Is it rude to ask gender of a child if you cant tell?

Absolutely ask!

My son looked like a girl until he was 12. He had long hair and a pretty face so people naturally assumed he was a girl. He got mad when anyone called him a girl, but was not so offended when someone would ask me his gender. He'd mostly laugh about it.

How about tricking them into revealing, like saying that you need to count how many boys vs. girls in the group and the easiest way for you to count is for all the boys to move to one side and the girls remain on the other side? But if you are unsure about just a couple of kids, then you should ask them. It has be a creative way of asking, though. Such as: "in case you need to go, you might want to know that the Men's Room is that way." Watch how they respond or to what they say.

Yes ask! My best-friends first child, a girl had little more than BLOND fuzz on her head until she was 3 and people ALWAYS thought she was a boy. They'd take one look at a little girl in white sandles, frilly socks, pink DRESS with flowers and a Cailou hair do and say "Oh, what a cute son you have!"

Obviously don't say something stupid fringing on "is your offspring male or female" (LOL, though that would be funny), try to keep it simple, you can ask something like "how many sons and daughters do you have" and people will likely say "3 sons, Harry, Larry and Barry, and 1 girl, Ryan".

If just one child, say "Is this your daughter?" If they are offended at that, better that than to keep calling him "she'. If they seem annoyed, say "its hard to tell sometimes, I just like to be sure". At least you'll be being honest.

sometimes it pays just to err on the side of caution. You are dealing with another culture, and here, I would use the name. IF you need the sex of the child, hand the parent the paper work and ask them to fill out the sheet...that gets rid of the suspense, involves the parent, and takes you off the hook...very easy to accomplish all you need with one act. Isn't that the easiest way to handle this situation without a chance of causing offense?

Definitely you should ask it

But there are other ways to it

like asking them which school they are going, (if it is a coed then it is a prob !)

Ask them how many children in the home including him or her ( the answer will be like "we are two brothers and two sister " they you can hook up the next question to find out who is the eldest brother sister )

if any of them didn't help i 'll suggest you to ask them casually without hurting their feelings

its ok to ask ir your not sure just tell the parents ur not sure of there gender and ask if they get offended though just say ur srry and tht u werent sure but were almost positive k glad to of helped

i would say dont ask the parents ask one of the childs friends they wont feel as strongly about iit but if that fails i say just take a guess

If it's not obvious what gender the child is then YES go right ahead and ask. If they get mad, that's tough. You shouldn't have to guess.

well if i didnt know id rather ask then accidentally call them a girl if they were boy

i have twin boys that look like girls, they are pretty! i don't get annoyed if people ask but it irritates me when they just assume they are girls.