It was a pull-up emergency.
A butter, eggs and shampoo emergency, but that is of little detail.


Off to Costco we went.
All of us.


Guess what?
The princess PullUps-
GONE.
They were only available in size 4T-5T.
Which are both too big for tiny Lucy, but also too expensive. (60 in a box compared to 88 in the 2T-3T size. Hello!)

So what did we do?
Bought the boy ones.


I have to admit that it is a little weird.
Lucy could care less.
She thinks it's funny.
That's her.
Chewbacca loving, boy PullUp wearing, her.


But it got me thinking...
I bet that if I had a son and needed to choose between buying a box of princess PullUps, or hauling everyone on an extra trip to Target, I would choose Target 10 out of 10 times.


Because I can't imagine any father being cool with his boy rocking Sleeping Beauty as he slept.


57 Comments

  1. That's because men and boys are shallow and insecure and girls and women are broad minded and evolved.My belief...

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  2. Ha! we wouldn't care one bit. But yes, it is a major double standard. Our 2 year old girl loves cars & trucks, and other kinds of "boy" stuff. She also loves girl stuff. We don't think twice about it. If we had a boy, we still wouldn't care, but we would think twice.

    Glad you're lettin her rock the Cars pull ups! :)

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  3. Being the mom of a boy, I would have definitely made the extra trip to Target. ;)

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  4. Been there, SO done that. My Sassy rocked the Cars pull-ups for weeks. Hey, they were on sale!

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  5. I have two little boys, in fact I think my Drew looks just like your Janey. And my husband wouldn't even give a sleeping beauty pull up a second look.

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  6. HA! Seriously ... although my husband would not have it, as a mama of one boy, I don't think I could do it either ;). The same goes for clothes ... girls can cutely wear boys clothing, but it doesn't go so easily the other way. I guess as girls we're pretty lucky that way ... more options :).

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  7. Is it bad if I admit my son may have worn a pink pull-up? They were the only ones AT Target in 2T-3T. We, too, were desperate. He'll never know. At least, that was Mommy's fault.

    Him dressing up in the fairy wings of his sister's on his own, well, that's another story.

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  8. Sooo Funny and soo true - I am the mother of a almost 6mth old girl and don't really care if she has a "boy" colour on but all the mums of boys I know are really particular about thier boys clothes cause the baby daddies are so padantic about it.

    Also wanted to say I think you rock and love love love the way you write and put your thoughts down into words it truly is a gift ;)

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  9. I did it. I put girly pullups on my son, mind you I have a girl 14 months younger and sometimes you get what you get :)

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  10. my extremely girly, princess-loving girl chose the cars pull ups once at target and her little brother did get stuck in an extra princess pull up once or twice, but i am definitely hoping number 3 doesn't care because she has an entire bag of car pull-ups to inherit one day.

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  11. you are so right! i hate the double standard that exists for boys. it's totally cool for a girl to love trucks and rockets and dirt, but when a boy plays with dolls the world requires an intervention. lame i tell you. totally lame.

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  12. It wouldn't bother us. Pink's just a colour after all, and my son loves Tinkerbell and Barbie princess shows. Some emergency pull ups in pink wouldn't matter to us!

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  13. I thought that the most absorbent areas we located differently on the boy and girl pull-ups. Either way you do what you gotta do!

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  14. you are absolutely right. and i would rather die than have my boy wearing princess...beth keeps telling me I have to embrace it for this baby girl I am having in a week...but i have been so anti-princess that i am just not sure!

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  15. (don't tell my boy... he used up his sister's old pull ups with sleeping beauty... and he never really cared! nor did i mention it to anyone else!!!)

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  16. That's funny. Last summer we had a swim diaper emergency.. and of course all they had were girl ones. Brady could have cared less since all he wanted was in the water... but we all felt a tad goofy..
    Staci

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  17. I hate the double standard and try to shatter it in our house. Our boys would wear the sleeping beauty pull ups. My husband wouldn't even think twice about it. Right now my youngest son, age 6, is sporting nail polish. He got a "manicure" last week while on spring break at the sitters(sitter checked to see if it was ok first). They returned to school yesterday, with his painted finger nails. He said some boys picked on him but he told them it was "just polish! No big deal!"

    He also carried around a purse and doll for about a year because he wanted to be like his mama.

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  18. I don't know. This mother just might not. It would be a tuff choice though. I am trying to debate in my mind. Because lets be honest, taking 3 kids to any store is a bit of work. And tiring. But, I don't know if my boy would go for the Princesses. He just might put his foot down. If it was his other brother (who is younger then him and doesn't need pull-ups) he wouldn't care at all. He is just like that. He goes with the flow. Glad your daughter was good with Lightening McQueen :) She can just imagine Sally on them too!

