3yo dd just announced that...

[Helmondo]

"you can't look pretty without make-up on mummy". No idea where she's gotten this statement from as I rarely wear the stuff.

It's pretty depressing coming from a 3yo, I've never said anything of the sort. I was wondering if anyone else's dd's have come out with anything like this and how I could go about persuading her that this is not the case, that she is beautiful whatever she looks like?

not pertinent to make up, but ds1 aged about 6 said to his sister, "let's play police stations, I shall drive the police car and you can keep the station tidy"

This was the boy who also said to dh not to use "mummy's drill" as he had never seen dh do any diy.

Goodness knows where it all comes from!

I wear a small amount of make-up for evenings out and important work meetings only. Last year, I had to do a TV studio interview with the usual amount of front-of-camera slap. When I got home, my then 3yo ds2 said:"Mummy, now you look like a real lady." Like you, no idea where that came from.

My 3yo DD often repeats stuff she's heard other people say as if it's her considered opinion that she's held for years, without actually meaning it as a well-thought through statement of belief - she's probably just heard someone else say it & is repeating it to you. It is depressing when they come out with stuff like that, but I guess they're at that information-gathering stage in trying to figure the world out, & will often take things they hear as the gospel truth, until you tell them otherwise & then they'll take what you've told them as the right answer, and so on. Mine'll ask what I'm doing when I'm putting on make-up - I just tell her it's face-paint for grown-ups (she hates face-paint, which helps :-)). I'd tell her that you can look very pretty without any make-up on, & that she's beautiful already, & beautiful on the inside too.

I did tell her that it wasn't true but she argued the case pretty adamantly, so I've dropped it for now
She's into Disney princesses at the moment so that might be partly to blame, but she also likes getting mucky too so I'm not overly worried, just wondering that if she really believed this if it would be possible to change her mind

Am feeling pretty reassured that she might have repeated it from somewhere else

Does she go to preschool? DS came back announcing that he couldn't drink out of pink cups as they were 'for girls'. He's grown out of it now (nearly 6)

No, she starts nursery in September. I was expecting her to pick up some things when she goes, but not before

Oh blimey yes, we've been having the 'girls' stuff' comments from ds1 since he started nursery (he's now at the end of reception). More surprising was ds2 (2.7) in the supermarket yesterday.

Ds2 (noticing a picture of a baby on a pack of nappies): A boy baby.
Me: How do you know it's a boy?
Ds2 (with withering look): He's got a blue hat.

He's 2 FFS and has already absorbed gender coding!