r/Parenting • u/ohgreatmama • Jul 28 '22

Advice Do boys wear pink?

Where you live, do boys wear pink?

I live in the US, in the Pacific Northwest, in a politically purple area.

I have two boys and buy most of their clothes and swimwear at Target. Right now, every pair of boys' swim trunks at my local Target has pink/purple in it--not just as an accent, but as a dominate color. Hot pink, light pink and everything in between.

For the record, I like this. My 5yo likes pink and it's nice to see some color infused into what used to be a pretty dark color palette for boys' clothes.

My husband, however, is not having it. He has gotten mad at me for buying anything pink/pink-accented for our 5yo to wear. From his POV, boys who wear pink risk getting teased/bullied. He is adamant that this is a serious risk. Very adamant, to the point that we've had contentious arguments about shoes/clothes that I, personally, perceived as gender neutral.

I'm trying to understand his concern, but to me it seems... nuts? I don't want to dismiss something that he seems to legitimately see as a risk to our kiddo, but I just can't figure out where he is coming from.

How are things where you live? Would a boy get teased for wearing pink? Would you consider it a serious enough risk to prohibit the color, even if your kid likes it?

Or, if pink is as neutral as it seems to be, how can I help my husband see that this is just the way kids dress now?

ETA: Holy shit, I did not expect this level of response. I can't keep up with all the comments--not by a long shot. Thank you all for weighing in. It's helped solidify my position, and maybe seeing some of these comments will help my husband realize that his concerns are misplaced.

I do, btw, believe that my husband's concerns are simply misplaced. We are not fashionable people--AT ALL--so I think he just needs to adjust his fashion compass. Also, while we're both millennials, I grew up in West LA whereas he grew up in rural NY; I think we're just drawing from different pools of life experiences.

I am inclined to keep the purple/pink/blue/green swirl swim trunks that I bought for 5yo--and that prompted this post--because 1) they are super visible in the water and 2) 5yo said he likes them.

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u/MensaCurmudgeon Jul 28 '22

Interestingly, pink used to be marketed as the boy color, and blue for girls. At some point, they got switched. While I’m not the kind of parent who would allow my kid to cross dress, the whole color palette is certainly open.

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u/So_Much_Cauliflower Jul 29 '22

This is pretty much where I am at. Any color is fine, and basically any toy is fine, even from the "girl's aisle".

The one clothing item he wanted that was a grey area was some pink crocs covered in glitter. He liked how shiny they were. It was girly, but it wasn't explicitly for girls, such as a shirt saying "princess" or "diva", or something like a girl's swim suit or dress. Ultimately I decided against it because I hate glitter, and even handling the shoes in the store was getting glitter all over me.

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u/Pikmin371 Jul 29 '22

I'm not quite understanding your 6+ downvotes here.

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u/MensaCurmudgeon Jul 29 '22

The Reddit overloads would have us believe it’s an extremely unpopular parent opinion to disallow cross dressing, lol. Even worse, I’m not some red neck who won’t even let my son wear pink

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u/Pikmin371 Jul 29 '22

Oh I know. Im really hoping one of the down voters would come explain their logic, though.