Creating a Musical Nursery

So with twins on the way, you can imagine Daughter and Son-in-law have been busy choosing nursery themes, picking out colors, assembling the crib.

Back in my mom’s day, the baby might have slept in the parents’ room for awhile, in anything from a bassinet to a dresser drawer.  After the baby came, and one knew what sex it was, the nursery could be painted the appropriate pastel pink or blue.  Those who simply could not wait might pick pastel yellow or green.  The color must be pastel though.  Soothing.  Why is pink considered for girls and blue for boys?  Why are some colors considered neutral?  I can’t answer that, and don’t get me started on inanimate things having a gender.  In my spare time these days I’m trying to learn German.  Der Hund, die Katze, das Buch. Ach du lieber.

Pink hasn’t always been for girls.  Blue was not always for boys.  In the 1800’s, quite the opposite was true.  Blue was serene, like the ethereal sky, and thus for the gentler sex. Red (thus pink) was considered warlike and meaty, so pink was for baby boys.  Why it changed we don’t know.  Baby boomer girls like me usually grew up in pink rooms, like it or not.  Which I didn’t.  Sunshiny yellow, please.  Please?  Oh, all right.  Just wait ’til I get my first dorm room.

Those were the days of all white sheets.  When brightly colored sheets first came out, there was serious concern among parents that we teenagers might be kept awake all night from the bright colors.  I kid you not.

When I was having babies, I wanted BRIGHT.  I had emerald green and banana yellow walls for one of my kids.  Yuck.  If you ever wondered before, my darling daughters, let me assure you that your mother was nutso.   But it was the era of Rainbow Brite, so maybe I wasn’t the only one decorating with bright colors.  If I had Pinterest back then, I could have seen what others were doing. 

I will admit the applique quilts I made for their walls were adorable.  One was a bright jack-in-the-box, the other was a hot air balloon with rainbow colors.  I haven’t gotten the courage to take the thing out of the box in the linen closet and ask Daughter and Son-in-law if they want it.  Probably not.

Of course, the colors now are more subdued.  On Pinterest, I’m seeing a lot of turquoise.  So Daughter and Son-in-law decided to paint the babies’ room gray.  GRAY!  Clunk.  Will you hand me my jaw back please?  Thank you.  Okay, I will admit it is a warm gray.  There is both a sparkling white chair rail and crown moulding.  They are using lots of red and green. Their theme is rock and roll music.  They have their favorite bands’ brightly colored posters framed and hung.  They are painting a mural of the music to their favorite song on the wall.  It’s the song that they danced their first dance to at their wedding.  Not that they are mushy or anything.  Not much.  They look at the music they are so carefully painting and smile at each other.   They hold hands and look into the crib and know that pretty soon, pretty soon their little bungalow burst into the music of new life. 

When that happens, I don’t think anyone will be looking at the color on the wall.