Category Order Issue

I have several categories and sub-categories set up (correctly) for my posts but when I look at the Posts > All Posts screen in my dashboard sometimes the parent category is listed first, other times the child category appears first – this kinda ruins my layout as only child themes have colours assigned to them.

Through a long process of trial and error I worked out that the order the categories appear in this list directly relate to whether or not any colour is added to the post title in the Tabbed News Block I’m using.

Is anyone suffering a similar issue and what can I do to rectify the problem?

Thanks.