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  19. HAHAHA! This happened to us last week!! So funny! Boy pullups it is for us too :)
    Love it! And TOTALLY double standard...so funny!

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  20. I am loving what Tam wrote haha!! My son is a TOTAL boy... loves the dirt, loves monster trucks and baseball and karate and beating things up like most boys. BUT he also has an undying love for the Disney princesses, the color pink, and nail polish! I am totally cool with that- I think when you squash that originality and independent thought, kids start to think there is something wrong with their opinions!! So I say, embrace the boy pull-ups- your daughter obviously does!! :)
    xoxox Holly

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  21. this happened to me (mom of only boys) and i thought "of course i want to get girl pull ups especially when it was just for night time wearing". my husband said absolutely not.

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  22. One of my favorite stories ever was from my best friend. She went to pick up her little boy from daycare, and he had had some sort of accident that day. There weren't any spare clothes for whatever reason, and he ended up in loaner pink pants - AND - princess underwear. My friend didn't recognize her boy when he walked up to her, and to make it worse, she had to run errands with him dressed like that. And then, she decided to leave him in the clothes so Dad would see when he got home. His reaction and her laughter about it was priceless. But. I hear you. Completely.

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  23. lol, this is too funny! but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do. lets just hope they have the princess ones in stock next time ;)

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  24. It is definitely a double standard. I have my first boy after two girls, and I just donated a perfectly good pack of Princess swim diapers last week. I just could not bring myself to put them on him this summer! Weird.

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  25. funny! i had to read this to my husband...it was good enough to make him laugh as well. i'm glad little lucy doesn't mind the boy pull-ups.

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  26. confession! we've had our 3 year old in princess pullups for a while now (we just ran out of them...)
    we bought it by mistake and never took the time to return it to the store. my 3 year old did not care, one little bit. neither did his father. i do always wonder though, WHY ARE THEY NOT SELLING NEUTRAL GENDER ONES????? couldn't they have them in green? purple? yellow???
    i DON'T get it.

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  27. that lucy could rock anything!!!

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  28. luckily, my little boy wouldn't care less. He has an older sister, so he thinks princesses are pretty cool!

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  29. My seven year old boy still wears pullups and one night we were at a freinds and he needed a pull up for bed (I had forgotten one from home). All they had were disney princess style, so he had to wear it. He was a good sport about it. His twin brother was laughing at him...they were super silly over it!

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  30. hmmm.. you are right. not sure if i would be okay with that either? maybe i'll find out in a few years and let you know ;)

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  31. Hee Hee. I have a little girl that hasn't wore the princess pants for a while because I got a killer sale on the boy pants. She doesn't care. Neither do I. It just means the money I saved on the pull ups, I can buy her another dress. That makes her happy.

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  32. Can I be on the opposite fence here? We let the boys pick out whatever they want to wear. I have walked out of Target with a pair of lavender socks for Nate because he wanted to wear them. My husband Jon is 100% okay with him wearing pink pullups or purple socks. I have also put make up on him and painted his toenails.

    We want them to grow up feeling like they can express themselves. Hard to swim against the stream on this one but I don't want the peer pressure to conform to come from home.

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  33. You make me laugh Julie. You just do. :)

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  34. Heheh! What a dilemma. Knowing my girl she'd prefer the boy ones anyday...!

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  35. We had a girl first, and then a little boy. He has totally sported a few hand me down pink onesies. I figure who cares when we're home?! He's even worn them out under his jacket before. I don't think the emergency princess pull ups possibility will be a problem for us in the future.

    Also, my baby brother is the youngest of four, with three older sisters. My mom didn't cut his hair until he was two years old, and even then it was only because my dad started complaining about his older sisters clipping it back in bows and headbands. LOL!

    So I guess it just depends on the person, ya know?

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  36. One day, while out and about my Turner had an accident...poor kid! While doing a search through the ultra cool mommy-van,(which by the way I am sure I could find everything on ANYONE's scavenger hunt list) I found a bag with extra clothes from Leah. Well Turner then informed me that he would rather wear nothing at all then wear girl clothes. Log story shorter... I learned three lessons that day
    1. I have a van with cargo storage pack extra clothes for everyone
    2. When that boy says he has to go to the bathroom, he cannot wait until the next stop.
    3. Boys DON'T wear girl clothes. Would rather go nude.
    (although, I did babysit in college for a family that was raising their kids in a gender neutral environment, but my friend that is a whole "nother" can of worms
    Your friend Jen Christians

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  37. Total double standard!
    Last summer, I needed to get Kate some more swim diapers & Target had the boys Cars ones on clearance for $3.98, so I bought them instead!

