'It's all ridiculous: why girls should have pink and boys blue is a made-up concept'
It is a well-known fact that pink is for girls and blue is for boys. From the moment a friend (usually a woman) tells you they're pregnant, the next few months are spent hovering around the baby clothes aisle in the local supermarket trying to work out if it is safe to buy non-gender defining green or red romper suits and dribble bibs.
Or, if it's your offspring about to make its big debut in the world, you never quite know whether you should ask its sex at the scan, purely so you can get on with painting the new nursery in hues of lilac or shades of cobalt.
It's all ridiculous, of course, why girls should have pink and boys blue is an entirely made-up concept.
It's like saying all iguanas should have orange trainers.
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The iguana doesn't care either way.
Well, at least all the iguanas I've ever met have never expressed a preference.
Historically, the pink for girls and blue for boys rule is a bit of a dodgy area too.
Before the Second World War, pink and blue were used interchangeably for boys and girls and, going even further back, pink was used as a colour code for aristocratic and royal baby boys.
Mind you, boys also used to wear dresses, too. I know someone with a strange uncle who still does.
So, not wanting to force my two girls into being pretty, pinky girlie girls, I never insisted on an endless parade of fluffy pinky presents or clothes.
If they wanted to become miniature Barbara Cartlands as they grew up, swathed in reams of pink chiffon, then fine, that's their choice.
But I didn't want to be accused of dressing my daughters up like some God-awful American child Barbie forced to preen and pout in a baby beauty pageant.
Have you seen those poor kids? It's soul-suckingly dreadful.
But as my two, Poppy and Tilly, have got older – they're now six and four – a strange thing has happened.
Without any prompting or prodding on our part both my daughters have adopted pink as their favourite colour.
Ask them what their favourite colour is and they say: "Pink!"
Ask them what colour coats they want, they answer: "Pink!"
Ask them what flavour of milk they want for a bedtime drink and the universal answer is: "Pink, please."
To be honest, they don't say please very often, but I live in hope they'll eventually grasp the fact that manners cost nothing.
It's almost like girls are genetically drawn to pink. Have a quick look at their bedroom and it's like wandering into Cinderella's sickeningly cute, pinkified boudoir.
Maybe it's just the influence of the playground and their little pals. Maybe it's a defiant, symbolic act of separating themselves from icky, sticky, smelly boys and a lifetime of being told they consist of "slugs and snails and puppy dog tails".
Whatever it is, I'm not going to argue. If you can't fight nature you might as well join it.
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