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Original poster

Eye colour

51 replies

Fireants · 25/06/2021 20:54

Mum 1, Dad 1 and son 1 have brown eyes. Son 2 at 6 months has piercing blue eyes.

Mum’s mum has blue eyes and all her siblings and parents have blue eyes.

Please explain why Son 2 has blue eyes to calm Dad 1 down.

OP posts:
dementedma · 25/06/2021 21:52

Dad in this scenario needs to read up on genetics and recessive genes. Sis has 5 dcs. 4 with dark brown eyes, one blue eyed redhead!

I have green eyes( the only one of 5 siblings to have this, the rest are brown). DH has dark brown eyes. Two of our dcs have blue eyes like their grandmas. One has hazel.

Heyha · 25/06/2021 21:53

Ah @Faranth nicely done, beat me to it! Poster upthread said something about two blue eye parents can have brown eye child- they can't. Blue is recessive so you can only show blue if both your 'genes' (alleles) are, you haven't got a brown 'gene' to pass on.

Green makes it a bit more complicated but it's generally explained that green is dominant to blue. The GCSE explanation isn't quite right anyway but like so many things in biology it will do just fine for every day use, you don't need the complicated bits to get to the solution. You have to be very careful how you teach this in secondary school for exactly these reasons!

I have brown eyes and my DD has blue like her dad, I know therefore that I'm homozygous (got one blue and one brown 'gene', the brown shows in me as it's dominant but I didn't pass it to DD as she doesn't have brown eyes herself. She must have got blue from both of us to have blue eyes herself).

Heyha · 25/06/2021 21:54

Heterozygous, dammit! Well, it is Friday night, so...

BunnyRuddington · 25/06/2021 21:55

Completely normal. The. If the DGM has blue eyes she will have given the mother a blue eye gene. The father carries a blue eye gene, even if he has brown eyes.

DS1 gets brown eye gene from one or both parents. Brown eye gene is dominant so DS1 gets brown eyes.

DS2 gets blue eye gene from Mum and DF.

I come from a family of big brown eyed people but both my DC have blue eyes. I know they’re mine though, I carried them.

PawsQueen · 25/06/2021 21:56

My mum has brown eyes (dark skin, dark hair)
My dad has blue eyes (pale skin, strawberry blonde hair)
I have really bright green eyes (pale skin and a true redhead!)

BunnyRuddington · 25/06/2021 21:59

Actually. I tell a lie, both my DC have central heterochromia, so not strictly blue.

HairyFeline · 25/06/2021 22:21

I have green eyes, DH has blue. DD has one green and one blue.
Can’t believe the dad in OP needs to be calmed down. What an immature mentality.

IHateCoronavirus · 26/06/2021 02:13

DH has very dark brown eyes (nearly black)
I have dark blue/hints of grey
DS1 has chocolate brown
DS2 has chocolate brown
DD has Hazel which vary slightly between green, amber and lightest brown depending on the weather, her clothing, heyfever.
DS3 had dark blue eyes until he was near a year old, then they went chocolate brown too.

Hair colour seemed to be midway between my mouse and his black in all of the children and a mix of textures.

Skin tone is a range DS1 has ivory skin and freckles. DS2 and 3 have deepest olive, and DD is somewhere in between.

Thank goodness they all got DHs ability to eat cake and not get fat GrinEnvy

AlwaysLatte · 26/06/2021 02:28

You can have different coloured eyes to your parents, as everyone has said. My parents have brown and blue eyes. I have green eyes.

LizzieAnt · 26/06/2021 02:36

Poster upthread said something about two blue eye parents can have brown eye child- they can't. Blue is recessive so you can only show blue if both your 'genes' (alleles) are, you haven't got a brown 'gene' to pass on.

This isn't true though...

The genetics of eye colour are very complex - far more complicated than the explanations taught to biology students in school (or given upthread).

Two blue-eyed people can indeed have a brown eyed child.

Themeparklover · 26/06/2021 02:42

@Fireants I'm confused did your partner not study basic biology or even attend school?

Themeparklover · 26/06/2021 02:44

@heyha as a bioscience grad I have to say please educate yourself before commenting idiotic statements

RainbowANDThunder · 26/06/2021 02:49

Mum 1 and Dad 1 ?

I dont get that

Anyway.
My mum and Dad are both brown eyes, 2 of my siblings are blue eyed

He needs to get a grip!!!

OnGoldenPond · 26/06/2021 02:49

The genetics of eye colour is very complex and, though the explanations here of blue/brown eyes is broadly correct, there are many other variables which can produce a whole host of variations.

It certainly shouldn't be used as a stick to beat the mother!

