AIBU to be unsure why my son had his nails painted at nursery

[badger82]

I'm open minded and would fully support any child of mine who chose to paint his nails sparkly at any point in life, but was somewhat surprised that his nursery fashioned an activity in which all the boys and girls painted each other's nails. He is 2.5

A bit strange?

Sounds like fun.

I'm struggling to see a problem

If he was female would you care?

Sounds fun!

It got them to sit still, practise fine motor skills, be creative and develop friendships. Sounds good to me!

Practising fine and gross motor skills. Great fun.

I think it's a strange choice of activity tbh, just based on ages. I'd be a bit miffed about dd having her nails painted and she is the same age

Maybe because the children wanted to do it, or it linked in with some other activity/book etc. Can't see the problem unless I didn't have any nail varnish remover in the house then I would be a miffed I had to go get some.

Actual nail polish? Yeah, I would care, boy or girl!

I don't think it's a great idea to encourage painting other peoples bodies full stop.

That would be fine with me.

DS used to do this at his childminder's. Regularly came home with black or silver nails.

I'd be fine with it. Do you own nail varnish remover?

I think it's harmless and quite sweet. Although yeah, I think they'd have been wise to offer the use of nail varnish remover at home time in case parents didn't have any.

Curious about why it's not a good idea (chemicals?)

No different from face painting imo. I'd actually prefer it to face paint as my son gets that all over his clothes and mine!

2 yr olds shouldn't be painting each others nails. Nail varnish isn't suitable for playing with, what an odd activity for a nursery to think of.

I wouldn't be happy about nail painting or face painting at that age, girl or boy.

I would think that was odd, boy or girl. I hope they used a kiddie non toxic version of nail paint

If they used the non-toxic peel off stuff, fine. But there are some fairly horrific chemicals in normal nail polish unless it's big three free (and even then it's not great).

I'm a cm and always ask before I paint nails. One of my children isn't allowed hers done, her family think she is too young, which is fine, I respect that and just do it on days she isn't there. I'm surprised they haven't asked tbh, as I have known more than one family who don't want their child's nails painting.

Our preschool did this, but asked parents first if they objected.

I wouldn't like it on my sons or daughter at that age. I think it's quite quickly strong chemical for little ones to be playing with. Also, I'm not into any kind of make up on children.

It's not so much the having the paint on his nails I'd object to it's the painting each other's 'nails' bit! My two year old would get nail varnish all over skin/clothes/eyes/furniture...

What is it specifically that bothers you about it?

I would imagine they were very closely supervised. I doubt they put a loads of pots of nail varnish in the middle of the table and told them to crack on.

I'd have been a bit unhappy with that when my kids were 2.5. Sitting waiting for nails to dry isn't a toddler activity in my view. And lots of children painting nails in the same room - I wouldn't like the smell they would be exposed to (it can set off headaches for me).