The Future's Bright, The Future's Ginger

As the mother of a little boy with ginger hair I have had to put up with quite a few jokes in my time. Most of these are fairly harmless but sadly I have had some insulting comments about my son's gorgeous hair. The one that is the most memorable to me was the following situation which occurred when my son was about 6 months old...

Me: Proudly walking down the road with my son in the buggy
Old Lady: Walks up to buggy, looks down at baby
Me: Smiles indulgently expecting the standard 'isn't he cute' type comment
Old Lady: "ah, look at his hair...the poor, poor thing" she walks away shaking head sadly and tutting.
Me: Left standing there with rictus smile on face not really knowing what to say

Now the lady was quite old and doddery so I didn't really want to say anything back to her but I really don't know why there is so much ginger prejudice around. Some sad people have even set up anti-ginger websites poking fun at children with ginger hair. Have they really got nothing better to do than have a go at someones hair colour? Anyway I'm fighting back. Ginger kids are cool for many reasons and here are just a few...

1. They stand out in a crowd. There's no frantic searching for your child at the park or playgroup as you can spot their little head anywhere!

2. Its a great way of making friends. When we go out to the park or pool we find that other people with ginger haired children seemed to gravitate towards us and our children. We have have made lots of friends and met some interesting people. It's like being part of an exclusive club!

3. If they have a tantrum in public no one will blame your parenting skills. You just need to look at them knowingly and say "its his red-headed temper you know" and they will simply nod and go away.

4.The ginger gene is a royal gene. You can remind people of this is they try to criticise. The Tudor dynasty were well know for their flaming red hair and it has continued into the house of Windsor with the delectable Prince Harry.

5. You can teach your child some clever retorts. Forewarned is forearmed and if you search online there are all sorts of clever retorts to counter those who think ginger hair is funny. Admittedly some of these might not be ideal for the playground but its good to be able to give your child some witty comebacks if they get teased.

I love my cute little ginger haired boy. Surely there's enough discrimination in the world without people trying to create more. Ginger kids rock!

This Royal redhead would have had the ginger jokers beheaded!