AIBU to think a seven year old should not wear lipstick and nail varnish?

[sammypaws]

Maybe I am being old-fashioned, but I don't think that my SIL should allow my seven year old niece to wear lipstick and nail varnish (in fact she applies it). She has been doing this since she was four/ five years old. I am of the school of thought that children should look like children and not miniature adults - some of the clothes she wears would look more appropriate on someone in their thirties! I think she should be wearing things with animals on them, .

My dd sometimes has it for the school disco but not as a regular occurrence.

YANBU to not want it for your dd, but YABU of you think you can dictate to others.

"Pick your battles" is most certainly not a cop out if you have an incredibly stubborn forthright child. I make her eat healthy food sitting at the table, do her homework, go to bed on time all of which are daily battles even though the rules have been consistent and firm for 8 years. Do I then really think it is worth escalating this to what clothes she wears not in school - no I don't. I do draw the line at certain clothes that I feel are too old for her, in what I feel is appropriate I let her choose. I am considered a fairly tough, but consistent parent with quite old fashioned rules by friends.

No she doesn't get it from me I wear tinted moisturiser as my only make and only now my vitelligo is so bad I look like a ghost without it. My clothes are not high fashion and most of what I wear is practical for my job.
I accept all children are different and others maybe more compliant than mine, but maybe you should accpet that some of us do have to pick our battles.

For those who do put makeup on their daughters just in the house or outside or whatever, once they're painted, do you or others say things like, "you look pretty" or things that imply the makeup has made them look better?

No I don't and I regularly tell her she is beautiful without make up.

My daughters nickname is 'beautiful' but she likes some lip gloss for the school disco, she's never asked any other time and she thinks I'm beautiful with or without make up (worn very rarely) so I think we're doing ok.

Ok. It was a genuine question! I've just heard people say those kind of things and that to me is how makeup can become a danger area. It especially horrified me when people gushed over the pretty princess face-painting I mentioned earlier. I was wondering what kind of thing you could do to avoid or remove that association of makeup with looking better.

The news this week is horrific - children murdered, abducted, victims of abuse and this is what you get worked up about OP?

I wish a bit of nail varnish on a freakin SEVEN year old was about as tough as my family troubles got, I really do

Yes, it's been a bloody horrible week. But it doesn't mean these things aren't worth discussing.

Yes to some, it's a non-issue. But something many others ponder.

OP doesn't sound for real. Firstly worried about nail varnish and then saying that little children shouldn't play with dolls and prams -good luck with that!

I don't think there isn't a girl at DDs school who hasn't tried nail varnish by the time they are 6 or 7. They can't wear it for school but love putting it on for the school discos or holidays - usually in horrendous colours. DD particularly likes painting every nail a different colour for some reason. As well as buying it she seems to get some sort of kids make up on the cover of every childrens magazine she buys these days (she is 9).

They are just little kids having fun. OP may look back on this thread with a wry smile when her DD is dragging her towards Claire's Accessories!

One of my Brownies started to arrive in full slap for meetings: foundation, mascara, eyeshadow, thick eyeliner, blusher, sparkling lipstick...

I had a chat that she did not need to wear makeup to Brownies - she was just perfect without it. She did stop wearing it.

Really, nickiminja? Because a child somewhere was abducted, no one is allowed to discuss the lives of all the rest of them? Oh dear. Sorry, Mumsnet - you are no longer needed. Please shut yourselves down quietly, and turn out the lights on your way out.

I'm with you in spirit, OP. I was asked quite forcefully by female members of my family WHEN I would be signing my DD up for ballet (when she was 4). I laughed, as she had no interest whatsoever, and still doesn't. She'd rather be looking for worms, or bugs, or stars, or at anything under her microscope. But that doesn't stop people who know her perfectly well making their idiotic gender assumptions. However, there are plenty of girly girls who just are that way and no one 'made' them, just as we didn't 'make' our DD the way she is.

If you think your niece is being pushed into it, or led into it by too much exposure to popular culture at a young age, then your SIL is BU. If that's just the way your niece is, and your SIL is just going along with it, then you are BU. Only you know which is the case.