Kaci Lynn is here - Whitney and Zach's 2nd baby

[JermajestyDuggar]

7 hours ago, 19 cats and counting said:

I didn't go to older niece's baby shower (I was on the road then and I despise showers in general so it was better for me).  For her 'welcome' present I got her a personalized piggy bank (ordered after she was born as I didn't know her name ahead of time).  (I did the same for younger niece, again ordered after birth as I didn't know her name).  I figure every kid needs a piggy bank (and if I have a nephew he'll get that too).

My sister and BIL are very financially well-off (he made 6 figures right out of college) so I don't contribute financially as their parents can do that.  Gifts to them are usually a toy (Kitty Surprise was such a hit at Christmas that she likes to text me pics of it-- yes I get texts from a 3 yo) and an outfit (something with cats on it) and cat ears if I can find them.   Their birthdays are coming up and so far I haven't found anything (clothes yes but I need sizes and am waiting for coupons) so I have to take a trip to Toys R Us.

My sister sent me a pic of both of them this morning dressed as crazy cat ladies.  My training is working >^..^<  (I only give them cat items as that's my signature.  They have a very tolerant kitty who lets them use her as a pillow.)

Good luck finding cat clothing for baby boys. It's practically non existent! I guess dogs are for boys and cats are for girls. *huge eye roll* My boys love cats.

[elliha]

5 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Good luck finding cat clothing for baby boys. It's practically non existent! I guess dogs are for boys and cats are for girls. *huge eye roll* My boys love cats.

I am pretty sure that baby boys can wear cat clothes from the girls department. Problem solved. 

[Melissa1977]

3 hours ago, elliha said:

I am pretty sure that baby boys can wear cat clothes from the girls department. Problem solved. 

When cats oneside is pink with ribbons and glitter, it's not so easy.

Usually baby girl clothing is very girly and when you dress a boy with that, can be a little weird.

But if you find cat neutral clothing, good for you!

[RoseWilder]

13 hours ago, Glasgowghirl said:

Fundie parents seem to force the overly feminine stuff on girls and dont allow the boys to show any feminine side. 

Unfortunately, this isn't restricted to just Fundie parents. I used to work as a nanny and I always let the kids pick what color of cup or bowl they wanted to eat out of. It was the girl's turn to pick and she wanted to use the green bowl. But her Dad happened to walk into the room at the time and told her she couldn't use the green bowl because there were only 2 bowls that were clean right then and if she took the green one then it would leave her brother eating out of the pink bowl. 

I would like to be able to tell you this was isolated to that one family, but sadly it wasn't. It's pretty common for even non-Fundie parents to push gender stereotypes on their kids. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

4 hours ago, elliha said:

I am pretty sure that baby boys can wear cat clothes from the girls department. Problem solved. 

No that actually doesn't solve the problem. The problem is that clothing makers associate cats with girls and dogs with boys. And it comes from our culture. It is manly for a man to own a dog and wimpy for a man to own a cat. My husband had cat when I met him and I loved that about him. He wasn't embarrassed to be a cat person. I know plenty of men who would be. 

[Melissa1977]

14 hours ago, Glasgowghirl said:

The forced gender stereotypes annoy me, I liked some girly stuff growing up but I prefered playing with my brother's old toys or plastic tools, my dad had his own window company and i'd pretend I was helping him, I even had a toy measuring tape. As I got older I lived in tracksuits and my Celtic football shirt and didn't start dressing girly until mid teens. Fundie parents seem to force the overly feminine stuff on girls and dont allow the boys to show any feminine side. 

My atheist mother was the opposite. She thought that "femenine side" was better than male one, so she wanted my brother to play dolls and read poetry, which he almost never did, because he was in fact very boyish and prefered soccer and adventure books. On the other side, it wasn't welcome that I played heavy sports or showed interest in manly things. It wasn't an issue because I was very girly, but it's still wrong to force kids' personality.

