Nail painting - great fun for both sexes?

[Bedofnail]

School fete for the coronation on Friday, everyone very excited. Each class is in charge of a stall.

Only today DS (Y5) was told his class is doing…a nail painting stall. That’s it. He is so disappointed; along with many 9 / 10 year old boys he has never painted a nail in his life and has no interest.

AIBU to think this is pretty rubbish for the boys? The year group has a lot more girls than boys and it feels very much that things are geared towards their interests, eg the humanities topic last term was “fashion”.

YABU - All DC should embrace nail painting equally. Much more fun than throwing wet sponges at people etc.

YANBU - Nail painting is more girl oriented and some of the boys will feel excluded.

My DS wouldn't want his nails painting or paint some one else's nails. He's not fussed about football either.

Because he likes neither.

Not all boys will find it fun. Why not Face painting Union Jacks too

Dramatic would be marching into the classroom and denouncing his teacher.
I am canvassing opinions on an anonymous public chat forum; rather low key really.

I think you’ve missed the point. No I’m not afraid he’ll grow a vagina; what an unhelpful and hackneyed comment 🥱 But I am afraid that DS is feeling that the topics at school are very geared to appeal to the girls, and he is becoming increasingly bored and withdrawn at school.

The nail painting is just another example in a whole line. Eg Their only outing this year was to the local museum to study the display of historic dresses. It’s a fine museum with interesting displays on the history of the area, but year 5 were only allowed to look at the dresses. DS and the other boys said it was the most boring day of their lives.

I agree with PPs that this is such an odd thing to get funny about. I could maybe understand if all the boys and girls had to get their nails painted, but they’re manning a stall at a school event. Do you think most children in schools up and down the country have an interest in the stands they work on?

my DD was on the cake stand last term, she hates cake, did i kick up a stink? No. Because it’s pathetic

Surely at that gage they will all just be bad at it? Do what you pat for a crap manicure?

Agreed it would be pathetic to “kick up a stink” about being on a cake stall.

But you must see that cake is not almost exclusively eaten by females and not delicately applied to the body parts of the punters (or at least I hope not!), so there really is no comparison in the comparison you are trying to make.

I get you.

I've never had my nails painted, certainly never wanted or felt able to paint anyone else's and I would have hated being asked to at that age as well. Seems like a weird stall to be asking kids to run at all.

There's two separate points being made:

1: children that age won't do a good job of it. That's fair. I doubt they're doing full manicures or patterns though, they can probably just basic paint nails. And if it's on other kids in the school then it'll only be for a couple of days anyway as they won't be allowed it for "normal" schools days

2: That boys won't like nail painting. This is gendering the activity, there are increasing numbers of males who paint their nails and its not new (think goths for example). Every stall may well have kids involved who won't enjoy it, what about the Beat The Goalie for example? They aren't being forced to have their nails painted, I'm assuming, and surely the kids will get chance to wander around the fair too so won't even be there all the time?

eg the humanities topic last term was “fashion”.

Presumably your child wears clothes?

And there's absolutely NO famous male fashion designers

“Girl stuff” does tend to be looked down on by boys. “Boy stuff” less so by girls.

Great idea but can I give some advice. Only 3 brush strokes on each nail. One in the middle and one either side. No dabbing or going over a painted are again. I couldn't NOT give this advice!!!

I am a bit confused about what does it mean? At DD’s primary each class suggested an activity and was in charge of it. DD’s class once did nail painting and nail tattoos : 2 girls and one older sibling were doing tattoos and a TA was doing nails. The other class was doing football challenge. Again far from all children were involved just a few. It was nothing gender related, just not all of them being equally active and involved. And it was about simple activity which will bring money.
My DD actually tried football challenge and skipped nail painting, she liked nail painting but there was a queue.

Has your son offered to do something different? If yes, were there enough people to support his idea? Was it doable?
I can’t genuinely get why he’s upset.

There was no discussion, the teacher told them what they would be doing for their stall, and that was nail painting. Any other suggestions were shut down.

I understand that in other classes it was more democratic and there was a discussion and vote.

What's your source on the teacher told them they were doing nail painting and refused suggestions when every other class had a vote? Sounds improbable.

My gut feeling is that it's more likely to be something like the class were asked to plan something and when nail painting won the boys kicked up a stink and then the teacher shut them down because they'd had their chance to contribute.

I honestly don't see anything wrong with this. He's not going to horribly suffer from being around nail polish for an hour or two - even if it is 'girly', he can't just live in a 'boy' things only bubble where all the girls have to bend to accomodate his manly needs.

I see… so it could be more about what their teacher could do or maybe it came from school council considering space, ages etc? It’s not right definitely but it’s not about nail painting and doing “girls things” it’s about how teacher approaches things and explains them to children. As a teacher you need to be able to sell an idea to children as the best ever possible. Most of DD’s teachers at primary were very good at it.

Not the point, and I know I'm going to sound like 'in my day this was all fields', but as a 9/10-year-old GIRL in the 80s I had zero interest in nails/make-up/fashion and was much more into stomping about in the mud looking for animal pawprints, playing with our dog and building obstacle courses for him, riding miles on my bike with my mates etc.
I do think there's more and earlier emphasis on personal appearance now than there used to be. I'm not sure how healthy that is for either sex. And I don't think the lack of discussion and the shutting down of other ideas is very good teaching.

You could send him in with a sheet of fake tattoo transfers for anyone who doesn’t want their nails painted . I’m sure that would be fine.

It seems a bit silly as some boys will be into it others will be absolutely no way.

And surely this will be the case for boys AND girls in this and other classes who are providing different types of stalls, so it's a non-issue. Unless this particular class group only ever provides the nail stall all up the school, which seems unlikely.

Parts of this thread are bonkers. Surely each class provides a service, so there is a range of services (stalls) across the event, and can then go and spend their money on other stalls that interest them? As each stall is run by a whole class, they won't be spending that long each on manning the stall. Talent (or not) in nail painting or any other skill is NOT limited to one sex.

This is as much a business class as it is a fun event, and many a man AND many a woman has made their living providing a service to others that they themselves do not want to avail themselves of! Learning to work in groups and not always do the tasks you find fun is part of growing up too. YABU.