Is your favorite color really your favorite color?
November 24th, 2008 by AndreasMost of our oldest daughter's clothes are pink. She sleeps on pink sheets and a bunch of her stuffed animals are pink. And when we bought our house last year, I just barely talked my wife out of painting the baby's bedroom pink. Its walls remain white but there's still plenty of pink to go around.
Her favorite color? Well, it's blue.
She's in a phase right now where she likes to point at objects and tell you their color. The thing is, she almost exclusively points at stuff that is blue.
"Blue car!"
"Yes, sweetie, that's a blue car." And then you point at a yellow flower in the grass. "And what color is that?"
"Blue!"
"No, that's yellow." And then you point to the pink shirt she's wearing. "And what about that? What color?"
"Blue!"
So yeah, we're pretty sure her favorite color is blue. And come think of it, so is mine. And Zee would also say her favorite color is blue. What a coincidence.
Could it be that we imposed our color preference on our daughter? Is her favorite color really her favorite color or did she just pick up ours?
Because we like blue so much, we have blue sheets, which means the dominant color in our bedroom is blue. Our little girl spent a lot of time during the first few months of her life lying on a big blue bed. Would her color preference be different if we had white sheets?
Our little girl — six months old in this picture — enjoyed spending
a lot of time on our big blue bed when she was a baby. She still does.
Then again, it would be hard to raise your kid in an environment where no color is more dominant than the other, at least here in Hawai'i. Walk outside any day of the year and the blue of the sky kicks every other color's butt.
Fellow blogger Minette looked at a bunch of local logos in one of her entries the other day and she noted that blue and bluish green colors seem to dominate that landscape. Maybe blue is most people's favorite color? Or maybe it's just here in Hawai'i.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Not blue, PINK! Pink is my favorite color. But I don't know how obvious it is when you look at my room. My sheets are lavender, comforter is pink and I have a couple of other pink blankets. My two stuffed animals are mostly pink, too. I don't have too many pink outfits and other stuff in my room either. Well, if your daughter ever gets back into her pink phase, let me know. We'd be the best of friends.
November 24th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Kelli: Well, she just might switch to pink later, when she's more aware of what her choices are. I don't remember this but my parents tell me my favorite color was purple when I was a kid. So our daughter's preference might change too and when it does, I'll give her your e-mail address.
November 24th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I thought that my favorite color (yellow) was ALWAYS my favorite color. That is, until I watched some old family videos recently (filmed when I was about 5 years old). My mom was 'interviewing' me, and when asked what my favorite color was, I very loudly and enthusiastically declared, PINK! So you never know--blue may just be a childhood phase!
November 24th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Caryn: What a great idea, to interview your kid and get it on video! Zee and I will definitely do that.
Interesting about the color preferences evolving. I wonder what made you "switch" from pink to yellow and if that was influenced by something or someone.
November 24th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
So funny cause I was told my favorite color was yellow when I was a kid. Somehow each family member was designated a color. I never remembered saying yellow. Now that I'm "older," I decided I definitely like PINK! I know for sure I definitely don't like blue...
November 24th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Shauna: Designating a color for everyone — I never heard that one before! Maybe when your parents were expecting you they didn't know whether you were going to be a boy or girl so they got everything yellow. And then later they just told you yellow was your favorite color.
That's what I would do.
That reminds me of a great quote from "Juno," when the guy played by Jason Bateman says, "Why does everyone think yellow is gender neutral? I never knew a guy with a yellow room." Ha ha! True that!
November 24th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Hmmm... when I was small the color was red.... not really pink, until I got older. My brother and boy cousins had blue stuff. Then it was pink and purple.... now as an adult.... it's back to red and purple too, so anything in the wine, burgundy family-mix of red and purple is my fave haha....
Well with your daughter being "surrounded" by blue growing up, it is quite a coincidence that she likes blue huh! BUT, I somehow doubt that white would be her favorite color if you had white sheets? I dunnooo... interesting thought though!
November 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
HNL2LAS: From red to pink and purple and back to red — I wonder if there's something about red that somehow appeals to the nurturing instinct. Rosy, red cheeks are healthy, rather than pale or green in the face, so maybe if that's your favorite color then that's something you'd strive for. Psycho babble? Yeah, probably!
Actually, when I said white sheets I meant it more as an absence of color, so it wouldn't affect her preference. I didn't think of white as a color, really. But you made me realize that white is actually a lot of people's favorite color.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
My favorite color as a kid, was green -- I had green wallpaper and green bedsheets. I think that was pretty strange, especially for a girl. Now that I'm an adult, I still like green, but it's not my favorite anymore. Guess what is... blue!
I'm going to venture out and predict that the blue is the most popular favorite color in the world. It's a primary color. It's calming. Yet it's authoritative. It's the color of the working class (e.g."blue-collar") and our flag (and Sweden's too, I believe). Oh, and the Advertiser website.
So for these reasons, and the ones already mentioned, it think blue is especially fitting for Hawai'i.
BTW, thanks for the link!
November 25th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Hi Minette! Yes, green as a favorite is probably not very common, especially not for girls. I think you're right about blue being the most popular favorite color. It is both calming and authoritative, like you say. Maybe that's why so many banks use it in their logos? I like your theories!