A gender neutral nursery: What does it mean? Why should we even consider it?
The moment you find out you’re going to be a parent is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. One of the most life-changing and exciting chapters of your life is about to begin, and the last thing you’re thinking about is whether your child should be dressed in pink or blue.
From choosing doctors, making healthcare choices, and starting to research preschools, life can seem a bit overwhelming. The nursery is a place where we dream of first steps, first laughs, and sweet dreams while we rock our little bundle of joy. In this scenario, what colors are you surrounded by? If nothing pink or blue comes to mind, perhaps a gender neutral nursery is the best choice for you and your family.
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Contrary to popular belief, a gender neutral nursery doesn’t necessarily mean that a parent couldn’t make up their mind. It doesn’t mean that you’ll raise your child to exist between pronouns, either. It simply means you’re setting your child up to experience the best of both worlds and letting them discover everything they love about pinks, blues, and everything in between.
Keep reading to find out 3 reasons why a gender neutral nursery can help your child’s imagination to flourish and prepare your family for the future.
1. Every Color Is Fun For Everyone
Pink isn’t only for girls, and blue isn’t exclusive to boys. Colors are for everyone. It’s the contrast of colors for infants up to five months old that makes the biggest impact on their fine motor skills and learning abilities. Choosing contrasting colors means that your baby’s brain will receive the strongest signals, and this stimulates brain growth and visual development according to Dr. Sears Wellness Institute.
By the time your little joy is three months old, they will start to see color and this is a great time to add a variety of brighter primary colors. When your little one reaches between five and eight months old, your little sweetie’s color vision is fully developed. They may even have a favorite color!
This is where it is important to note that there are no such things as boy colors and girl colors. Colors are for every person to enjoy equally. Pink isn’t “girly” any more than blue is “masculine”. That simply limits your child’s social access to the entire color spectrum made available to them from an early age, and limiting experiences for our children is not something that benefits them.
By choosing a gender neutral nursery and exposing your baby to a variety of color contrasts, your baby’s brain and visual development is stimulated earlier and gets their development off on the right foot.
2. Your Gender Neutral Nursery Can Help You Plan
Whether you’ve planned your family unit down to the last shoelace or you’re riding the wind and letting the fates decide how many children you’ll welcome into this world, space can be very limiting. If you choose a color scheme and theme for the nursery for child 1 and realize that it’s not going to work the same for child 2, then a change is in order! However, by choosing a gender neutral nursery, you’re giving your children and future children the brain-building color scheme they need to excel within their development, and granting yourself a project that stays within budget and keeps benefitting your family over several years.
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Apart from choosing color schemes that help your child’s brain development, there’s an ongoing need for a “nursery theme”. Themes and color schemes typically go hand-in-hand, so choosing a theme that isn’t too specific can help you to keep your gender neutral nursery exactly that.
3. Gender Neutral Nurseries Make Confident Kids
Children learn from a very early age what is and what is not acceptable, not only from their close family and friends, but from society as well. Children need structures throughout their day for their development, but they need a place to rest and relax where they can be truly themselves. That’s the importance and magic of a nursery that allows them to express themselves. The last place they need to experience social structures having any type of authority over their likes and dislikes is in their home, and especially their own space.
For example, dinosaurs and bugs exist and can be studied, held, and viewed by everyone. Why should they only belong in a boy’s room or on his shirt? They are for everyone to enjoy, and if your little girl likes princesses as much as she likes raptors, she should be able to include both of these in her room-her haven and safe space to be exactly who she is without any pressure from the outside, and that includes us as parents.
Choosing a gendered nursery scheme boxes them in and gives them parameters. A gender neutral nursery allows your children to decide what they like and how they like it and builds confident and secure children.
Gender Neutral Nursery Ideas
Saying you want to create a gender neutral nursery is one thing, but doing it is another thing altogether. Check out these gender neutral nursery ideas and start getting inspired!
- Project Nursery has shared over 900 gender neutral nursery ideas. You’ll be sure to find something perfect here!
- Scroll through the slideshow that HGTV has created of 34 Gender-Neutral Nurseries We Love.
- We adore this list from The Spruce: 45 Gender-Neutral Nursery Ideas and Themes Anyone Will Love
- Love Property crafted this selection of 50 adorable gender-neutral nursery ideas
- Take it back to basics with this list from Living Textiles Co. and the 10 Most Popular Gender-Neutral Nursery Themes
- Soul and Lane compiled the 36 Serene Gender Neutral Nursery Themes for Your Next 3 am Feeding-how sweet are these?
A gender neutral nursery opens up a world of possibility from a very young age, and carries out opportunities for growth throughout your children’s early childhood. By allowing them to explore and decide what they like from the start, the magic of childhood can plant deep roots and stay with them for the rest of their lives.
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