My name is Cartside and I let my daughter sleep in a blue cot

As Snowflake gets older we're slowly but surely passing on all things baby stuff. I'm not one to just throw things out, most items are in perfect condition and I could never just bin it, so I try my best to find someone who could make use of it.

This has led to the odd chuckle.

I must be a really bad mum. Imagine, I let my girl sleep in a blue cot. Oh my. And I prevented her from falling out of the bed with a blue bed guard. Oh the shame. (I still live in hope that there's redemption for me because both were actually hardly used at all.)

Now, I'm totally resigned to the choices my girls make, and Cubling is pink ballerina princess incarnate. We have so much pink in the house it makes me sick. But it's ok I tell myself (although I'm very tempted to rid ourselves of the chair with her name on it that says "I want to be a ballarina, pop star, stewardess, nurse), she loves pink and is just a lot more girlie than I ever was. Thankfully her sister happily declares she's a boy because she's George and her big sister is Peppa. That's fine too, I quite like to pretend I've got one each occasionally.

But it seems that I live in a land where pink and blue aren't optional but compulsory. You mustn't dress your girl in anything not pink. You mustn't use any toy that is not pink. You mustn't use a blue cot. A colleague introduced her new baby girl who was dressed in something blue and everyone assumed it was a boy. It wasn't baby blue, it was a colour that to me didn't shout out boy and I'd never have made a gender assumption based on the colour of that outfit, so much so that I noticed the various people surrounding her that did call the baby "he".

You see, I'm trying to sell or give away the stuff and have offered things to people desperate for them, only to be told, sorry I have a girl so was really looking for something pink?

People of the kind responding to my gumtree and netmums adverts, I have 2 (TWO) girls and I'm sick to the bone of pink, I promise you your daughter will not even notice they are sleeping in a blue cot or are kept inside the bed by a blue bed guard. I'm not just being terrorised by my older daughter now, but also by fellow mums who I would have thought would be as tired of the omnipresent pink as I was. It's a pink army out there, I tell you.

I mean, I'm really not trying to make a point of clothing my girls in neutral stuff. They wouldn't wear it. I'm not radical and totally ride the wave of my girls' preferences which very often are pink to my dismay. But I'm really surprised that fellow mums have subscribed to the pink marketing to this extend. Welcome to the kingdom of pink. By extension, how can we expect our daughters to choose anything other than what offer them in the pink world of toys and equipment. They will go for the fluffy pink underpaid and undervalued jobs, eventually realising that those don't pay enough to justify staying in work only to become financially dependent and end up on low pensions, on benefit or in low income, insecure jobs. They will choose to want to become nurses rather than doctors and stewardesses rather than pilots. Then have children and leave the job market. And so we perpetuate the gender pay gap and gender inequality, as well as the outcomes of our next generation because maternal education levels are the single most important indicator of educational outcomes of children.

Brave new world that has such pink people in it.

Review: Polarn O. Pyret children's clothes

In an ideal world, what would your favourite kids clothes look like? What would be the most important feature?

For me, it's practicality (I'm that kind of person and it's top in my adults' clothes list too). Easy to wash, easy to wear, good quality hard wearing so it lasts and withstands high activity usage. And if it could be unisex please so it can be passed on to siblings who may not be both girls as in our case, wouldn't that be good?

I've said it before that I don't like children's clothes that are too gendered. I mean, I do like a pretty dress, and I totally go along with my girls' love of dressing up, playing princess and ballerina. But it really gets me when I go to a clothes shop and there's not one decent girls' coat that keeps them warm and dry rather than look pretty.

So along comes Polarn O. Pyret and sends me some clothes to review, I'm one happy bunny I can tell you. Polarn O.Pyret ticks all the above boxes, plus the clothes are made from organic cotton and grow with your child. It's all about quality, durability and a style which is mostly (but not exclusively) unisex and still looks great on kids.

Bottom line is I'm in love with their range.

Yes, the clothes cost a bit more than other ranges, but if you consider they grow with your child, are hardwearing and can be passed on to siblings even if you have one each... suddenly it doesn't look quite so dear anymore.

So we tried and tested a size 3-4 outfit for Snowflake (who is still in 18-24 months clothes) and although there is LOTS of room to grow into, they also can be worn already. Same for Cubling - size 6-8 years for my 5 year old and already good to go with clearly space to grow into.

And then look at this awesomeness:

And as for Cubling's outfit: It's blue and she says she likes it. That's a first, honest (and I had been a tad worried when the clothes arrived and I saw the stripy blue top). Snowflake is not too fussy with her clothes but has her own views nonetheless and she also gave me a big thumbs up. All bar the flowery print leggings can be washed up to 60 degrees, the fabrics are super soft and pleasant on the skin. The pink trousers (size 3-4 years) are so adjustable that they can be made to fit even my tiny 2 year old and the top as you can see is a bit long but looks snug on her.

