"Clinic got our baby's gender wrong, now we'll have to replace all of the gendered baby crap we bought"

A couple paid £79 for a private scan so they'd know whether to buy all their baybee crap in pink or blue and got told they were having a boy, only to find their sprog was a girl and now can't possibly wear *shock horror* rugby shirts and clothes which aren't pink. Neighbours popped round with some acceptable clothes for a girl and the duh started grieving for his rugby-playing son that never was:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/family-welcome-newborn-baby-girl-into-world--after-being-told-to-expect-a-boy-10259834.html

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Baby Harry’s nursery had been painted blue, his father had bought a rugby team baby-grow and was already imagining his son running out for his local club in south west London.

It wasn’t until a whole half an hour after the chaotic homebirth of his first-born that Steve Forde realised that baby Harry was in fact – a girl.

The young couple, from Esher, spent hundreds of pounds decorating the nursery, buying a wardrobe of boys’ clothes including a Harlequins rugby club baby-grow, and argued for three months over his name – eventually settling on Harry.

"I was calling the baby Harry and I had half an hour having that Simba moment from the Lion King, the Circle of Life playing in my mind and couldn't believe my luck.

“It was only when the midwives arrived and started taking charge of things that I realised my mistake. One of them put Harry on the scales and just said, ‘This is a girl’. I was on the other side of the room and just remember this strong adamant feeling of, ‘No this is a boy. Who are these people, calling him a girl?!

“When I eventually took a look I was just in shock and Shelley and I just stared at each other for a good 60 seconds.

“It did feel like Harry existed, albeit briefly. I was looking forward to my son getting into rugby, so it was quite strange when suddenly he didn’t exist anymore.

“But I am 110 per cent grateful for our baby girl [yeah right] and happy with the way things panned out in the end. I guess we’re just that one per cent where they get the gender scan wrong.”

They'd had their son's entire life and career in rugby mapped out before he was even born and even got to develop any liking for rugby, grow up and develop the abilities and physique for rugby or even have a say in the matter- and they ended up with a child who won't be able to play rugby (not even for Harlequin Ladies) or do anything of value to society because she's a weak, stupid, fragile girl - ewwww. My heart bleeds for themeyes2

"gender disappointment" must be one of the most infuriating and offensive First World problems there is. I feel sorry for poor Lola, the baby who was a disappointment before she could even utter her first word. I'd also have felt sorry for Harry if he'd been born and had grown up to be lacking in physical strength, hopeless at sport, disinterested in rugby or had told his dad he wanted to become an architect, hairdresser or nuclear physicist instead- or, like 99% of aspiring sportspeople, good at sport but just not quite talented enough to make it to the top in an intensely competitive field.

I think Duh is projecting here. It's bad enough when parents start planning their children's weddings from day one, parents seem to be treating their children even more like little toy robots they can programme to satisfy their every whim and to fulfil all of the ambitions they failed to achieve for themselves.

can I just say as soon as I saw the title for this I burst out laughing?

ok I can understand perants wanting to know a head of time what the baby will be, because that makes naming easier, but nothing really else matters to a new born if its for boys or girls. back before I ever knew CF was an option, I used to sit through my mum telling me advice on having children and how to prepair my home and stuff *I was 14-16*

I was taught that picking a gender natural colour was best like white, cream, yellow, purple, green or orange, this applied to furniture, paint colours, clothes, and picking toys that were more educational like rattles, teething keys, blocks, ect. most kids story books are also rather natural unless you get one about fairy's or trolls.

it was best to wait till after birth to see what you really got, before you went out and just bought stuff for all one gender.

putting what I was taught aside for a moment, as an adult I tend to feel that children shouldn't be forced into a gender stereo type, if a girl wants to play with monster trucks, hot wheels cars and commando action toys, great, if a boy wants to play dress up, style dolls hair and not play sport, cool.. I see no problem with that.

now about these stupid crunchy breeders, REALLY! your forcing a team and super male sport onto a baby that hasn't even figured out what its own name is yet? what if he I dunno, wants to play chess or computer games, and couldn't give less of a shit about rugby? isn't this worse to them than if he turned out gay from watching/bonding with all those sweaty, naked guys in the locker room for so many years?

so its a girl, who unless they can conceive the son they wanted to replace her with, will be forced to take his place and play sports and cheer on there team, as if doing the best with what they were dealt with in life.

that's just sad. im surprised they didn't sue the group who declared the gender wrong already.

