When I said no to pink

I was pushing Brady in the shopping cart, picking up a few things from the store.  We went to the Halloween aisle to check for Minnie ears for Paityn and grab a trick-or-treating basket of some sort.  I thought it would be cute for Brady to use the old fashioned plastic orange pumpkin with a handle.  I found them, picked over blue and green ones and grabbed orange.

“I want da pink one!” he said.

“Oh no buddy, you don’t want pink!  Let’s get orange.”

We continued on and passed another section of pumpkin buckets.  He pointed and exclaimed, “Pink one!  I want dat one.  I want dat one, mom.”

Again I told him no, and giggled as I muttered under my breath about daddy being unhappy about him coming home with a pink one.

“Boys can’t have pink ones?  Only girls?”

And then I felt bad.  I thought, maybe I should go back and just let him get the pink one.  Captain America wouldn’t look too silly toting a pink pumpkin bucket, right?  But I didn’t, I kept going, only to hear him ask for the pink one no less than four more times.

I totally regretted that choice once I got home and wished I would have let him have the damn pink pumpkin bucket.  What makes pink a “girl” color, anyway?  And even if it is a “girl” color, who cares?  Give me one good reason why my sweet two-year old boy can’t have something that is colored pink.  I’ll tell you why, because somewhere along the way pink became a color for girls and he is not a girl.  That’s it.  

And it wouldn’t go the same way again.

What would you have done?  Do you let your little boys have “girl” toys?