 

[GnomeCat]

17 hours ago, 19 cats and counting said:

I didn't go to older niece's baby shower (I was on the road then and I despise showers in general so it was better for me).  For her 'welcome' present I got her a personalized piggy bank (ordered after she was born as I didn't know her name ahead of time).  (I did the same for younger niece, again ordered after birth as I didn't know her name).  I figure every kid needs a piggy bank (and if I have a nephew he'll get that too).

My sister and BIL are very financially well-off (he made 6 figures right out of college) so I don't contribute financially as their parents can do that.  Gifts to them are usually a toy (Kitty Surprise was such a hit at Christmas that she likes to text me pics of it-- yes I get texts from a 3 yo) and an outfit (something with cats on it) and cat ears if I can find them.   Their birthdays are coming up and so far I haven't found anything (clothes yes but I need sizes and am waiting for coupons) so I have to take a trip to Toys R Us.

My sister sent me a pic of both of them this morning dressed as crazy cat ladies.  My training is working >^..^<  (I only give them cat items as that's my signature.  They have a very tolerant kitty who lets them use her as a pillow.)

Those are some serious aunt goals, and I love it! 

[elliha]

2 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

When cats oneside is pink with ribbons and glitter, it's not so easy.

Usually baby girl clothing is very girly and when you dress a boy with that, can be a little weird.

But if you find cat neutral clothing, good for you!

What is neutral? If I try to go through the cat sweaters I have bought for my daughter some do have glitter on them but what child does not like glitter? Bows and lace can be easily removed. Not all girl sweaters are pink, there are options. I would say that generally the girls department offers more color choice than the boys department, everything is green, grey or black there. Pink and purple might dominate most girls departments but there are often also red, yellow, blue, more patterns and so on. 

[JillyO]

My husband had a hot pink jacket and pink star-shaped sunglasses as a little kid. The pictures of him are adorable and, as far as I know, his penis didn't fall of or anything.

[Fundie Bunny]

41 minutes ago, JillyO said:

My husband had a hot pink jacket and pink star-shaped sunglasses as a little kid. The pictures of him are adorable and, as far as I know, his penis didn't fall of or anything.

Great, now i need pink star shaped glasses. Thank your husband for making me spend money 

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, JillyO said:

My husband had a hot pink jacket and pink star-shaped sunglasses as a little kid. The pictures of him are adorable and, as far as I know, his penis didn't fall of or anything.

Is anyone saying that something awful will happen if a boy dresses in pink? I didn't see anything of the sort. I made the point that cat clothing is in the girl section and dog clothing is in the boy section.

[Palimpsest]

26 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Is anyone saying that something awful will happen if a boy dresses in pink? I didn't see anything of the sort. I made the point that cat clothing is in the girl section and dog clothing is in the boy section.

Fundies apparently believe something awful will happen if babies aren't dressed in gender specific clothing.  

I'm not speaking for @JillyO but I read that as a general and amusing comment that had nothing to do with cat clothing.  

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

57 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

Fundies apparently believe something awful will happen if babies aren't dressed in gender specific clothing.  

I'm not speaking for @JillyO but I read that as a general and amusing comment that had nothing to do with cat clothing.  

 

I doubt that cat could bee any cuter.

[princessmahina]

I can't tell the gender of the cat. Someone needs to stick a giant bow or a bow tie on it so I can rest assured that the kitty isn't getting any funny ideas about gender identity. 

[Coconut Flan]

7 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

But if you find cat neutral clothing, good for you!

I saw blue and green cat clothing at Wal Mart yesterday.  I didn't look to see which section it was in. 

[19 cats and counting]

I take my job as an aunt very seriously.  

I'll have to go through some of the photos I've been sent and blur the faces to show you what kind of cat clothes I've bought the girls.  THe first one I ever bought was a pink fuzzy sleeper with a cat face on it (lasted 2 kids).  I don't think anything I've bought could be considered gender neutral unless pink leopard print is considered that.

My (male) friend is turning into a cat lady (well dude).  He has a shirt that says 'Real Men Love Cats" on it.  I just got him hooked on Neko Atsume.

