Boy Blue

Boy Blue

What is a polite way to tell people your baby is a boy? (Dressed in Blue)?

My son, Marc looks like me.... But, he is a boy all the way!!!

I can totally picture it. You and Marc are out shopping at the mall, Marc dressed totally in boyish blue clothes. He's unmistakably a boy... And yet some kind person walks up to you both, takes a look at him, and exclaims, "Oh, look at the adorable BABY GIRL!"

This kind of thing has happened a million times to us, only the other way around. Our Abby is a cute baby girl, but nobody can seem to see that. It doesn't matter how we dress her --- we could put her in a pink top with pink pants, pink shoes, and even wheel her around in a pink stroller --- someone will ALWAYS say "HE'S so cute!" or "What a cute baby BOY!"

I totally feel your frustration. But I have a theory as to why this happens. I think that when people look at a baby, they tend to focus more on the baby's facial features and sort of ignore all of the surrounding stuff. Unfortunately it's the surrounding stuff that usually gives the biggest clue as to the baby's gender, but it's those cute little faces that people are glued to. I think they just sort of guess what the gender is based on the face alone (which really is hard to do, when you think about it) and stick with it, totally oblivious to the pink or blue hints that might be all around the child.

When this happens, there's only one thing to do: correct the person immediately. Don't worry about how polite you are --- this isn't an issue of etiquette, it's an issue of setting the record straight. And it should be done as soon as the onlooker misjudges the gender, or else you'll wind up standing there for 20 minutes while some kind elderly person goes on and on about how cute your daughter is. This can be really awkward, and what makes it worse is when you finally reveal that they were wrong about the gender later on. Most of the time when this happens, the person feels really bad about making such a silly mistake. It can be embarrassing for everyone.

So the next time someone calls your Marc a girl, just quickly and confidently correct them. Say something like "oh, he's a boy" and that'll do the trick quickly and simply.

And don't worry... as he gets older and his features develop, this sort of mixup will happen much less frequently. Hang in there, and keep setting people straight!

Electric light orchestra- Boy blue (full version)

Boy Blue

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