Colour Week and the Boring Existence Of Grown-Ups

Why is it that whenever I’m brainstorming for ideas to write about, my kids’ lives seem more interesting than mine?

Like right now, they are in the middle of Colour Week at daycare. Each day this week is assigned a colour and they dress accordingly. I wonder how we could make this happen at my place of work!

I guess nothing is stopping me from dressing head to toe in yellow one day, and in full green the next.

Normal grown-up clothes are kind of boring. I’ve spent most of the work week in yoga pants which have a hole in them and have therefore been demoted to stay-at-home status. Only my laptop could see me, so it didn’t really matter.

I did go to dance class, however, where I was the only one dressed in colour. In my bright blue yoga pants and a dark green t-shirt, both of which looked completely fine at home, I stood out like a blinking neon sign! Everyone else had dressed in black. Perhaps grown-ups do have colour codes, after all.

I’m reminded of my German friend who told me she can only wear her favourite pink skirt in spring because otherwise she’ll get comments. Why are you dressed so brightly? Oh, you’re wearing summer clothes? Thinking of this takes my thoughts to my new flowery purse, hiding in a cupboard, waiting for the sun. The purse and I are soul mates.

I’m sure there are other grown-ups who’d like to play dress-up at work, like me, if only you could somehow get away with it and still look professional. These people usually come out at Christmas with their ugly sweater contests and ugly sweater jokes, trying hard to make everyone believe that they don’t think their sweater sporting a knitted Darth Vader with reindeer antlers is super cool. I’ll admit right now I love their Christmas sweaters.

One thing I’d really like in grown-up size are those sneakers with built-in lights. I always wonder what happens when the kid jumps in a puddle, though, and for this reason I haven’t considered buying them for my boys. They love puddles too much and I love them too much. But for myself? I’ve outgrown the puddle phase and now I’m just waiting for a designer to make led light shoes trendy. There’s actually a Finnish designer who’s known for adding bunny ears to her shoes for grown women, so at least there’s hope.

The photos here are from our family’s extravagant version of Colour Week, Colour Month, which we experienced in Spain in February. After seeing a whole paradeful of people dressed as strawberry muffins burning a large lizard figure on the beach, this was the scene we returned to:

And you, dear reader, are you a beige or a colour splash kind of person? Some of you are perhaps the opposite of me, loving the sad beige parenting trend. I get you, I used to be beige at some point, too.

(For funny critique on muted tones in kids’ fashion, have a look here.)

Thanks for reading!