Four Reasons Why We're "Team Green"

I have, for the last 7 months and a quarter, been met with a wide variety of reactions when I say that we aren’t finding out the gender of our child.  (Until it gets here, of course)  There hasn’t been one particular group that reacts a certain way or the other, it’s just been…odd.  My husband has been on board from the beginning.  So has my mom…or so I thought.  I asked my mother a day or so after we told them we were pregnant if she minded if we didn’t find out the gender and she reacted, whole-heartedly, with positivity and said that they’ve been waiting so long for this to happen that it didn’t matter.  By the way, she has been telling everyone that they didn’t think that this was going to happen for them cuz they’ve been waiting.  I mean everyone!  You would think that Ryan and I had been married for 10 years already.  We just celebrated our one year anniversary!  Anyways, now she thinks that we are lying about knowing the gender and she keeps having these moments where she thinks she ‘catches’ us.  I don’t know.  

The point is that I knew that not everyone would get it but I didn’t know there would be such boisterous responses either way.  It’s a weird thing to learn that the genitalia of your baby matters so much to so many people, most of which probably won’t even know the baby when they aren’t inside my body.  Therefore, I decided to write down why we don’t want to know Baby G’s gender.   These may be why other people choose this as well, or not, I don’t know.  These are just things that I think are important and don’t necessarily reflect what other people feel.  I don’t mind if other people find out the sex and I’m sure not judging them for it.  I personally think some of this list sounds dramatic but it’s how I feel about it. Without further ado, here are 4 reasons why I don’t want to know what my baby’s nether regions look like.

4) Gender Specific Colors.   I hate pink.  I think I’ve always hated it and the fact that when I was young I picked my leg cast to be hot pink was one of the weirdest decisions I’ve ever made in my whole life.  I didn’t want to find out it was a girl and automatically get hammered with pink.  Furthermore, why are colors ‘gender specific’ in the first place?  It’s ridiculous!  They are freakin’ colors, people.  I picked up an infant beanie in a store the other day and the lady said, “Oh, you’re having a boy?!”  I said, “No, I just like the color.”  There was once a time when pink and blue were not only meant for one gender or the other.  They are only colors. 
I just didn’t want to have a bunch of blue or a bunch of pink littering the entirety of the kid’s wardrobe and nursery.  At least, not right of the bat. 

3) Personal Entertainment.  Some of the reactions we get sure may be awkward but they are definitely fun to watch.  People’s mouths drop open.  People have patted my tummy and spoken to me like I should be up for an award or something.  People have questioned us on all of our life decisions.  I have had people ask, “OMG, how can you stand it?!!” Its crazy!  And it’s a little funny.  My mother-in-law, for the longest time, kept asking, “So you’re not finding out whether it’s a boy or girl?”  Sometimes she would ask a few times in one visit.  When we would say, No, she would say, each time, “Well, as long as it’s healthy.”  She would press her hands out and say it each time.  I finally told my husband that I thought she was mostly telling herself that-like an affirmation or something.  Its fun getting people to tell you their guesses!  It makes it exciting for everyone.  You get crazy advice, sometimes, about what the gender has to be because of this or that, and its all great fun.  I have had people tell me it’s a boy because of how I carry, and also, because of how I’m carrying, it has to be a girl. 
Everyone eagerly awaits!  They’re excited to see who is betting right, and we are excited to get a baby!

2)  Babies Are People, Too.   (I wasn’t sure how to title this one.) One of my issues is that even infant clothes toys tend to be so gender specific.  Even in clothes, if you go to a boy’s clothes section, everything is dinosaurs, cars, and some sports themes in blue, green, or black.  If you go into a girl’s clothes section everything is cupcakes, and princesses drowning in pink.  Boys are expected to play with particular toys, even in an infant stage, and girls, as well.  Do babies play with those toys with their genitalia?  No?  Then it can be played with by whomever.  Yes, girls tend to play differently than most boys do and have different interests most of the time, but why are we pushing only certain interests on our kids just because of they are boys or girls?  I feel as though, by only getting “Girl Things” or “Boy Things” for my kids I’m telling them they can only interested in certain things and only be certain things when they grow up.  Girls don’t have to be princesses and have to get toy kitchens.  Boys don’t have to be sports stars and only play with super heroes.  I want them to figure out who they are on their own. 
Yes, they are only babies, but babies grow up to be grown-ups!  I don’t want to set them up to think that they are limited by their gender. 

1) The Simple Surprise.  There are really so few surprises in life these days.  We can find out so much so easily from social media, to google, to modern sciences.  We rush around to get to place to place.  We can get food brought to us at the touch of a button.  We just thought, “Hey, let’s slow things down and wait to find out what kind of gift we have.”  We would much rather tell everyone “It’s a boy” or “It’s a girl” or “Meet so-and-so” than just say, “Here they are.”  We want the surprise at the end of tunnel.  Labor is hard work and since we are also doing a natural birth, we will both be working hard to get to the end. 
We can’t wait until the last push and we can see who we have!  That kind of surprise just can’t be duplicated.