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screaming sausage
I feel sorry for poor Lola, the baby who was a disappointment before she could even utter her first word. so do I for the same reason, in her parents eyes, she is and always will be a disappointment, even if she's an honer student who go's onto have a great career, it'll always be a form of compensating to please, rather than a true achievement

I think Duh is projecting here. It's bad enough when parents start planning their children's weddings from day one, parents seem to be treating their children even more like little toy robots they can programme to satisfy their every whim and to fulfil all of the ambitions they failed to achieve for themselves. see this is why I don't understand why more people don't play SIMS, even in the game, if you want to dream of a future where you, your partner and kids, grow up to achieve the exact outcome you planned for them, play sims, instead of making babys and forcing them to lead lives they don't want

That poor kid is going to be so screwed up growing up all because she was born without a dick.

The idea of gendered toys and clothes is a relatively new concept. As a child in the 1980s I don't remember wearing much pink, children's clothes and toys were just colourful for both sexes. Stuff like gendered Lego only came onto the market later because toy manufacturers realised they could sell twice as much crap- and this couple have fallen for that scam hook, line and sinker.

I remember when a friend of mine found out he was going to become a duh to a boy and said it was great because he was looking forward to dressing his son in cute little heavy metal band logo t-shirts- whoever said baby girls can't wear these things? When my PNB friends had twin boys I bought them some nice clothes from Swedish unisex brand Polarn O. Pyret because they were well-made, colourful, and much nicer than the sludgy grey, khaki and navy stuff marketed as "boys' clothes" in most high street shops. My cousin's daughters got little football kits from their football-mad relatives and they loved them, and I got them some cute little band t-shirts which they liked too.

Parunts like the ones in the article are just setting themselves up for a major disappointment and a terrible relationship with their sprogs. I wouldn't dream of forcing my interests on a child in the hope of trying to turn them into a Mini-Me. If a person buys a gift for an adult which is secretly for themselves (like Homer Simpson buying Marge a bowling ball) it's considered the height of bad manners, so why do parunts insist on doing this to children? Again, I think a lot of parents just see spawning as a second chance of achieving an ambition they failed to achieve for themselves in their own pre-childed lives.

I grew up in the 80's and 90's and be damned if I was going to wear a dress and be mommy's princess!

As a kid I loved playing in the dirt, I even had one of those metal dump trucks and a loader.
When it came to clothes I was (and still am) perfectly happy in jeans and a t-shirt. Hey even a men's t-shirt works! I remember my friends and I used to go on adventures and play hide n seek until the street lights came on or our parents called out to us to come home.

I also loved playing with my male cousin's 'boy toys' rather than barbie dolls. To me, his toys were much cooler!

What a bunch of shit. They spend the whole article talking about how they can't believe their goldenpenis had a vagina and how they were fantasizing about raising a widdle boyeee, but then they cap it off with, "Oh, but we're happy with what we got." Bullshit, they just said that so they didn't look like assholes to readers. It's painfully obvious they aren't glad with it and I guarantee the Moo is knocked up again before the daughter is two years old in an attempt to get a male replacement.

I also never understood the whole gender-specific crap. Who cares what the kid likes to wear or play with? Let them try stuff and figure out what they like. This little girl could grow up to be a ball-throwin' tomboy, but if these two morons shat out a son, he could be the most flamboyant gay bear ever. These breeders will never ever be happy with their daughter no matter what she does because she dared come out with a vagina. They'll only ever see her as a failure because they didn't get to dress her up in little blue rugby shirts. And doG help her if they do go on to have a son because he'll be the widdle angel who can do no wrong while the daughter will get blamed for everything and punished when her brother misbehaves.

Honestly, I think they should give the girl up for adoption. She's a healthy infant and I'm sure someone will snatch her up. Why keep a child who is the embodiment of disappointment (in the parents' opinion)? I feel bad for her because I know she'll just never be good enough for her parents.

Also, they argued over a name for three months and settled on "Harry?" I mean, I'm glad it's a real name and not a kre8ive one, but I question the parenting abilities of people whose combined intellect requires a quarter of a year to name their impending child "Harry."