As for cats being associated with girls.  I had a roommate who thought all cats were girls and all dogs were boys when she was little.  As a result she named her cat Jessica.  Jessica ended up being Jesse and it was only a few years later when roommate accepted that fact.

ETA gender neutral cat things-- Dr Seuss' Cat in the Hat.

[lucypepys]

10 hours ago, RoseWilder said:

Unfortunately, this isn't restricted to just Fundie parents. I used to work as a nanny and I always let the kids pick what color of cup or bowl they wanted to eat out of. It was the girl's turn to pick and she wanted to use the green bowl. But her Dad happened to walk into the room at the time and told her she couldn't use the green bowl because there were only 2 bowls that were clean right then and if she took the green one then it would leave her brother eating out of the pink bowl. 

I would like to be able to tell you this was isolated to that one family, but sadly it wasn't. It's pretty common for even non-Fundie parents to push gender stereotypes on their kids. 

That sounds so familiar to me!  I had to go to speech therapy class for a while in elementary school (my "L's" sounded like "Y's"), and we'd get a token every time we pronounced a word correctly, which went into a little bucket.  We got to choose the colour of the bucket, and I would always pick blue, because it was my favourite colour and I HATED pink, but the teacher would make me use the pink bowl anyway if there were boys there, because apparently "boys can't use pink."  I'm still bitter about that, plus I absolutely hated that class anyway.  I would do almost anything to try to get out of going.

[JillyO]

8 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Is anyone saying that something awful will happen if a boy dresses in pink? I didn't see anything of the sort. I made the point that cat clothing is in the girl section and dog clothing is in the boy section.

What @Palimpsest said. If you ask me, they could just get rid of boys' and girls' sections altogether. It makes sense for, you know, anyone who has been through puberty, just because of different body types. But I have yet to hear a compelling argument as to why boy children and girl children need to wear different clothing. Cat clothes and dog clothes for all!

[nelliebelle1197]

19 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Is anyone saying that something awful will happen if a boy dresses in pink? I didn't see anything of the sort. I made the point that cat clothing is in the girl section and dog clothing is in the boy section.

I don't think that was about you.

My son had a purse and painted his nails. He is 9 and just went to get a facial cause he wanted one. My daughter wants a penis. I have a feeling they will both be fine.

[Granwych]

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 8:59 PM, JillyO said:

What @Palimpsest said. If you ask me, they could just get rid of boys' and girls' sections altogether. It makes sense for, you know, anyone who has been through puberty, just because of different body types. But I have yet to hear a compelling argument as to why boy children and girl children need to wear different clothing. Cat clothes and dog clothes for all!

Grandwych is prone to Star Wars onesies...some personalized.  Little black onesies.  

Oh, and he is partial to cats, too.

[LawsonBatesEgo]

On 7/9/2016 at 0:17 AM, JillyO said:

My husband had a hot pink jacket and pink star-shaped sunglasses as a little kid. The pictures of him are adorable and, as far as I know, his penis didn't fall of or anything.

As a little kid on school holidays, i used to be baby sat by my aunt while my parents went to work, so it was me, my three girl cousins (one my age, two a couple of years older) and my little brother.

We used to LOVE giving my brother makeovers with toy makeup and putting him in dresses. We have some hilarious photos of it. He also just used to play with their toys and play the same games we were playing. 

He's 26. Sky didn't fall in because a boy played with a toy oven or played 'faires'. Still presumably has a penis since he made a baby with his wife a couple of years ago. 

[kjmackin]

On July 8, 2016 at 5:54 PM, lucypepys said:

That sounds so familiar to me!  I had to go to speech therapy class for a while in elementary school (my "L's" sounded like "Y's"), and we'd get a token every time we pronounced a word correctly, which went into a little bucket.  We got to choose the colour of the bucket, and I would always pick blue, because it was my favourite colour and I HATED pink, but the teacher would make me use the pink bowl anyway if there were boys there, because apparently "boys can't use pink."  I'm still bitter about that, plus I absolutely hated that class anyway.  I would do almost anything to try to get out of going.