You can find Polarn O. Pyret at your local Fraser's or online at www.polarnopyret.co.uk and with the offer code in the picture above (just click on it), you'll get 15% off your first order on full priced items. You can also follow PO.P on facebook.

Disclaimer: I received clothes samples to review. All opinions expressed are as always mine.

Review: Polarn O. Pyret

A little while back, I was approached whether I'd like to review some samples from a Swedish childrens' fashion company which is now setting foot in the UK, Polarn O. Pyret. As ever with reviews, I had a good look first and liked what I saw on the website. My first impression was that here was some childrens' fashion wich was different and struck a chord with me.

When I received the samples, I was rather impressed. Cubling received a sturdy outdoor jacket which will make her snug and warm in the coldest of weathers. Now, admittedly, Cubling is not a fan of bulky jackets. But this one has the right colour (some form of pink but not the type of pink that makes me go eek) and it's fabricated in a way that it allows maximum movement while providing cover, protection and warmths. There's no doubt about it, it's the most cleverly made outdoor/winter jacket I've seen so far, while looking attractive too. I really wish there was more like this for girls, because girls are usually passed off with pretty but not exactly functional coats.

Snowflake received a beautiful Spotted Mushroom print tunic made from a print fabric that I wish I could buy for some weekend sewing. I think it may be some sort of Swedish fabric style because it reminded me of the kind of clothes that a Swedish mum and seamstress makes here in Glasgow. The actual product looks much better than the online image by the way!

If you look a bit closer at the range that PO. P brings to the UK, you will find that a lot of items are unisex, which is so refreshing. That doesn't mean you can't go all girly and all boyish, just that the range doesn't force you to stick your child into pink or blue. The clothes all look like they manage to combine style with functionality, being comfy to wear and allowing children to move as they like without being restricted by their clothing.

Polarn O. Pyret follow strict eco measures in the production process of their clothes, meaning no nasty chemicals are used, and the clothes are hard wearing and should last for years and can be passed on to be worn by a second or third child.

There is also an organic range to choose from. The range is for children from 0-12 years.

You can find Polarn O. Pyret on some High Streets (mostly in departments stores) or order online - and what's best is that delivery is free to mainland UK which means that the price you see online is the price you pay.

What to do with all that baby gear

It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff makes our way into the house just because we have kids. The other day we watched the video of Cubling's first birthday, 3 1/2 years ago, just after moving into our family home. I hardly recognised the place. What was then empty, spacious and admittedly a tad bare, is now filled with toys, baby gear and clothes hidden in every conceivable crevice.

And boy am I trying to get rid of stuff. There are items that I think have a value which I've been trying to sell through Netmums and Gumtree. No luck. I've given bags of clothes to friends and to charity shops and still there is more. So when the Baby Booty Sale came along, I quite fancied to get rid of absolutely everything in one go, while also selling a few Barefoot Books.

So when at 1pm today, we packed the unsold stuff into the car, it became all too clear that I had not succeeded in the big declutter. In spite of nominal prices on items (I wasn't there to make money, just to make sure the stuff is getting used again), people didn't buy. Baby clothes and baby toys are quite clearly items that lose their value as soon as they leave the shop, a bit like books. It's beyond me how some items didn't sell at all, when I see them as highly desired, valuable and great bargains.

And as to my wonderful Barefoot Books - I didn't sell even one. Ok, I get that this was a second hand sale and the books were new and they aren't your average cheap Amazon deal. Still, some of them are cheap and I didn't even sell them. Looks like being a bookseller won't quite work as a plan B once I'm no longer part of the wage slavery movement.

After hours of sorting, packing, setting up, selling and vice versa, which amounts to about 7 hours of hard work (I'm shattered writing this) I made £5.75. I'm ignoring that I bought a clothes rail for £8.99 which means I actually made a loss. Nevermind, it was fun and an experience and I'm happy to know that at least some items made it to people who wanted/needed them.

So here I am, sat on a mountain of clothes and baby gear wondering how to reuse it because, at the end of the day, it's still good stuff with plenty of life in it. The reality is that we buy so much more than we need that on the whole, we are inundated with baby clothes that aren't needed, therefore making their reuse value nil.

In the 4 1/2 years of parenting, I have so far bought very little children's clothes. I've managed on the whole to get by with what we were given as presents, with hand me downs plus the occasional purchase of underwear (and freebies through this blog). I can count on one hand the clothes purchases I've made. Yet I understand the constant temptation to buy this cute outfit here, and that beautiful dress over there. It's hard not to grab that sales bargain that isn't really needed. But if I look at the masses of baby clothes that didn't get sold today, I'm rather determined to continue my quest to stick to second hand, and to make sure that the clothes no longer needed go to people who have a use for them.