an issue in some Scandinavian countries.

I was surprised and pleased though to spot some neutral coloured, organic cotton baby clothes in Lidl this week.

Badenkate Sat 24-Sep-16 17:37:13

I only had boys, so a granddaughter came as a novelty. Everything was fine and she was brought up the same as her elder brother - then at 2 she went pink! Unbelievable. Everything had to be pink. She is now 12 and verging on goth with a side interest in vampires and zombies.
It reminded me to some extent of my avowed determination that my sons were not going to play with toy guns. So I never bought them any. Consequently when we went for walks in the woods, they picked up sticks and shot each other with them!
I think what I'm trying to say that there is some outside force that it is very difficult to fight against in the battle of treating children as children and not little boys and little girls.