Of course they will, I can assure her. He will learn quicker than most kids that insults don't hurt unless you let them. Depending on his personality he will laugh them off like Prince Harry or meet them with silent disdain as I did. I hope he is Prince Harry.
He will hear that he is expected to have a hot temper and to disprove it he will channel anger into more effective means of expression.
A trifling affliction makes you stronger. Whenever someone made a reference to my hair Mum would fiercely insist it was "auburn". I remember wishing she wouldn't. It's red, damn it. Live with it.
Then there were the aunts who said they loved the colour. I was too young to know they were pretending for my sake, or Mum's. I just thought they were barmy.
They would all agree it would go dark when I got older. That was always good to hear and I'm told it really did though it still looks red to me. When little Eden was born I was surprised his other grandparents didn't immediately know who to blame for the hair. I had to put my hand up.
The gene seems to strike only every second generation. My parents had dark hair and so do my two kids. I'm not sure whether the Irish or Scots ancestry is to blame. Geneticists say we are creatures of evolution in regions of low sunshine where the light skin accompanying red hair helped to increase the absorption of vitamin D. They think climate change might cure it.
All right, it's not that bad. It is not even as bad as colour blindness, which my grandson could have also inherited through his mother. Apparently only mothers can pass it on. It's another affliction that sounds worse than it is. Everyone says the pohutukawa are brilliant this year. I have to take your word for it. That is the worst of it.
Mine is the most common variety, called red-green colour blindness though browns are hard to distinguish too, and purple looks blue. Fortunately the designers of traffic lights have made allowance for us. The red is a dark glow, the green looks almost white.
Designers of graphics for newspapers and magazines are not as aware of the common colour confusions. Many graphs are lost on us because two or more lines look the same. But I am not complaining, I'm not sure I want the range of available colours reduced for everybody so that a minority can benefit. We're fine.
In fact we wouldn't be any other way. These things are part of you, they make you who you are.
I passed a cyclist with an artificial leg in the Auckland traffic on Wednesday morning. I didn't notice at first. He looked like any other cyclist, dressed the same, peddling normally. I can't imagine that courage. But I can imagine his pride in dealing with a disability so well that he needed no more consideration on the road that any other cyclist has a right to expect.
My daughter will be appalled that I have drawn such a long bow from her baby's hair but it is only to say that all these things make you stronger. And that she has nothing to worry about. Our little redhead is already showing his character. He is quieter than his sister at the same age, more watchful, composed and determined in his efforts to commando crawl for toys.
He is just beginning to find his feet. He doesn't know we have a special connection yet but when he does I hope he will be as glad as me.
• John Roughan is now taking a break and will return on January 24.
