Clever Comeback?

"No, she didn't get my hair but she luckily she got my a**!" ; )~ They won't know what to say! We have a special child ~ so I've had to come up with tons of comebacks rather than poke people in the eye. I had people saying "Oh, we're so sorry she's deaf." I'm not ~ I love her the way she is. So I started apologizing for things I thought were wrong with them. I.e. My Sister - She apologized for my daughter being deaf, so I apologized for her being a drunk! Have fun with it and try not to let people bug ya. Have a great day ya spunky redhead!
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As a redhead myself with a brunette baby girl, I used to just smile and say "I'll take that as a compliment!"

Well if she looks like one of you, why not say "I know, but at least we know she is not the mail mans!" They may get a chuckle from that.

One sassy R. head in the family is all my poor hubby can handle.

It's even better she didn't get her grandads - he's bald!

"God had other plans."
"We like her just the way she is."
"Looks like she got 'her own' hair."

'we dyed it to be different' :-)

Daddy couldn't handle TWO of us. ;)

It's amazing what people say. My husband and I and our two boys all have brown hair. But our daughter is a redhead! I can't tell you how many strangers have come up to me and asked, "How did she get R. hair?" I usually explain that she has the R. hair gene from both her father's and my side. And that since I am adopted, it's really neat for me to see what genes I have that I don't know about.

So I am with you. A clever comeback would be great. I did once say, "My pipes were rusted." And that did end the conversation fast.:)

Good luck...Perhaps I would say, "Oh, we think she is beautiful, just the way she is."

"Oh no, we just blow-dry it to make sure it doesn't rust..."

I love the way people think they're funny when they're not! My son was born with nearly black hair... then it turned auburn and now platinum blonde. DH and I were both very blonde as children and now have settled into a medium brown for him and a chestnut/auburn for me (but I highlighted for many many years so most people didn't realize I was so dark). When he was very young people would say "Are you sure he's yours?" um... yup just gave birth to him actually! or "One of you must color your hair!" yup... me, thanks.

I would just smile and nod if it really doesn't bother you. They don't mean anything mean or degrading and in saying something I think you will do more harm than good.

What they are saying is really just a compliment to you because R. hair is so pretty and unique. Its not a put down of any sort, as you noted. I think if you say something "cute and clever" people might think you are offended when you are not. Even things like, "we like her the way she is" connotes that you feel that the person was being offensive. I really would just say, something like "I know, thank you". Its not clever or witty but appropriate.

"yes, she got her dads hair and my smile." then smile a great big smile and walk away.

My first thought was "If she got my R. hair, I'd be bald". That's what I would have used as a comeback.

YAY REDHEADS! I'm a redhead and NONE of my kids have my hair :/

person: 'too bad she didn't get your R. hair!'
you: 'yes, but at least she's not bald!'

or: 'yes, but we bought her a wig/extensions/box of hair dye'

or: 'we dyed it that color just to try something different'

or... say it how you feel, like you just told us. 'It's not too bad, she's PERFECT just the way she is' :)

She is perfect to us.

If your hair is long enough for her to reach it, how about "She gets my R. hair all the time - the tough part is teaching her to let go of it!"

Or, "she *did* get my R. hair - and her daddy's brown hair too :-)"

If they say something like "do you wish she had your hair color" I would reply honestly, to the effect of "no, we're really happy that she has her daddy's beautiful hair color".

However, if they actually say "it's too bad...", my inclination would be to say something that would make them think. I'd say "yes, it's a horrible shame, every parent's nightmare. How do you think we should handle it?" Ask them something to make them have to think about the foolishness of such a thoughtless remark.

id make some kind of cute come back about his father, since from what im gathering he looks like him a bit. my sister is half mexican, and her daughter has flamming R. hair! we love it, and she is incrediably cute, but people tell my sister all the time, that cant be yours... they usually think she is mine. when my sister had a second child, we laughed, he looks just as mexican as she does, and so we joke about the different looks they have, which is made funnier by the fact my mom only had one white child out of seven... me :)

I have the opposite problem. I have mousy brown no color hair (dye it) and my DD has beautiful R. hair. People actually have stopped us in the street to comment on it, then they usually look at me like how can you possibly be her mother. She is also tall and slim and I am not!! ha ha. :-( My Grandmother got fed up with people thinking she wasn't mine so she started telling people my DD gets her beautiful hair from her great x 4 grandmother who came off the boat from Ireland!!! Its hilarious and people are always impressed. Hey it could be true!! :-)

I like Christy J.'s comment!

When I was little I had curly hair and people used to ask my mom all the time if it was naturally curly. Are you serious? Do you think she would really give a 3 year old a perm? Sometimes people say stupid things because they aren't really thinking.

I don't have a suggestion for a comeback but I understand where you are coming from. Our 2 year old has this gorgeous copper R. hair. My hubby's hair is nearly black, mine has gone from strawberry blonde to brown as I got older and almost everyone says "where did he get that R. hair from?"
I have lots of R. heads in my family & hubby has some too but I dont want to be explaining all that to a stranger so I just nod and smile.
I like the suggestion of saying she got daddys hair and mommys smile....

No but she's got my _____________" Attitude, temper, good looks, flirtiness
I was born bright blonde (like my dad), then is turned R. (like my mom when she was younger) and now it's light brown/dark blonde with reddish highlights.
My moms pretty R. hair turned super dark brown as she got older...when I was a kid I never believed she had R. hair until I saw the pictures to prove it!

I understand this as I've had comments like these before. Only about other issues.. With my youngest though when she was born with my pixie ears... I prepared myself for the comments... Even though times have changed in the last decades since I was young.... I used to get rude comments about my ears back then... and my parents wanted me to have surgery to fix my ears...( I was concerned it would happen to her) now my ears you cannot tell they were ever pixie like. Believe it or not there were more people that just loved her pixie ears than not... Since the movies out now.. pixie or fairy ears are popular.. But the few that did, I would say" I just love her pixie ears and think they are perfect"... and then the person would follow back with oh! yes they are so cute... The same thing when she was newborn and some people called her fat or chubby... I'd say" I just think she is just perfect..." I never have gotten a negative response from those comebacks.. b/c it was just stating what I felt... Best of luck...

you could say she got your brains instead.. I think that is a nice way of saying, hey she has other great traits.. honestly, I don't think people mean harm, they are probably just so impressed with your R. hair that it's what naturally comes to mind. Honestly, while I NEVER would say that to someone, I have thought it..... or in cases when I see a child with gorgeous R. hair and their parents don't have it, I have thought, ummm maybe it skips a generation.. also, something I ALWAYS have seen is when the boy will have the beautiful curls and long eyelashes while the sister has thin straight hair.. nothing against either.. but it does get people wondering.. now, whether they should blab it out or not remains the question.. probably shouldn't...

I think you've gotten lots of good ideas. I also don't think there's anything wrong with saying "I know! I was hoping for R. too. Good thing she's still perfect!" I mean, you were wishing for R., and even though you love her the way she is, I don't think there's any harm in admitting that.

LOL! I like Dennydo32's comeback!! :) I can't think of anything clever, but hair can change a lot over the years - my kids were all born with black hair and a lot of it! THen, they all turned into toe-heads! My oldest is 12 and his hair is darkening up quite a bit. Who knows what it will be by the time he is 18. My hair is naturally a dark, mousy brown- but when I was a kid, it had R. in it. Go figure. I have super, super thick hair and my 9 year old daughter has the thinnest hair I've seen - poor girl. She also has two cowlicks in the crown area. This is surely going to lead to "I hate my hair!!" meltdowns in the tween/teen years!! *sigh*