Non gender fear of faux pas

I don’t know what all the fuss is about. As others have said, a newborn baby is either a boy or a girl. Why would anyone refer to it as ‘they?’ Apparently it’s a boy, so why wouldn’t you say ‘he?’

I don’t understand why anyone would want to raise their child as ‘gender neutral’ because I think that could lead to confusion in the child’s mind as it grows up, it would soon become aware that other children are, in the main, boys or girls. It would wonder exactly what it was, in my opinion.

I agree totally with annsixty. I also think janeainsworth makes excellent points.

If it’s not obvious... pink dress blue trousers ( yes a lot of people still use the colours) then just say ‘what a beautiful baby what did you have boy or girl’ what’s wrong with that ?
And if it’s a girl she’s beautiful or he for a boy I for one am not going to think twice about any gender based stuff till they re in their teens
Not worth even thinking about

BlueBelle - the problem is the parents in sunseekers post would not say - they would just say it was gender neutral, may even then give a lecture about labelling children.

Maybe it's these people. www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-bristol-49693983/the-parents-keeping-their-child-s-sex-a-secret

Contrary to popular belief, children these days are actually quite accepting of non standard gender identity or sexuality. So much so I'm often nicely surprised at school.

Crikey GagaJo Your link has really taught me something today.

Actually, a fair proportion of humans do not fit into the male/female dichotomy. Somewhere between 1 & 10% of humans are not solely male or female.

www.nytimes.com/1993/03/12/opinion/how-many-sexes-are-there.html

anno
So many people looked in the pram and said 'Isn't she gorgeous/beautiful' etc
I used to say 'It's a he, that's why he's wearing blue boy's clothes!'
He's still gorgeous in his 40s! But definitely make.

However, I do realise that some people are non-specific, but this is not the majority.

Male, have changed this twice but apparently not acceptable!

Non-binary - may the lord preserve us! I am glad that I am nearing the final stage of life!

If this is the couple featured on the BBC website today the mother's name is Hobbit.
I think that says it all.

beckett I ve reread the original post and can’t see anything about parents refusing to say what the baby’s sex is and it was that post I was answering

I m afraid I will continue to call babies he or she
I accept trans and bi etc as adult choices but I totally draw the line at calling a baby ‘it’ or ‘they’ which doesn’t make sense anyway you can’t look in a pram and say ‘they are beautiful’ if there’s only one baby Oh pleeeese

suedonin that link is hilarious the mothers Christian name if ‘Hobbit’

Bluebelle I accept trans and bi etc as adult choices but I totally draw the line at calling a baby ‘it’ or ‘they’
Spot on with that comment.
I can’t help wondering if the OP was just trying to see how many outraged comments he or she could elicit from what he or she imagines as the reactionary members of Gransnet.

Can you really believe the Gran didn't take a little peek inside the nappy?

I wondered about that, ann. Did she never babysit at all?

Have I wandered off this planet onto one made of blue cheese?

I am full of sympathy for those who feel that their physical sex doesn't correspond to the way the feel, but surely this is a problem that they become aware of once they are old enough to know that all living creatures are either male or female?

A baby presumably doesn't know or care whether it is male or female.

I find it hard to believe that people honestly believe they can avoid gender conditioning of young children simply be changing a pronoun!

And what if you DID look inside a nappy and find a variation of genitals? I knew a person whose baby was born with a penis lump and a vestigal vagina. There are MANY people walking around who are NOT solely male or female but don't make it obvious to all and sundry.

and another friend whose baby had chromosomes which were varied between male and female. No uterus or ovaries.

How do you raise a gender neutral child ? In terms of clothing that rules out dresses and skirts etc so the child will be dressed in trousers all the time which surely veers towards more masculine clothing ??

Am I the only person who sees a world 50 years from now where everyone is called they, dresses in identical grey dungarees and is gender neutral ? ?

Surely there is a difference between intersex and gender neutral though?

Baby is called river .. so no wiser there

No , the baby is called river , I have two boys and a grandson myself , baby looked like a boy . However that was a genuine slip from me as it’s all I am used to having had no girls. I am asking purely to see what others would do and not to cause offence. I have no issue with them calling the baby them / they , it is just confusing.

Not at all , I wanted to know if anyone else had a similar experience. If I wanted to cause outrage I’d talk about the B word

I know this is an ultra-revolutionary idea but how about:

'Is this little darling a boy or a gilr?'

....or even "girl"