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creativelycf
I grew up in the 80's and 90's and be damned if I was going to wear a dress and be mommy's princess!

Me too, and even back then I remember thinking pink and sparkly things were a bit twee. It wasn't just me either- at my primary school My Little Ponies, Care Bears etc were seen as a bit babyish and no-one batted an eyelid if you were a girl who preferred Transformers and Micro Machines (as I did).

Despite all of that I actually like wearing the odd bit of pink now and again but when I see grown women who buy absolutely everything in Barbie pink, from their iPhones to their cars, I just can't help but struggle to take them seriously:

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Cambion
What a bunch of shit. They spend the whole article talking about how they can't believe their goldenpenis had a vagina and how they were fantasizing about raising a widdle boyeee, but then they cap it off with, "Oh, but we're happy with what we got." Bullshit, they just said that so they didn't look like assholes to readers. It's painfully obvious they aren't glad with it and I guarantee the Moo is knocked up again before the daughter is two years old in an attempt to get a male replacement.

Yep, I can just imagine Rugby Duh impregnating Rugby Moo again and again until they get a boy or it kills her- and then I can imagine Rugby Duh putting his son through endless rugby coaching until he becomes a pro or it kills him.

As a child I hated PE at school and was very glad I never had to play rugby. It's a rough and demanding game which many school pupils dread having to play, as Monty Python showed us here. It's bad enough being hopeless at sport and getting bullied for it by your classmates, but to have that pressure from your parents as well must be hellish. If these parunts never manage to conceive their longed-for Harry The Goldenpenis it'll probably be for the best.

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creativelycf
I grew up in the 80's and 90's and be damned if I was going to wear a dress and be mommy's princess!

Hell, I grew up in the 50s and 60s and had *exactly* this attitude. My mom tried to dress me in frilly dresses with matching socks, and put my hair up into sausage curls. All I wanted to wear was jeans and t-shirts and moccasins, so that I could better climb trees and ride horses.

Poor Mom. She wanted Shirley Temple, but got Calamity Jane.

Why the fuck can't they teach the little girl to play rugby? Baby fuckin' blue is a cutesy color, why can't it work on a girl? I mean just get rid of the "It's a boy!" balloons and you're good.

As a little shitlet, I wore the frou frou crap, loved Barbie, etc. At the same time though I'd play with my brother's toys, and hated babby dolls or anything Moo related. Now I have band and videogame shirts, with high heels in another part of the closet. Sometimes I'll dress up. Most of the time I dress for comfort. Oh, noes.

I feel very sorry for my little sister though. She was very tomboyish in clothes style (still is), and family members would rudely insinuate that she was a dyke. She's straight, I'm not.

Poor Mom. She wanted Shirley Temple, but got Calamity Jane.

Or in my case, my mom wanted me to be all girlie girl but didn't get me anything or enough of whatever it was that made one girlie girlie. I had to get by with hand me downs and maybe, MAYBE, two new outfits for school in September. I ended up winning the "class clown" award at my senior dinner and my mom was all disappointed because I didn't get best dressed or prettiest or most popular. When everything she did to me set me up for disaster with my peers, growing up in the 80's at least.

I mean, you wanna talk hand me downs? I even got a hand me down wedding. No shit. When I got engaged, mom agreed to buy a dress. She said, "See if you can find something in the paper, used, for under a hundred dollars...". But wait, the hand me down? Basically I was told to have a Vegas Elvis wedding (neither msyelf or DH are particularly vegas or into Elvis), because my sister, (who had a BIG wedding to her first husband, a man my mom knew was a bad fit, but whatever), had her second marriage/wedding at the Viva Las Vegas, so let's just do that because we (we = mom) already know how all that works.

I should have gone Bridezilla on my mom. But I didn't. I should have though.

My mother did not allow me to get pink bedroom curtains and bedspread. I wanted the MOST Pepto-Bismol pink frilly shit that existed and she absolutely refused because she didn't want me to grow up with the princess bullshit going through my head. She also did not allow me to have Barbie dolls. I hated all other baby dolls (surprise surprise, it's no shock I'm childfree). I was allowed to have My Little Ponies before that whole thing got weird. I'm glad she wouldn't let me have pink. It made me have to consider very seriously what other color I wanted. I settled on yellow.

