Try tackling it Tuesday- Dye in the Wood

Many youngsters have a close affinity with colour. This is especially handy at the pre-reading stage of child development. A child's favourite colour can be used to aid a parent in the smooth running of home life, or if not smooth, then certainly less bumpy. If you are blessed with multifarious children, colour coding may bring a little sunshine into an otherwise rainbow existence.

Ideally, as a parent, a child’s colour choice should be guided by adult wisdom. Better still, if you can aim for primary colours, although that only works if you have three children, red, blue and yellow. Other, secondary colours, may be adopted if your paint pot palette runneth over with children. If you are forced to accept tertiary colours, then you need all the help you can get!

Some unfortunate children have very strong views and preferences about colour. If this is the case for you too, then it’s probably a case of ‘pick your battles wisely.’ This is why I have ended up in my current dilemma.

Not so long back our favourite colours were simple, orange, yellow and purple. Everything of note, from shoe stalls to toothbrushes, were matched to avoid cross contamination and general confusion, mainly my own. However, as the years have passed, many of these labels have become tatty, illegible and highly disagreeable. In an effort to update and brighten our home, I decided to re-label and make a fresh start to aid a smoother transition into the new school year. I spent many hours with coloured paper, scissors and tape until we were entirely wrapped up. Satisfied with what I considered to be a thoroughly splendid job well done, I announced my achievement to my beloved children. I herded them gently throughout the house to observe, learn and offer their congratulations…….

“That’s no good!”
“Dat is ……..dumb.”
“Dat is……..stoopid! Oopsie, sorry.”
“Why? What’s wrong? It all looks……perfectly perfect to me!”
“Duh Mom!”
“Yeah right! Duh Mom!”
“Yeah…..wot she said.”
“Well really! It would help if you could use a few better describing words rather than just tones of derision!”
“Well Mom, ya see…….it’s like this……..you’ve used orange, yellow and purple to label everything right?”
“Right.”
“Well those are our old ........ baby colours.”
“Baby colours?”
“Yeah they’re like soooooo ……not us…..right now……..in the moment.”
“In dah moment.”
“Yeah……like she says.”
“Indeed! What colours should I have used then?”
“Well for me personally, being in the here and now…….that has just gotta be purple.”
“That’s right you’re still purple, same as ever.”
“No mom, that’s not the right kinda purple, I’m more of a Lilac kindofa purple these days.”
“Ah.”
“An me…….I am be cool now wiv…….....white which is being no colour.”
“Ah……perfect for the filthiest child on the planet, I should have guessed!”
“An me…..I am being…..of yellow but of gold. I am being yur golden boy.”
“!”