That colleague made comment about ginger babies

This thread has made me grateful that the kids at my daughter's South London Comp are less thick and nasty than some ginger hating adults. She's never had any issues. Only seen it on mumsnet.

You're going to need a lot more stamina as a parent and coping with the challenges your child faces - whatever colour hair they have - if you're floored by someone saying they didn't want a red head as a child.

Parenting dilemma no.1 - If your child comes home (as a red head) and says someone called him/her a name insulting being a red head, just how are you going to parent that?

Because you really should be able to cope as a parent with that.

Trust me every single parent on the planet has coped with their child coming home and saying someone said something nasty about them to them.

Just as you really should have been able to cope with your colleague.

Coping skills do people well in life, and set them up to be confident and successful. So stop being part of the perpetually offended and think through how you should have responded, in a mature and capable way.

Ginger is actually creamy coloured.

Pride. Sorry!

We should ban the use of ginger. It is derogatory. My hair is Titian, my eyes are grey green. DD1 has young -fox coloured hair and true green eyes. DD2 is strawberry blonde with eyes of summer blue.
Ginger just doesn't come close to describing the various hues of red. If you are lucky enough to have a little red head teach her/him to walk with profe!

It's so silly isn't it? Especially when you think of all the people who dye their hair red! I'm part of a ginger family, still ginger myself at nearly 75. People can be tactless talking of how they don't want a ginger baby, they are amazing!

When I was pregnant with DS1 (mine and DH's first child), my SIL joked to my husband "OMG, let's hope he's not ginger, can you imagine?" Then turned to me, looked at my light ginger hair as though she'd never noticed it before, and awkwardly tried to backtrack...

DS1 and DS2 are both ginger - DS1 especially so, very thick red curls that he likes to keep long. He gets the piss taken occasionally at school, but also gets stopped in the street and complimented by women. I tell him the piss takers are just upset that they look so boring and forgettable.

Ignore the stupid bitch I always wanted a ginger haired baby but my two were so blonde there hair was white; but my friends little one is ginger & her hairs curly too & she’s absolutely beautiful her hair is stunning perfect little ringlets; so gorgeous all redheads are x

What an awful thing to say! I'm not ginger but love the colour and even if I didn't I would no way say anything like this! If my baby was born with a green face, purple hair and had whiskers I wouldn't care! Xx

Ridiculous comment.My Mum’s side of the family are all red heads,from strawberry blonde to gorgeous auburn.

What a silly cow, of course you would feel upset. It’s pathetic and insensitive. Nothing wrong with ginger at all! And no I’m not ginger.

Is 'gingerism' really a thing? I guess so. I've always seen it as just a joke, like slagging off the Welsh or the Belgians.

I love colour and think all shades of red hair look fabulous. Your colleague is ignorant and stupid, definitely not someone whose opinion should bother you. Treat her with the indifference she deserves and enjoy your little one.

Wow that's really sad. That's not my red headed daughter's experience at all. She's 17 and very popular and confident. Definitely not ashamed of her hair.
Do you think your sister being gutted to have a red headed daughter has rubbed off on your niece and made her ashamed of her hair?. It's your sister that should be feeling ashamed if so.
Where do you live that your niece has had horrible comments about her hair? My daughter hasn't experienced that where we live.

Why are people so mean and stupid ?
I think ginger is beautiful and red hair in general . Im envious of such vivid locks . People should be proud of their hair and complexions but it must be hard to ignore such ignorance at times . What’s so amazing about brown hair ?? Being south Asian that’s our usual option 😂

My sister said the same about not wanting a ginger baby..and ended up with a ginger girl lol… she was gutted.. and so is her girl 15 years later.. she hates her ginger hair and has been colouring it from a young age.. I wouldn’t want a ginger baby either.. only because I know how cruel people can be and how much stick they could face.. sad but true

I cringe at glorying though, it's just a hair colour. I understand why people do it, it's to offset the nasty comments but at the same time, I think it actually fuels them as something to 'butt against'.

I agree, kids are not silly and if they're being teased for their hair colour, simpering and going OTT about how 'beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful it is and how some people are really jealous and disappointed their babies weren't born ginger', can come across as fake.

If people stopped with the shitty comments and the bullying, there'd be no need for it and we could teach our kids that hair colour is just that.

Elizabeth I had red hair, as did Mary Queen of Scot’s and Henry 8th. hmm.

I even stopped buying a kids shampoo when DS was little because it had some stupid story on the back - from memory it was something about going to the moon and people (ridiculously) having orange hair! If they’d said blue hair I could have lived with that - but the fact that orange hair was the most preposterous thing they could come up with really pissed me off.

I understand the historical reasons for not liking red hair (e.g. Danes invading in the 9th and 10th centuries) but not modern dislike. It's weird.

There's also the belief that 'Judas Iscariot had red hair'. As mindboggling as that is, these beliefs did get embedded in religious societies (as ours used to be) and may be passed down. Like that 'black cat -familiar of the devil' thing that I mentioned upthread. Even cat shelters say it's harder to rehome black cats and kittens because people think they're somehow unlucky or have this slightly occult association. Utterly ludicrous but some people are just thick as mince. (And I love black cats and think they're beautiful!)

I do hope all the people on here who say that they would tackle people who made these offensive comments carry through on this and would actually call people out who voice these ridiculous ideas.

I will. I already do. I'm left-handed and used to be called names for that, 'cack-handed' being a favourite. As PP said, some people are arseholes and think that whatever nonsense is in their head deserves airing.

I cringe at glorying though, it's just a hair colour. I understand why people do it, it's to offset the nasty comments but at the same time, I think it actually fuels them as something to 'butt against'.

If people would just stop making spiteful comments about anybody's appearance, it would be a very great thing but we can't even do that as adults on MN so what the hell are we teaching our children anyway?

Well there isn't a single reason. The roots of all prejudices are ultimately "other- ness" and red hair is rare. It's estimated that only 1-2% of the world's population has red hair and it is now commonest in the UK and Ireland, despite the gene originating in central Asia. It's virtually unheard of in many countries and must seem very odd to people living in some parts of the world. And people often dislike, even fear things which are unfamiliar.
But the fact that some people living in other countries also view red hair negatively does not negate anti red hair sentiment in this country having at least some of its roots in anti Irish/anti Catholic feelings. It's unlikely that a small child calling a red haired classmate names in say, Liverpool, today is doing so knowingly because of those reasons, but turn the clock back 150 years and things would have been very different. And behaviour gets ingrained. I doubt most people could actually give a real reason why they feel that way. But then there's not a lot of logic in any prejudice is there?

because some people are a-holes?

It’s one of the last ‘isms’ you can merrily throw around without some dewy eyed social warrior calling you out?

Can someone please explain why some people think ginger hair is something to be bullied about? Someone said it is anti-Irish, some others said it is the same in France so cant be. What the heck people think is the issue with ginger hair? Is it a racist thing? Fear of the outsider? Is it because it is rare and therefore different than the norm? Superstition (someone mentioned people hissing at them in Vietnam 😮) ?
It is absolutely beautiful and the most amazing hair colour there is in my opinion and I wish I or my kids had the genes for it...

What’s that supposed to mean?