is this strange?...

[Antoinette]

i was shopping with Felix today as he is growing out of all of his clothes so i told him he can choose one new outfit all by himself. he immediately walked into the girls section and selected a light pink T-shirt with dark pink flowers on it. i told him that this T-shirt was designed for girls like his sisters and then i took him to the boys section. he looked at all of the clothes and told me he didn't like any of them. he then went back to the girls section and selected the same pink T-shirt. he has never shown an interest in wearing girls clothes before but today he was really set on wearing this shirt
(i bought him the shirt)

has anybody else's children done this? is it normal or maybe because the house is now quite overrun by girls and he doesn't really see his dad very often or is he just legitimately attracted to female clothing? (he is nearly 4 BTW)

 

[parentastic]

I don't think it has anything to do with seeing or not seeing his dad often.
To my knowledge, it's totally unrelated (it's a common misconception that children need gender-related models).

It seems quite healthy to me that your boy has clear tastes of what he wants and likes or not, and that he is still yet feels free enough to express his likes and dislikes rather than be influenced by the crap going on in marketing these days for boys and girls.

Let children be who they know they are, so their character and uniqueness may flourish, I say

 

[mom2many]

He saw a shirt he liked, that's all it is. Lupan wore lots of purple as a young guy, we did point out that the color was something normally girls like and wore, but he didn't care.

We did learn later that he is partially color blind so he saw purple as blue, but it still never stopped him from wearing purple.

 

[akmom]

(i bought him the shirt)

Good for you! Who decided that blue was for boys and pink was for girls? They're both lovely colors. I'm a girl and blue has always been my favorite color. So why can't a boy like pink? It's just a color. It doesn't mean he wants to be a girl.

My son picked out a pink Power Wheels when he was two. My husband was horrified and didn't get it. (I concurred, because I didn't want him to have one at all; I wanted him to have a real bike and get exercise.) But it was clear to me why he picked the pink. The choices were hot pink or black... which one do you think is going to attract the attention of a toddler?

 

[Antoinette]

well, I did tell him he could pick anything he wanted so i wasn't going to go back on my word and stop him from having it because it was from the girls section.

he has been wearing it all day today and appears to be very proud of his choice. i have gotten a few strange looks from people when we went to get some grocery's but if he feels comfortable in it i have no right to tell him it is wrong i guess.

thank you so much guys, i feel better knowing it is quite
normal. not that i would stop him from doing it even if he was the first boy ever to do it but my brother and his partner have been laughing at me all day lol

 

[bssage]

I guess I agree and disagree with this.

I agree because I think he will still probably get social norms as his social understanding matures. So I kinda at his age think this is a non issue.

I would disagree with letting him put on a clearly "girls" clothing for a couple of reasons. The first being is that his view of the outside world is not to the point where he can make reasoned choices. I met a kid at a park who had decided he would only wear a batman costume (complete with cape) It was just him, his mom, Chloe and myself, at the park. While it was cute and probably harmless. His mom expressed her frustration that since he wore the costume. That was all he wanted to wear. And that he wore it every day everywhere.

I do think part of our responsibility as parents is to give them the tools to dress appropriately for social situations.

When I applied for the job I currently have. It was a "cattle call" about thirty people for a mass interview. I could not get over how many of the other applicants dressed inappropriately for a job interview. Many looked like the just rolled out of bed or were on there way to a rock concert.

This may be unpopular to some. But we don't let our kids go to church in a costume. We don't go to the mall in our PJ's. And I would not want to dress my pre-k kid to attend class gender inappropriate.

Regardless of what your opinions on gender appropriate clothing is. I would expect we want out kids to have at least a basic understanding of how to dress for certain events activities or environments.

My question would be. Was he insisting on pink? Or was he insisting on a pink blouse? I personally dont have an issue with pink. In fact I have had some polo and dress shirts in the past that were pink that I really liked. But if he was insisting in obviously "from a distance" girls blouse.

The other thing I would be at least a little concerned with. Is by allowing a particular choice in dress. Are we putting out kids in a situation that may subject them to teasing. We all know "kids can be cruel" I would not want to send mine into a class with a "Kick Me" sign on their back.

My short answer Anne: At his age: probably not a big deal. Also not all that uncommon.