Uniform

My four year old nephew is finally started reception. "Big school" he calls it, and he tells anyone he knows, "I'm going to big school soon". His uniform is a bit weird though. It consists of a choice of six coloured polo shirts; pale blue, light green, yellow, pink, purple and white. It also includes the optional royal blue sweater, which had the school logo embossed on the left breast. I asked him one morning what was his favourite colour shirt.

"Green," he said, slurping and chewing noisily on his Cheerio’s. "Because green is my favourite colour."

"Geez, what have I told you about talking with your mouth full," I said, grimacing at the view of his open mouth. He swallowed.

"But Uncle Josh does it!" he whined. I rolled my eyes. He was referring to the buffoon that was my brother, who had the eating manners of Ron Weasley.

"Yeah, well, Uncle Josh doesn't have school and you might drop your cereal on your clean uniform, then you have to go to school dirty, then everyone will laugh at you, is that what you want?"

He shook his head slowly, his face so innocent I almost felt guilty. Almost though, the only way to get to this boy was fear so it was necessary.

I went to pour him a cup of apple juice. "But what about the other colours?" I asked.

"Green is my favourite, I like the purple one as well," he replied.

"How about pink?"

"Pink?! I don't have pink, pink is for girls," he said, giggling. I smirked at him.

"Pink isn't only for girls you know, “I said to him, handing him his apple juice. "Uncle Josh wore a pink shirt the other day, remember?"

"Yeah, but you called him a big girl, so pink is just for girls," he shrugged, taking a sip of his drink.

I frowned. I really had to watch what I said in front of my nephew.