Pink-for-girls, blue-for-boys tradition dying

Jodi-Ann Gilpin, POSITIVE Parenting Writer

"I just had a baby girl and all her things are pink, its a pink affair with all of us," said a gleeful first-time mom, Kimesha Wilson.

This member of the Tarrant Baptist Church who recently gave birth to one-month-old Zaya, said that she still loves the tradition of pink for girls and blue for boys, and believes it still has it's place.

But what of other mothers? Have they thrown the long-standing tradition out the window?

For Josette Steele, a mother of two children, this colour-coding of boys and girls is slowly fading.

"I'm not really fussy, and I honestly think that there are more important things that we need to inculcate in our children, like discipline," she pointed out.

"To some extent it does exist and I believe that there are quite a few mothers especially, who still bear these things in mind, but my thing is that we should move away from those things and focus on instilling morals and values in our children," said Steele.

Dr Lois Parkes, another member of the church, is not necessarily tickled by this blue-for-boys and pink-for-girls custom.

"It doesn't really matter to me, I love blue. I see many girls wearing blue though I wouldn't necessarily want to see a baby boy wearing pink but I honestly don't think it's an issue," said Parkes.

Some societies, also, like in the United States of America, have been slowly slipping away from the tradition, due to gender bias implications.

Hamleys, the country's most famous toy store, has taken the gender twist a notch further. It has abandoned its traditional separate floors for boys and girls after a campaign on Twitter accused it of operating 'gender apartheid'. New signs in the store now state what type of toys are sold on each floor, rather than suggesting who should play with them.

The campaign was started by Laura Nelson, a political blogger who writes under the name 'Delilah' and who trained as a neuroscientist. She believes that young children's development can be limited if they play with only one sort of toy. She was horrified by the 'sea of pink' on the girls' floor at Hamleys, which had fluffy animals, cookery sets and hair and beauty-related toys including a beauty salon called 'Tantrum'