I also had to attend speech therapy classes up until 8th grade. By 7th grade I pretty much said fuck that class because I was tried of being pulled out in middle of English class were I would miss things. Actually I'm still resentful about that because I missed enough with grammar that I'm still paying for. 

 

Twos ish weeks ago my husband's sister had her little potato. Oddly enough I'm impressed that the child didn't have any complications upon birth. But because of the messed up situation that the kid is likely to be raised in we decided to due a 529 program. We want the kid to have a chance to go to college and afford it to a point. Also the 529 plan would make it easy for us to prevent my SIL and the druggie baby daddy from ridding the fund. No decision if we are going to gift other items as the kid grows up but probably if we can get the loudest toy ever. 

[VelociRapture]

9 hours ago, kjmackin said:

I also had to attend speech therapy classes up until 8th grade. By 7th grade I pretty much said fuck that class because I was tried of being pulled out in middle of English class were I would miss things. Actually I'm still resentful about that because I missed enough with grammar that I'm still paying for. 

 

Twos ish weeks ago my husband's sister had her little potato. Oddly enough I'm impressed that the child didn't have any complications upon birth. But because of the messed up situation that the kid is likely to be raised in we decided to due a 529 program. We want the kid to have a chance to go to college and afford it to a point. Also the 529 plan would make it easy for us to prevent my SIL and the druggie baby daddy from ridding the fund. No decision if we are going to gift other items as the kid grows up but probably if we can get the loudest toy ever. 

That's an excellent idea! Especially in a situation where you're concerned about potential misuse of funds. It's an excellent way to show you care about your nibling, while also helping to plan for their future.

My husband and I will be opening a CHET (Connecticut Higher Education Trust) for our baby after they're born. It's the only program run through the state and its actually pretty good. My sister and her husband setup some sort of account for their son after he was born in February too.

Books are a big gift item in my family too. My grandparents always gave us at least one book for each birthday and Christmas growing up. It led to a lifelong love of reading for us - my sister even became an English teacher. So that's something I look forward to doing for my nephew, any future niblings, and my own kids as well.

On July 9, 2016 at 7:57 AM, nelliebelle1197 said:

I don't think that was about you.

My son had a purse and painted his nails. He is 9 and just went to get a facial cause he wanted one. My daughter wants a penis. I have a feeling they will both be fine.

This reminds me of an article I read about Chris Hemsworth a while back. His daughter told him she wanted a penis like her baby brothers. He thought for half-a-second and said that was fine with him. She ran off all happy and promptly forgot about it. 

Its a really cute little story, but I'm always struck by what a great example of parenting it is too. He didn't make it a big deal, which means his daughter will grow up knowing it's not a big deal either. And he also let her know that she can tell him stuff like that without needing to worry about him being upset or judgemental - yeah, it was just a little thing, but sometimes little things like this can have the biggest impact over time.

Somehow I don't see the Bates parents or their offspring doing that for their children. 

[nolongerIFBx]

2 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

This reminds me of an article I read about Chris Hemsworth a while back. His daughter told him she wanted a penis like her baby brothers. He thought for half-a-second and said that was fine with him. She ran off all happy and promptly forgot about it. 

Its a really cute little story, but I'm always struck by what a great example of parenting it is too. He didn't make it a big deal, which means his daughter will grow up knowing it's not a big deal either. And he also let her know that she can tell him stuff like that without needing to worry about him being upset or judgemental - yeah, it was just a little thing, but sometimes little things like this can have the biggest impact over time.

Somehow I don't see the Bates parents or their offspring doing that for their children. 

Hmmn, wonder what the best response would be in the opposite situation--a little boy who no longer wants a penis. What if Dad/Mom says, "That's fine with me" and the kid decides to take care of it himself? I think Chris H. got lucky it was his daughter!

[Fundie Bunny]

54 minutes ago, nolongerIFBx said:

Hmmn, wonder what the best response would be in the opposite situation--a little boy who no longer wants a penis. What if Dad/Mom says, "That's fine with me" and the kid decides to take care of it himself? I think Chris H. got lucky it was his daughter!

Why would anyone not want a penis? Penises are useful and convenient.