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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate make up aimed at little girls.

36 replies

ohIdoliketobebesidethe · 24/10/2008 12:33

I have a 3 1/2 yr old who is very girly and has occassionally put on make up at friend's houses. It obviously end up in a mess and gets treated as just good fun. I can't help feeling this is just another way of oversexualising little girls and it really bothers me.

OP posts:
BloodyStranglingwithBling · 24/10/2008 12:34

Didn't you love make up? Mum's high heels? Anything that sparkled at that age?

I would have given my eye teeth for cute lipstick.

ScottishMummy · 24/10/2008 12:35

do you get make up specifically for girls?do they apply the make up at friends.who supervises

i do find thought of make up for wee girls icky

Bleedodgy · 24/10/2008 12:35

I think it would be a problem if they went out fully made up, dressed like teens etc but toy make up and play is just copying what we do and is harmless dress up. My dd loves it all atm she even painted my nails the other day better than I can do it myself so finding that out was very useful for my next night out!

Original poster
ohIdoliketobebesidethe · 24/10/2008 12:36

I did once raid my mum's make up but I was 7 by then. I guess she is a lot more girly than I was. I don't mind the high-heels or sparkles or dressing up - so does that make me two faced?

OP posts:
MmeTussaudsChmberOfChocHobnobs · 24/10/2008 12:37

I hate it as DD painted her eyebrows with nail varnish when she was given a set as a birthday present. just as well she missed her eyes.

I don't buy it, even now that she is 6yo although I have on occasion let her brush a tiny bit of my eyeshadow on (very light pink)

Liffey · 24/10/2008 12:37

Not when they're so young they just enjoy daubing themselves haphazardly without even checking the result!! My 6 yr old isn't doing it to look 'better'.

If she were 9 or 10, I'd actually have more concerns about her putting on make-up, but the novelty won't be there by then, because I allow her a make-up set now. She really is just playing.

pingping · 24/10/2008 12:37

My little god daughter loves make up she is 3 and her Mum is buying the kids make up set for christmas for her only because My GD keeps using hers. Its part of growing up. I have never thought of it as a sexaul thing only because most 3 yr olds dont manage to look grown up in it and its not like they are wearing foundation mascra eyeliner and then going out

Original poster
ohIdoliketobebesidethe · 24/10/2008 12:38

How are you going to suddenly say make up isn't ok any more when she is 10 Liffey?

OP posts:
thumblesswitch · 24/10/2008 12:38

I don't think YABU at all - it is just another way in which they are rushed into growing up. What battles are going to be left for teenagers if the 4 year olds have already won the wearing of make-up one? [slightly tongue in cheek as I know there are plenty of other battlefields out there but you know what I mean]

Messing with mum's makeup is one thing, being able to buy special kid makeup is madness

PussinWellies · 24/10/2008 12:50

i thought the point of special kid makeup was that it comes off with water, so if you have a ragbag parent who can't find any remover, you can still get rid of it?

thumblesswitch · 24/10/2008 13:02

isn't that what facepaints are for?

pingping · 24/10/2008 13:06

But some little girls like to copy there mums or older sisters better they put on kids make up rather than adults

I dont think there is anything wrong with it as long as you teach them its a play thing

TskullsScreaming · 24/10/2008 13:10

I don't have a problem with dd's playing with makeup sometimes. They don't seem very intersted mostly although they do like the odd squirt of perfume.

The only thing about makeup that is made for little children is that it is so thick and waxy and crap. I'd rather they had an old (real) lipstick/powder of mine to mess about with.

I wouldn't want them taking it seriously and rushing to do their makeup before we ever go anywhere, that would be mad, but playing is ok I think.

Also sometimes we put a bit of glitter on them if they are going to a special disco or party.

rolledhedgehog · 24/10/2008 14:00

I have a DD the same age and used to think the same thing but I sm gradually giving in. She plays with toy make-up and has a beautician dressing-up outfit. As long as she still plsys with her brother's superhero toys and dresses up as a pirate as well I am happy.

She has asked for Bratz dolls and at this I draw a very big bold line!

susie100 · 24/10/2008 14:13

YANBU, awful, it is also full of chemicals which can cause problems for young and sensitive skin.

Liffey · 24/10/2008 14:25

Ohidolikeetc, she'll have got tired of it by then! She already has really. She like it more at 3,4 & 5.

I didn't give it the added allure of being a banned substance you see.

If you don't let your children play with makeup then they'll probably put pritt stick on their eyelids and put collage glitter on top!

Lotster · 24/10/2008 14:44

Hmm, this is a toughie, I only have a boy at the moment and even he (aged 2) occasionally insists of having a toemail painted when I do mine (!), but when little tiny girls end up looking like pageant queens it turns my stomach.
Also, unless you're buying something of nice quality, god knows what chemicals are going in to their skin. A nutritionist and alternative health expert who runs a local shop recently told me anything you put on your skin is in your liver 20 mins later, which really made me think...
Kiddies sets are almost always the cheapest crap you can imagine, and probably tested on animals too. (What a spoilsport I sound )

I think a play behind closed doors is ok, but not in public. Gives off weird messages.

On a similar theme, my god-daughter's grandparents gave her a crop top and ra ra skirt when she was 3 (to her mother's horror). I just don't get why this stuff is made for such litte'uns...

Also, and I may get flamed for this, but can't bear seeing small girls in heels, even princess slippers that come with dressing up clothes, my neice wears 'em and I think it's awful.

muggglewump · 24/10/2008 14:50

It doesn't bother me, I've always let DD play with makeup, just pale sparkly stuff.
She has plastic heeled shoes too.

I also let her have, and will buy more Bratz stuff

expatinscotland · 24/10/2008 14:57

i love it!

i've got the girls lots of makeup aimed at girls for their Xmas.

we love to do makeup on each other - they use their stuff and i use mine.

some of my fondest memories in childhood were lolling on my parents' big bed and watching Mama at her dressing table getting ready to go out and giving us some lippy and a squirt of No. 5.

we loved to use her dusting powder and wear her heels and put on her costume jewellry.

PustuleRots · 24/10/2008 15:01

DD 18mths love digging up my garden and rubbing soil into her face and belly. Does that count?

kiLLf · 24/10/2008 15:09

well, I let my Dd spend whole days 'in character' and costume as a zebra. I've not really considered possible knock-on consequences into adulthood.

I'll only have myself to blame if she develops an unhealthy appetite for grass or a phobia of leopards.

Or I guess she may grow up refusing to let anyone see her without make up, or risking her money and her health on increasingly drastic measures to make herself beautiful. Not sure that that would be to do with dabbling with glittery vaseline from a pink tube, though.

TheHedgeWitch · 24/10/2008 16:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

pingping · 24/10/2008 16:53

PMSL PustuleRots thats funny

madlentileater · 24/10/2008 17:05

yanbu.
vile idea.
give them face paints if they want to be creative.
make-up is NOT part of growing up. I'm quite grown up, thank you, and don't use make up. I don't have a problem with other people choosing to use it but I do have a problem with a world that thinks women aren't good enough as they are. When men starttalking about 'needing to put their face on' before they leave the house, then will be the time for 'children's make up'

giddly · 24/10/2008 17:16

I don't like the idea personally, but it's really just another way of copying adult behaviour (assuming the mother wears it, which I don't).But if they do it I don't think it should be restricted to girls.
I don't really think it's any worse than playing at ironing or any other domestic activity, which I also don't think defines female adulthood.

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