Here's how they did it in the 70's:

Up until the due date, the expectant couple would get all the gender-neutral items they needed: bottles, diapers, neutral-colored onesies, stroller, etc...and they would pick out two names, for each possibility. Then, once the baby was born, they would supplement the gender-neutral nursery with whatever boy-stuff or girl-stuff they wanted to get.

Why is that so damn hard now?

eyes2

Probably because breeders now want to go whole hog with the gender crap and fantasize about dressing their little may-unn in little mini tuxedos or their little lady in frilly pink princess dresses. Men generally await the arrival of sons who they can have male Kodak moments with and women dream about female Kodak moments with impending daughters. There can be no neutrality because they want to scream what genitals their baby has from the rooftops with an entirely blue or entirely pink wardrobe that the kid will outgrow in three months anyway.

It's usually over-zealous first-time parents who do this shit. Everything has to match and be stereotypical. Boys gotta have dinosaurs and trucks, and girls gotta have dolls and ponies. What the fuck ever happened to just being glad that your loaf comes out alive? It's not like the kid cares what clothes it wears; most kids don't give a fuck about clothing until they're teens or pre-teens. A boy won't care if, at six months old, he's wearing a pink shirt. He'll puke on it just like it was a "proper" blue shirt. Why not just get all neutral stuff so, in the event Moo and Duh have another loaf later on, they won't need to buy any new shit?

My parental units were very much of the We'll Afford It Somehow school of breederdom so I didn't really have the choice of pink or blue. I got whatever secondhand toys they could find, whatever colour they were. Still, I'm glad I got Lego, Micro Machines and Transformers rather than baby dolls and play kitchens, that definitely worked out for the best.

Unfortunately my mother's idea of femininity centred around-yep, you've guessed it- marriage and baybees. One time after yet another of her bingoes, when I had just reminded her that I didn't want children, she said "Having children is the most wonderful thing a woman can achieve". I reminded her that we knew several girls and women who had made this "achievement" nine months after a fumble behind the school bike sheds and that she didn't seem terribly in awe of them. Shortly before she died she reminded me that her one remaining ambition was "to see you and your sister married and with children". I remember feeling deflated as I reminded her that I wanted neither of these things for myself- is that all she thought I was capable of, going through a legal procedure and performing a biological function?

If she hadn't smoked herself to death years ago I'm sure she'd now be completely disinterested in my PhD and other stuff I've worked hard on and would be busy trying to convince me and Mr Sausage to tie the knot and get to work on popping out some screaming little "achievements"

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screaming sausage
The young couple, from Esher, spent hundreds of pounds decorating the nursery, buying a wardrobe of boys’ clothes including a Harlequins rugby club baby-grow, and argued for three months over his name – eventually settling on Harry.

PNB's decorate in gender neutral colors and do not give a rat's ass if baby turns out boy or girl.

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Passive Aggressive
Master Of Anti-brat
Excuses!

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creativelycf
I grew up in the 80's and 90's and be damned if I was going to wear a dress and be mommy's princess!

Me too, and even back then I remember thinking pink and sparkly things were a bit twee. It wasn't just me either- at my primary school My Little Ponies, Care Bears etc were seen as a bit babyish and no-one batted an eyelid if you were a girl who preferred Transformers and Micro Machines (as I did).

Despite all of that I actually like wearing the odd bit of pink now and again but when I see grown women who buy absolutely everything in Barbie pink, from their iPhones to their cars, I just can't help but struggle to take them seriously:

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Cambion

As a kid I was a tard, but when Mom dressed me, she dressed me in practical clothes. The only difference/restriction was between school and play clothes. Toys were whatever I liked, as they got me a big wheel, and a Light Bright among others.

The ones that really got use were roller skates and bicycles. Neither were gender oriented, although I liked girl's bikes because I could ride in a skirt/dress.

I love baby pink AND baby blue.

+++++++++++++

Passive Aggressive
Master Of Anti-brat
Excuses!

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Cambion
Boys gotta have dinosaurs and trucks, and girls gotta have dolls and ponies.

My niece was a dinosaur addict from earliest childhood. She had both 'boy's' & 'girl's' toys, clothes, what have you.

Yes, she was a girl, but her mother let her gender be reveled only when she was born.

+++++++++++++

Passive Aggressive
Master Of Anti-brat
Excuses!