"Why does everyone in your family have blue eyes?" I was asked one day.
How was I going to explain that to a 7-year-old who doesn't know anything about genes and traits and inherited things yet?
"Well, sometimes when the mom and the dad in a family both have blue eyes, the kids will have blue eyes too." I explained.
"Oh. Not in my family." E replied. "Mom, dad and A have blue eyes. E, A and I have brown eyes."
It's a question that she's asked me several times since. I thought my explanation worked pretty well, but I guess if she's still asking it wasn't as good as I thought. She is old enough to understand that three of the kids in her family are adopted, but not really old enough to understand why that makes a difference in eye color. While eye color doesn't matter in the least, it did give me something to think about.
In my family, my husband and I both have blue eyes and all four of our children have blue eyes. However, they are very different!
My eyes are grayish blue with a slightly darker blue ring around the outside edge. My oldest daughter's eyes are almost the same. Her eyes are slightly more blue than mine. My husband's eyes are lighter, baby blue. My son's eyes are similar to my husbands but his tend to change a bit depending on what color he is wearing. If he wears blue, his eyes are more blue, but when he wears green, they take on a greenish-bluish cast. My middle daughter has bright, royal blue eyes with long, pretty, curled lashes. My youngest daughter has light blue eyes like my husband but she has a dark blue ring around the outside edge like mine. She is also blessed with long, pretty lashes.
Yes, we all have blue eyes but they are different too. They are all unique, just like us!
Maybe next time E asks me why we all have blue eyes, I will come up with a better answer for her. For now, I will just keep thinking that it's cool that our family of 6 all has blue eyes.
I have blue eyes, my husband has light brown eyes, but my son has the darkest brown eyes you can possibly imagine. It still surprises me when I look at him. My daughter has blue eyes (and I'm secretly glad!)
ReplyDeleteI love this....."Yes, we all have blue eyes but they are different too. They are all unique, just like us!" :-))
ReplyDeleteLoved the title. This was a nice idea to think about as you did. My husband and I have exactly the same color eye, both of our kids, more brown, big and sparkly! I love that you all have blue eyes :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that she is noticing such things, really. I got my brown eyes from my father, who died in the war, and when my mother remarried, & my stepfather, then mother & baby brother had blue eyes, I remember thinking I was not a part of that. Interesting how we notice 'who' we are in a group. Thanks for the good post, Robin.
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