The UK does not treat its red heads kindly at all. The very fact that this article and this article and this article were even written clearly illustrates this point. And that's not to mention comedians like Catherine Tate, with entire skits dedicated to the issue.Here in the US, a typical day out for us involves people admiring and commenting on how beautiful our boys' red hair is. In fact, hearing a variation of the "... my grandmother's cousin had red hair, but sadly it wasn't passed down to me or my children" story can get a bit tedious the 300 millionth time you've heard it while standing in line at the grocery store!
My boys are brimming with confidence, and have a healthy balance of self-belief mixed with a desire to treat other people nicely. Whether any of this came from getting such positive feedback about their own appearances is obviously up for debate, but I'm sure there's something in it somewhere.
I often wonder, though, how their outgoing and very self-assured personalities might change if we moved back to the UK. Instead of being proud of their unique coloring, they'd be made to feel ashamed of it.
Sometimes I look at these boys and am so happy that we decided to stay here.
4 comments:
I love red hair and have always wished I had it.. and your boys are gorgeous! I have also always wondered why in the UK they think so poorly on people with red hair, it is very odd.
My mom had red hair and I remember wishing as a kid that I did as well. I think your boys are absolutely adorable. Not sure why it is a negative thing over here.
My husband is a complete toe-head and I am brunette, so I wonder if our kids will have red at all.
Caryn! This is something I've always known about - nothing to do with your post at all! In fact, Peter made me very aware of it ages ago, and was one of the reasons we initially wavered on moving back to England.
The sentiments expressed in that article are not surprising to me at all - they just happened to *really* piss me off today, that's all. ;)
Meg, from what I understand, it has to come from both sides. Peter was a complete toe-head as a child, so you never know! :)
Oh, and thanks for all the nice comments.
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