Pink Vengeance

**This post was taken from our family blog and dated Feb 11, 2008. I thought it would be great as my first post on Mama is a Verb because I feel it captures the frustrations of a new mom so well. Enjoy a story from my past!**

New babies are often mistaken in regards to their gender. Short hair and rounded features make it hard to distinguish little girls from boys. We new moms try our best to let the world know that our little girls are girls and our little boys are boys... sometimes to no avail.

I constantly hear comments like, "Oh what a cute little boy!" and "Aw, he's so cute. How old is your little man?" I have resolved to ignore such comments, as I understand how hard it can be to tell the difference between babies' genders... but at times I am still dumb-struck at how inobservant some people can be.

For instance, today Courtney and I were at Wal-Mart. She was dressed in pink, with a pink blanket, a pink pacifer, and a purple doll. A well-meaning older lady approached us, smiled, and said, "Oh, well, now that must be a little boy. He's so cute!"

"Yes, mam," I replied through clenched teeth, "thank you."

I didn't want to correct her- she was a sweet older lady, and I know she didn't mean anything by it. Besides, a man made the same mistake at the gym this morning. I hear that sort of thing all the time. I know it's partly my fault for dressing Courtney in little brown pants or green shirts... still feminine when you look up close, but easily mistaken for "boy clothes" from a distance. But why should she be forced to wear pink every day just so the world can be assured of her femininity? Besides, as illustrated by our experience in Wal-Mart this morning, pink doesn't always work.

I guess I let it get to me today. Most days I can let these comments go, but today I had had enough. I found myself shopping online for the pinkest of all pink frilly shirts I could find on Oldnavy.com. My vendeta grew personal when we got home. I dressed Courtney in the pinkest, frilliest, most GIRLY dress I could find, put a pink bow in her hair, and took several pictures to post on our blog.

"This will teach em!" I thought. "Now the WHOLE WORLD will know she's a girl! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!"

Time out: What was I thinking?

So I took the pictures. I got several cute shots, but for all the wrong reasons. I think Courtney must have picked up on my attitude, because the more pictures we took the more she protested, until finally she pulled down my PINK backdrop, tore off her PINK shoes, and fussed until her face turned PINK. Of course, the mom in me took over and I picked her up. I helped her shed the frills and I put her back in her little onesie (which, go figure, was also pink...).

Keith walked in the door and I all of a sudden realized how ridiculous I was acting. By the time I realized my motivation behind the little shopping spree & high-glam photo shoot, her new, PINK, trendy clothes were already on the way; and I had given Courtney everything she needed to fuel a few nightmares about being chased by ribbon, lace and pink frills.

Why did I think I had to PROVE to the world that my daughter was, in fact, a little girl? Who cares? So I heard a few uninformed comments this week... no big deal. I couldn't believe I let myself get so worked up about something so insignificant... again. Courtney was oblivious to each and every comment, but was still subjected to mommy's little passive-aggressive tantrum. I learned something important from this experience: What Courtney doesn't know won't hurt her... but what Mommy doesn't know is that sometimes she can act like an overly-emotional doofus.