Tuesday, October 12, 2010

the colour game...

Can your husband tell the difference between teal and turquoise?
Mine can't. He says teal isn't a colour, it's a bloody duck.

He once accused me of doing 'something' with his tan shorts.
I protested. "You don't have any tan shorts."
"Yes, I do! Those long ones with the pockets! Where are they?"
"The khaki ones?"
"No! They're tan!"
They're not. They're definitely khaki.

My sister was just telling me about a for-sale house her husband had heard of. He told her it was mauvey-orange in colour.
She looked at him.
"No," he said, "I know what colour that is. It's not purple. And it's not white."

I guess we all know that men really can't see a lot of the colours we can, and it makes for some hilarious conversations. I'm not sure if they can't see the shades or get the names muddled up or both.

But for us, (my sister and me) most of our sons are also colour-blind to varying degrees.
They have trouble with some blues, pinks, reds and greens; purples and browns can also trip them up.

They all see peanut butter as green.
Dogs can look green and blue, as can stews and casseroles. (this explains why they can be picky eaters. Our brains are hard-wired not to eat blue or green meat.)
Our brother can't tell the difference between cooked and raw meat.

I use a taupe eyebrow pencil which looks green to my boys. Can you imagine the embarrassment factor of a mum who gets around with green eyebrows??

One of my boys can't see his dog properly on the lawn unless it moves. True.

They all HATE to be constantly asked "What colour is this?" because a lot of the time, they don't know. There isn't a word for the colour they're seeing.
My son sometimes describes things as peachy-green.

Which brings me back to mauvy-orange.

The house was painted mustard.

12 comments:

  1. My immediate family circle has seven men/boys and none of them has this problem.
    I had no idea colour blindness was so widespread.
    The mauvey-orange had me puzzled, I would never have guessed it was mustard.

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  2. I read this out to the hubby.... He said the dog WAS lawn coloured. And peachy green is definately on the colour spectrum...

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  3. Hi River -- 8% of men are colour-blind to some degree.
    Women carry the gene (and can also be affected, tho that's much more rare) and will pass it on to 50%+ of their boys, if they have it.

    And Seasidechik -- he's a special man, you're very lucky!

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  4. hehehehe LURV the 'mauvey-orange' MUSTARD house Toni!!!!!!

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  5. My husband and I often debate colours. He always tells me I'm colour blind. Me. Ha!

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  6. This is hilarious! You made my day!!
    My husband ALWAYS argues with me about color!!! Believe me, he has no idea about blue and turquoise and green, but he THINKS he has!!! I just smile at him! Ha!

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  7. We argue about colours too...........but DH is usually right!!
    I'm not so great with colours which is a bit of a disadvantage for a scrapper!! LOL

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  8. Cracker finish - loved it ;)

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  9. that is hilarious. My dad is colourblind and will also argue with us on colours

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  10. my school biology teacher was colour blind, poor man, made for some interesting jokes from the class, teenagers are horrible.

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  11. I seriously have never thought about this before - I have 3 sons and I am going to be talking colours over dinner tonight - can't wait to see what the response is :)

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  12. My dad is colorblind and he always had one of us girls tell him what color the wires were when he was doing electrical work or hooking up the camper to haul... guess it's good he had 4 girls to help him!! Found your blog on FYBF

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