How will this work then?

Before our GD arrived, eight years ago, her parents were all concern about gender stereotyping and vowed to ensure that she wasn't dressed in 'girly' pink or given dolls to the exclusion of other, gender neutral toys.

Our GD soon (by the time she was two) had decided she liked pink girly things.... End of parents' high falutin' ideas about gender stereotyping.

As RB will no doubt discover.

Russel Brand. Enough said. ANYTHING to get attention.

Sorry about doubling up. As always I don't know quite how I did that and I can't see a way to delete one of them

Child abuse in my opinion.

It was a lot easier 40 years ago when I had my babies not to dress them, amuse them etc, in a gender specific way. Long before the arrival of pink everything for girls, I made my children's clothes and my girls as well as my son were usually in practical dungarees or shorts made with any material I had, dark brown, grey, whatever. Most toys were of the construction type and since I was the one who did the DIY in our home they didn't grow up thinking that Dad wields the hammer and screwdriver while Mum cooks and cleans. In fact they thought correctly that Mum did everything but that's a whole other story. It was at nursery school that they discovered that boys and girls were expected to behave quite differently and I guess Russell Brand is going to need to home-school his child if he wants to avoid that happening,
My first grandson who spent 30 hours a week with me was obsessed with cars and had one in his hand at all times. I put every other possible entertainment in front of him but he stuck fast to his cars. Then I hauled our ancient dolls house and furniture down from the loft. He set about placing the furniture and feeling pleased with myself I went to prepare his lunch. All was quiet and when I went to check on him I found a car lovingly placed on every chair and in every bed.
My youngest grandson who I now look after carries a soft toy with him everywhere and has no interest in our huge accumulation of vehicles.
RB will learn soon enough that children are who they are and try as he will he won't be able to change that.

It was a lot easier 40 years ago when I had my babies not to dress them, amuse them etc, in a gender specific way. Long before the arrival of pink everything for girls, I made my children's clothes and my girls as well as my son were usually in practical dungarees or shorts made with any material I had, dark brown, grey, whatever. Most toys were of the construction type and since I was the one who did the DIY in our home they didn't grow up thinking that Dad wields the hammer and screwdriver while Mum cooks and cleans. In fact they thought correctly that Mum did everything but that's a whole other story. It was at nursery school that they discovered that boys and girls were expected to behave quite differently and I guess Russell Brand is going to need to home-school his child if he wants to avoid that happening,
My first grandson who spent 30 hours a week with me was obsessed with cars and had one in his hand at all times. I put every other possible entertainment in front of him but he stuck fast to his cars. Then I hauled our ancient dolls house and furniture down from the loft. He set about placing the furniture and feeling pleased with myself I went to prepare his lunch. All was quiet and when I went to check on him I found a car lovingly placed on every chair and in every bed.
My youngest grandson who I now look after carries a soft toy with him everywhere and has no interest in our huge accumulation of vehicles.
RB will learn soon enough that children are who they are and try as he will he won't be able to change that.

I quite like the idea I must admit, although it may be difficult. I think many people (and I include myself here) are happy to dress girls in 'boys' clothes they may be more reluctant to dress boys in 'girls' clothes. It's also been shown that as a general rule, people let young boys do riskier and rougher play than girls. There was a really good programme on it on BBC a few years ago.
However as children get older it's different. But the more I think about it the more I like the idea of not telling people your baby's gender.
My daughter has twins and she doesn't tell anyone which is born first, and I can't remember.

He's been out of the news recently, he had to do something to get himself noticed again.

I think they know long before the age of 8!

young children don't know whether they are male or female until about the age of 8 so what's the problem. That man, if I may call him that loosely, if a fool of the highest order and who in the right mind takes notice when he pontificates.

I dont think you should take russell brand too seriously. He is an oddball and a windup merchant. I'm not sure who the mother of this child is, I suppose a lot depends on her. He never seems to stay with anyone for long.

Incidentally, I get so fed up with reading about these idiots, such as Steph (who was in the Big Brother House)in the newspapers. It's so boring and these celebrities are so ghastly.

I'm not surprised at anything Russell Brand does. He's an utter moron and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children, The mother to be, can't be too bright either, if she goes to bed with someone like him.

Russell Brand is a total prat!!!!!

I think he was just trying to get publicity for himself. He is an absolute crackpot,and I too feel sorry for any child of his, but I expect he has loads of money and it will get very spoilt.

Both the DGD were dressed in denim the other day, can't get more gender-neutral than that!
however they did refer to each other as she as in 'she just said a naughty word', 'well, because she just pinched me'
Best friends really.

Oh no!! Lego nowadays is mainly either 'Friends', 'Frozen' (for girls) or war-like fantasy for boys.

There is always Minecraft lego which is gender-neutral! Or the good old-fashioned stuff - thank goodness we have a large box of years old Lego!

Perhaps in some ways he is right - there is far too much gender stereotyping of toys these days, aisles labelled 'Boys' Toys' and 'Girls' Toys'.

widh him uck in finding gender neutral clothese, looks like you either have pink/frills/tutus for girls - sometimes all in the same garment or bright colours/dinosaurs/trucks/tractors etc aines squarely at boys/ Also toy shops are full of pink or blue boxes, even ;lego has brought out a girls range & I would have though that it was as gender neutral as it comes

Agree with whitewave... Can anyone believe what is said in such magazines?

Will he refer to the child as 'it'? Will 'it' have all gender specific pronouns removed?

What if, for example, 'it' is called "Apple" (and I only chose that as I can see apples on the tree as I type) and they want to refer to Apple's virtues or faults?

This is Apple. It is a very naughty Apple.It has pinched some of little Titania's clothes and she is very cross with it.

Other than that I see no problems at all with it.. oh, which it do I mean?

Not sure how he will manage that in a world that divides people into genders, one of his fanciful ideas, which I hope dies a death before the poor kid is too confused.

He's a bigger prat than I thought he was. He might live to regret this decision, or hopefully his fiancee will come to her senses and bring the baby up normally, whatever that is!

So how does this 'gender-neutral' thing work? If, say, all colours around the child are gender neutral, what happens if this child is a girl and notices other little girls wearing pink and wants a pink dress? Will she be told, no, you can have yellow, beige, green but not pink because it is stereotypically feminine?

I am not saying that I agree necessarily with little girls being dressed in pink all the time, having pink bedrooms, but from my experience pink pink pink is what the DGD wanted until DGD1 reached the age of 7 and decided pink was 'passé' and blue was her favourite colour.
Thank goodness she got it out of her system - had they refused to let her have pink clothes perhaps she would have developed an obsession with it in later life.

Or is pink OK?

Exactly, gillybob. Maternal instinct, I'd say.

My DD was a complete screamer. She screamed from being born (5 weeks early) until she was around 2 and very rarely took breath. I had no-one to turn to for help and could have quite happily through myself (and her) from the top of the highest building.

What stopped me?