My DD wants to wear makeup and she's 4!

[Freddiecat]

My 4 year old DD is constantly asking me if she can wear make-up and nail varnish. I'm really against girls wearing any makeup until at least they go to secondary school and really didn't plan to have these conversations now!

I let her wear some clear nail varnish to a family party (mainly to avoid any serious rebellion) and now she's blethering on about her friends who wear coloured nail varnish to school. And it's true - I've seen them with chipped red nails - going into the reception class! On non-uniform days some of them even have sparkly eye shadow on!

Should I have a word with the school do you think?

In my house the kids can put make up on for dressing-up only. Likewise high heels and short skirts: we keep getting hand-me-downs from cousins and it all goes into the dressing-up box.

Only exception is if they are in some stage production, when they can tart up all they want because it's quite OK to pretend to be older than your years when you are on the stage!

My girls (10 and 7) have make up bags and have done since they were that sort of age. However that's because they're in a fair number of productions where they need some make up. Occasionally (perhaps 1-2 times a year)they appear having made themselves up with it, I wouldn't let them wear it for school though. Most of the time they're not bothered at all. Never had a issue with them wanting it at inappropriate times.
I did let dd2 have gold sparkly nailvarnish for dressing up as a bride for the royal wedding. She'd picked it all off within 48 hours so by the time she went back to school the following week.
I don't really see the problem with children wearing sparky eyeshadow for non-uniform days though. It's part of dressing up. We always have a few children with face paint on for non-uniform days and to me it's not much different, just dressing up.

I think to a certain extent it is a phase they go through and my advice would be that you would be better off buying her some play makeup and let her wear it at home as part of her dressing up play and it will soon wear off.

My DD1 is 6 and has a makeup kit - she used to be obsessed with it for a while, but now she hardly ever uses it. Sometimes when her friends come over they get it out and get dressed up/put it on. To be fair, my DS1 gets it on too (he's 4) so it's more like face paint than makeup iyswim.

I certainly wouldn't let her put make up or nail varnish to go out. I always make a point of getting her to take it off if we go out.

DD3 is 4 and loves her 'make-up' but her sisters are 10 and 14 so I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle. Make-up and nail varnish shouldn't be worn at primary school but nail varnish and some 'pretend' make-up on a non-school day is fine. I tried applying eye shadow with a clean applicator to DD3 this morning but she wasn't impressed when she looked in the mirror!!

Kelley why not start a thread asking your question? This thread goes back more than two years.

i would let her in the house as a fun game but not outside or to school.
I loved playing with makeup when i was a little girl but was never allowed to wera it out of the house and didn' even wear it to school till i was 15.