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  38. DUDE.
    You MUST come read this post STAT.

    http://www.bringingupburns.com/2009/07/my-metro-macho-munchie.html

    You are SO right, BTW.
    XO

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  39. But just to be clear...Wyatt LOVES Dora...so Dora pull ups are RAD.

    And he currently has black nail polish on his toes. (calls them his pirate toes) and is alseep with HOT PINK lips - result of kissing a stamp pad cause he wanted some "liss-stick"

    We swing both ways here at BUB.

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  40. Yep. I would have done the same. Girls' wearing Cars pull-ups? That's perfectly fine! (and, I bet she feels a bit more comfy with that bit of 'extra room' in them). ha!

    ...but - yes. A boy sportin' Cinderella pull-ups? No. It's just not right. (and, I'm sure dads - especially - would not like to think that their boys are wearing princesses) ;)

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  41. My little girl HAD to have the boy pull ups when they had Toy Story on them! I was like, eh, whatever! As long as she is excited about wearing them, I don't care! =)

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  42. Agree....my little girl wore the Toy Story pull ups b/c of the horse on it. And for the past 2 summers I bought her boys tennis shoes b/c I couldn't stand to buy Dora or Hello Kitty ones. I'm pretty sure no boys would rock Dora shoes, either.

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  43. I'd let my girl wear Lightning McQueen, but my boys would REVOLT at the mention of girl pull-ups. The battle that would result from even trying it would be worse than the extra trip to Target. Go figure.

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  44. This is an interesting one. I think we would be fine with it, as long as the girl and boy pull ups function the same way. Possibly because we have a son who has worn hand me down pink water wings for the past couple of summers. I have this rocking pair of water wings that I cannot seem to find anywhere. They are cloth covered and so cozy and work better than any I have seen. He also has been known to carry cars in a purse. I fought it pretty hard, but just couldn't argue with his logic that it was better transport of his cars than his hands.

    We have tried not to make a big deal, because when the girlie in the house wants to rock a boys' shirt, it is not a big deal. Now, if my son wanted to wear a princess pull up or a floral skirt to preschool, I might have to pull rank. Just wouldn't want him to get made fun of.

    It is funny how we adults put our own insecurities on our kids. I always try to remember that back in the day boys were dressed in pink and girls in blue!

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  45. LOL! You're right though...Sleeping Beauty would be a no-go...

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  46. My daughter is totally crazy about Cars. We were at a local store the other night and they had boy Pull-ups with Lightning McQueen on them on sale for $6.75/pack in her size. I bought enough for her to rock Lightning McQueen at bedtime for several months, and she is THRILLED. Hubby has no problem with it, but yes, it would be a different story if she was a boy & those were princess pull-ups.

    She also wears boys underoos with Cars & Toy Story on them. Hey, they don't make them in girls panties.

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  47. we've bought the girl ones a time or two in such a case for our little boy...I wasn't crazy about it, but after the fact, DH was like...yeah...NEVER again...not cool at all. the worst part of it is when you go somewhere and you can see the pink shining out of the top of their pants/shorts...definitely not my proudest mama moment, but sometimes you do what you gotta do!

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  48. I totally agree - I would never have put Princess diapers on my son, meanwhile my daughter picked out a Diego toilet seat and I'm fine with it. Never really thought of it in reverse until you mentioned it. Things that make you go hmm...

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  49. that is so funny! we have 2 boys and would never buy princess pull ups for them. once at the dr my older son (when he was still in diapers) needed a new one and i didn't have anymore. all the drs office had was princess pull ups and he wore them until we got home then i changed him. i don't know why it was so weird for me! but also kind of funny ;)

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  50. For me, it seemed every summer the boys swim diapers in my sons size were gone, so he was forced to wear princess ones...which of course always managed to peek out the top of his swimsuit!

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  51. Depends on what you mean by rocking....;-)

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  52. We have two boys and chose the princess pull ups. LOL. They didn't care. Same reason as you, they were out of the boy ones.

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  53. I hate spending the money on pull-ups! We use the Target brand. They have robots on them that my sons just loves! And they work just as well for us! :)

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  54. Check. My "baby" boy in pink pull ups, we HAD to use the leftovers from 3 sisters before we could buy the blue ones. I think they were Dora. He was cool with that! :)His ultra manly Dad also zips his princess dress up outfit for him, as needed!

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