When my son was a baby and I dressed him in navy people thought he was a girl.  Now I have a girl and she can be all in pink and people will comment on her thinking she's a boy.  She has short hair (has taken a long time to grow and she cut her hair recently) so unless she is in a dress people think she is a boy.  One lady even tried to make out it was my fault when I corrected her saying "it's so hard to tell these days" - well, yes, I would have thought the pink jeans gave it away but obviously I was wrong!  That and the fact that she has a doll under her arm most of the time!

thanks for the replies i just thought it would be interesting to hear other peoples stories and it was very interesting to know that the baby clothes colours were opposite a long time ago. Latelly they are bring out pink boy clothes my son and some of his friends actually like pink.

 When my second son was born - he got stuck (shoulder dystocia) and it was a bit of trauma getting him out.  His face was swollen and bruised (purple) and he had white hair. He was 4.4kgs (9 pounds 11 and a half!) He looked like a bulldog!!! And was still mistaken for a girl!!!!

I don't think it matters.  

p.s He is beautiful now.

Just out of interest apparently in Europe they dress boys in pink and girls in blue.  So that may explain why some people get confused.

My 3rd child is a girl after 2 boys.Half the time she has on boys stuff and shes a baldie people are always saying oh 3 boys. they are not old enough to be upset by it so frankly my life is to busy to worry about some random strangers misinterpretation. Some people just have terminal foot in mouth desiese, gawd knows Ive probrably been guilty of  making a mistake before.

this happened to one of my good friends, and yes her little girl was dressed head to toe in pink, the older ladies response was " I dont have my eyes on"(guessing she was meaning glasses?)

sure if there is NO indication or you are really not sure, or you are pink / blue colour blind,ask tactfully, but expect a not so warm response.

i think it is just rude (JMO) and have found that there are a lot of people who just dont care who they offend, sad but true, the older generation around where i live are just down right rude to most people so have to deal with this often, unfortunalty

Yes, it used to drive me MAD with my DD1! She's a tomboy indeed, but I could never undertand why I could dress her head to toe in bright pink and still have her mistaken for a boy! This was still happening up to the age of two. But she didnt have a haircut (or need it) until she was 25 months, which didnt help, and I also came to realise that the visual cues must have changed between generations, as many of the errors were coming from the grandparent-type agegroup. I THINK years ago that girls were NEVER put in trousers, so my habit of putting her in pink trousers, which to my generation means "its a girl" to them may have meant "its a boy"? Perhaps colours used to be less significant? But also, some people are thick!

Just the month I had DD1, the Friends series where Rachel has baby Emma was aired in the UK, and I remember the episode where Rachel resorts to sticking a bow on Emma's head, only to have someone ask "why's there a bow stuck on his head". Had to laugh, but no I was never quite desperate enough to stick a bow on my Emma's head!

Hi,

I have had this happen to me, My Daughter and my granddaughter.

My daughter was pushing the pram around a shopping centre when Claire was only a few weeks old when a lady came up to us and asked if she was a real baby or a doll and I said what do you think.

The next thing I knew the lady was hitting Claire's face not very had but enough to wake her up, and Bub started screaming. Then she said that she was a cute boy ( she was wearing pink but had a yellow blanket over her and a green dummy. I sad she's a girl and walked off.

Yeah, its happened to me a few times when my daughter has been wearing entirely pink. I think it happens sometimes when the person making the comment has a baby or pet of a particular gender and its force of habit to baby talk either 'she' or 'he'. For instance, I used to have a female cat and I still refer to any cat that I met as a 'she'. Does this make sense?! In other words, don't take it to heart :)

My 1st little boy was beautiful.  Absolutely gorgeous, so I never really minded when people referred to him as a her, because I could see how they made the mistake.  He's not very much a boy's boy..

I think some people just pay no attention at all to what they are wearing, just open their mouth and speak. 

Don't worry about it..

Well my oldest until he had his 1st haircut kept getting mistaken for a girl, he was 20 months when he got his 1st haircut.

Now everyone is like So you have a little girl and a boy and I have to keep telling them no I have 2 little boys.

I had my baby girl dressed totally in pink and some woman still referred to her as a boy.  I was just thinking- are you blind- can you not see that this is a girl!!  I think I said something like "yes SHE is beautiful isn't SHE, thanks".

With my twins I had them in blue and pink very early on so that people wouldn't get them mixed up because I do find it offensive when people describe my kids as being the opposite sex. (and some people seem to think that twins have to be the same gender- I had a boy and a girl).

you can either choose to ignore it and walk away, say thanks and walk away or correct them and embarass (depending on how spiteful a mood you are in, LOL)

Yes it did happen to me once at the shops but my mum had knitted him a white jumper and it had pinky spots and other colours through the wool so I guess it looked a girly colour. Colour is not always the indicator of the sex of the baby these days. Someone once said  that my little brother looked way too cute to be a boy when he was a baby so maybe it indicates he is good looking. Some people associate beauty with girls I guess but I would rather not make a guess on the sex of a baby as it is not always obvious.

Happened to my son all the time, even once he got older and it was obvious he was a boy.  Most of the time, I just said yeah and would walk off, you'll probably never see then again anyway.  Try not to let it bother you.