Nursery painting 2-4 yo nails

[Vanillalatte1]

My 4 year old DS returned from nursery with his nails painted and said it was varnish day at nursery and that the teachers were painting the kids nails. Is this normal? The kids are between 2 - 4 years old. They seem a bit young to me.

This. Poor nursery workers, if they have to check everything with each parents requirements constantly then your kids won't end up doing anything new or interesting. I'd be more interested they're taking care of my child. I think if you're that fussy you should be looking after your kid yourself.

And that's lovely but again, as a supposed professional you will know you need to follow things through properly in a setting.

So again, it's the execution, not the concept.

The same reason you don't just rock up unannounced to meet your students and actually have a scheduled appointment.

There is absolutely no indication that a nursery worker just rocked up with some nail varnish and randomly painted kids' nails. In fact OP said:
My 4 year old DS returned from nursery with his nails painted and said it was varnish day at nursery and that the teachers were painting the kids nails.

...so it sounds very much a planned activity.

Not planned as in putting chemicals and known allergens on kids fingers without checking.

The kiddy stuff is safe to use. It's made for littlies, is water based and non-toxic. And any allergies should already be known to the staff.

Exactly, totally overreaction. I'm sure they eat unhealthier food at home than the 'risk' of nailpolish

I just googled kids nail polish, and all the links I followed were to non toxic, non-allergenic (and vegan!) products.

Can't you see the difference here? The posters saying they don't mind their son's wearing nail varnish or playing with dolls are allowing their sons to choose what they want to do, allowing them the freedom to explore and have fun and follow their interests, at an age where they don't have the faintest clue about gender stereotypes.

It is people saying 'I'd rather my son didn't do this or do that' which is judgemental and controlling. Why do you care what your child plays with? Why does it make you 'uncomfortable'? And yes I do judge that attitude because I think it has a huge impact on some young boys who are forced into masculine stereotypes from a young age and feel like a failure if they don't turn out to be that way. Imagine knowing that what you like playing with makes your own parent uncomfortable!

I’m currently an early years teacher and I agree with your point about it being weird, I’d never do this at nursery/school with the children but I do disagree that it wouldn’t be following a child’s interests. I’ve taught loads of children who pretend to paint nails like mummy or even open salons in the role play!

As long as they painted boys and girls nails, I’d have zero issues with this.

It’s a bit of fun and would be good for the the children of parents like @Dacadactyl to see that boys and girls don’t have to follow arbitrary gender stereotypes.

I hadn’t realised that children’s nail polish existed, in which case it’s no different to doing face painting IMO. I think it’s quite nice! Absolutely shocked by the posters who think that boys shouldn’t be allowed to take part though. I used to teach KS1 and plenty of boys or girls came in with nail varnish from time to time. The children didn’t consider it a girl thing so it’s a bit sad some adults do.

It’s not OK though, it’s pretty shit parenting. Forcing little boys into gender stereotypes feeds into to toxic masculinity.

Not to mention, playing with dolls is proven to help develop empathy.

If you want another generation where men bottle up their emotions, suffer elevated suicide rates, and find outlets for their repressed feelings through physical violence, go you!

Keep telling little boys that dolls and pretty clothes are girly, and that being girly is a bad thing to be… at least you won’t feel uncomfortable because he’s coloured in his nails, or is feeding a doll a bottle 🤷‍♀️.

Wasing your face is general hygiene 😂 I hope you don't just do that when you need to lift your spirits

It was regular polish as I needed to get it off with remover

Not a problem at all. But my son gets much more excited when he sees superhero costumes and not womens dresses. I'm just not sure what the issue would be with throwing some superhero costumes on the rails too rather than just womens dresses. It's like their wanting them to put on adult dresses and high heels...just a bit odd to me.

I really wouldn't be happy about that and would complain to the nursery. They shouldn't be using something so toxic on young children, especially as this age group are going to put fingers in their mouth.

I suspect you would have recieved very different reactions if you had mentioned it was normal nail polish in the first post, as it's really not appropriate for nursery to be using it.

I agree. I wouldn't have minded this easy wash off stuff but actually don't think I'd bother buying it. I'd probably just let them wait until they're old enough to use the real stuff if they want to, ive got no issue with older boys in nail varnish and think it looks quiet cool. He's got a little sister so don't worry everyone he's playing with the buggy and dolly...he dresses up in 'girls clothes' he is exploring all toys/ activities with her, hes not getting steeotyped although he oes prefer cars and dinosaurs GASP!!!! I just don't go getting my heels and dresses out and putting them on him, that's my issue. They're kids and I want them to be kids for as long as they can...

They’re not going to stop being kids because they’ve got painted nails. It’s not toxic anyway, it wouldn’t be on sale if it was.

My son's nursery did nail varnish for the children one day (the older children not 2 or 3 year olds) but they sent a message in the parents WhatsApp group asking for consent (a thumbs up reaction to the message if we were OK with it). My son didn't want his nails done anyway though I gave permission (but a couple of weeks later came home and demanded I paint his finger and toenails!) So I'm fine with that, so long as they ask permission and don't leave the boys out if they want it.

They also weirdly ask for consent to allow the children to watch staff members get their flu jabs. Apparently the children are fascinated and watch to watch

my son came home from nursery with his nails painted last year and was so delighted with them that we continued doing it when he asked.

he’s at school now where it goes against the uniform policy so we compromise with doing his toes!

Can you imagine trying to keep 10 toddlers still till the varnish dries?!!

I wouldn't be happy with them having used adult nail varnish that needed remover. Too many chemicals for thin toddler skin. And yes I was one of "those" parents that only used bath products with no parabens or sls and water wipes. I don't use nail varnish, so would have had to buy remover too, which is a waste.

One of my boys loved nail varnish up to about 6 years old when peer pressure kicked in. We just used the one made for kids and he got annoyed when it washed off in the bath.

Ah ye old "toxic masculinity" card being pulled out. Such huge leaps from preferring one's son doesn't wear nail varnish to encouraging them to bottle up emotions/use violence etc.

I'll go back to my illustration...if my husband or father started to wear skirts and nail varnish I would be uncomfortable with it. And I would find it strange. Thats because they're men. I'm not asking them to bottle up all their emotions/repress their feelings/use violence.

It's not "shit parenting" to discourage your son not wear make up or nail varnish.

You're a shit person if you judge every parent that has a different opinion to you or style of parenting.

Perhaps it's time to change nursery op. You're clearly not comfortable with them, think they have some agenda which doesn't align with your values. I'd start looking for somewhere you're comfortable to leave your child each day

Agreed! Each to their own!! No problems with anyones decision to paint their children's nails....its just not necessary in nursery IMO