Colors are for everyone

I just finished reading this article and found it absolutely beautiful. I think a lot about what it will be like to be a mother to a baby girl or a baby boy. How will I raise an independent, strong, family-oriented young lady who is compassionate and unique? Can Jarrod and I together parent a man who will treat women as intelligent equals, never knowing that sex used to be a defining characteristic?

I think about this mostly in relation to our nursery. That might sound silly, but hear me out. I always knew that I'd wait to find out the sex of this baby at birth, if as all possible. I knew I'd be designing and creating a nursery appropriate for both a baby boy or a baby girl. I knew almost immediately that I wanted to paint the walls blue. I found a gorgeous blue that Jarrod and I LOVED. I could see pairing the blue with pink accents for a baby girl or navy and green accents for a baby boy. We painted the nursery and immediately posted pictures on facebook to share our hard work.

"You're having a boy!!"

Even though we were still over a month away from our 20 week sonogram, people already assumed we were announcing that we were having a boy. This confused me and made me angry - at them for assuming and at myself for thinking the blue looked good with more blue for a boy or pink for a girl. Why does blue have to stand for boy and pink for girls?

It doesn't. My husband has several pink shirts and wears them very well. I was dead-set against anything pink until a few years ago when it took on a whole new meaning for me with my participation in the 3-day for the Cure. As many folks have told us, the nursery isn't decorated for the baby, it's for the mama and dad. :-) We love it in there, so that's really all that matters!

After much fabric choices and searching, I finally convinced Jarrod to go with fabric with pink and flowers for one small pillow in the nursery. I fell in love with the fabric and he agreed that it was perfect. The background coincidentally matches the walls perfectly and it introduces some new colors as well. We posted this picture on Facebook and were flooded with comments from friends and family that we must be having a girl. Arguably, this fabric blown up like this does look rather girly, but the green stripes next to it tones it down somewhat. :-)

I have loved decorating our nursery and imagining it for a little boy or a little girl. I think it is perfect regardless of whether we have a he or she baby. Yes, I will add more feminine or masculine touches after baby comes, but I will not be removing blue if baby is a girl or pink if baby is a boy. Our baby will know that colors are for everyone.