OnGoldenPond · 26/06/2021 02:52

Oh and I had piercing blue eyes like my Dad until age 11, when they turned to bright green! Can't even begin to understand that!

sashh · 26/06/2021 03:07

Very simple way to explain. Also over simplified so no good for GCSE.

Get some children's paints in 'eye colours' so blue and brown (green and hazel are subsets). If you mix them up as you paint with them, they will produce a brown colour, but the blue is still there.

Your child can get either or both colours plus the colours from the other parent, your child's eye colours are dependent on how much 'paint' you pass on, you can pass on mainly blue but a small amount of brown will make the eyes look brown.

DinosApple · 26/06/2021 09:12

At six months there's plenty of time for them to change OP despite what the books say.

My eyes were bright blue until I was two, then went green, then hazel and went properly brown in my mid teens. Mum, dad and brother have dark brown eyes. One grandparent has blue/hazel eyes.

It was a huge source of excitement for my DM, who is from India. No one had blue eyes, or was even born with blue eyes, in her family.

Both my DC had blue, then green, then amber, finally hazel eyes by 8 years old. DH has grey blue.

It's a fascinating subject, but if the father is being a dick that's not great.

roguetomato · 26/06/2021 09:16

This video for children explain it well.

MrsFlinch · 26/06/2021 10:56

@DinosApple

At six months there's plenty of time for them to change OP despite what the books say.

My eyes were bright blue until I was two, then went green, then hazel and went properly brown in my mid teens. Mum, dad and brother have dark brown eyes. One grandparent has blue/hazel eyes.

It was a huge source of excitement for my DM, who is from India. No one had blue eyes, or was even born with blue eyes, in her family.

Both my DC had blue, then green, then amber, finally hazel eyes by 8 years old. DH has grey blue.

It's a fascinating subject, but if the father is being a dick that's not great.

Yes I agree with eye colour changing over time.

My eyes were blue until the age of 5, (my first school photo I have blue eyes) now they are quite obviously green.

Ds1 again eyes were blue until the age of 5, now green (brighter than mine!)

Dd had blue eyes until the age of 3 or 4. They then turned to grey then to a caramel colour. We thought she was going to have hazel eyes like Dh. But over the next year or two they slowly turned Green but with more hazel flecks than I or ds. On one of her eyes a quarter of her iris is hazel.
It’s almost like the hazel was battling to be top dog but green won in the end!
Her eye colour finally settled when she was 6.

Ds 2 I thought was going to follow the trend for green, as he started with Blue eyes but he now what My mum calls ‘steel blue’ but I call ‘sludge’ Like a muddy blue/grey. Apparently my Grandad had the same colour.

ThursdayWeld · 26/06/2021 11:14

@Fireants

Dad is fine but genuinely can’t understand that after a family of brown eyed people and married to a brown eyed wife, with brown eyed sisters and father- his son has blue eyes.
Dad sounds quite dim.
Heyha · 26/06/2021 20:36

[quote Themeparklover]@heyha as a bioscience grad I have to say please educate yourself before commenting idiotic statements[/quote]
As a fellow bioscience grad (although one that didn't take any genetics after year one having discovered a surprising preference for viruses...) I take your point, having done some reading and learning, that in very rare cases this can happen.

However @LizzieAnt managed to say the same thing in a more constructive and friendly way, so thank you for that. I hardly think not knowing about broken genes and the knock on to pigments makes me an idiot but you are of course entitled to be as condescending as you wish.

Livpool · 26/06/2021 21:29

Lots of brown eyed people carry a recessive blue eyed gene.

I have hazel eyes and DH has blue - DS has blue eyes. Good job the mum can't ask uncomfortable questions isn't it?! 🤷🏼‍♀️

WTFisNext · 26/06/2021 23:03

My mother was the only blue eyed child in an extensive brown eyed family.

She married a blue eyed man. All her children and grandchildren have blue or grey eyes.

Genetics are amazing.

MaleficentsCrow · 26/06/2021 23:11

Like many have said you just need to be a brown eyed person carrying the recessive gene.

Dad in question however needs to calm down. EXH could have easily questioned the paternity of DS.

Me: white European blue eyes brown hair

Father 1/2 white European 1/2 black Jamaican. Brown hair, brown eyes.

DS....blonde and blue eyed...WTF?! 😂😂

Neither of us have ever been blonde, blue eyes are mine but dad obviously carries the recessive gene.

DS however is the spitting image of his father. Just a per, blonder blue eyed version of him 😂

sashh · 28/06/2021 04:51

@MaleficentsCrow

One of my friends (black Jamaican with a black partner) popped out a white child. She says it's the one thing she never expected in life.

Her grandchildren are also white. Genetics is indeed a wonderful thing.