Just thinking about this after reading the mums of teenagers Q&A thread and seeing lots of posts along the lines of "how can I convince my daughter she doesn't need to spend four hours a day on her makeup?". It struck me how different that attitude is from what my mum used to say to me. Around the time I reached secondary school, she started to (and still does) encourage me to wear makeup in most situations, often pointing out that she started wearing it every day when she was 13, and that I would be silly not to bother with it when it would make such an improvement to my appearance. Her favourite line was "you've got to make an effort - take some pride in your appearance!" and when I resisted I'd be told I was being lazy. I'd like to point out that she wasn't trying to convince me to have basic standards of personal care - I always showered, brushed my teeth and hair, wore clean clothes etc - it was just about makeup.
Did any other mums say this kind of thing to their children? Do you think it could have been harmful? I've struggled since the age of 14 with MH problems, and I really don't think my mum's "you need to slap on some makeup to look acceptable" message helped my self esteem at all. If it's relevant, I still don't wear makeup very often - I went through a brief phase of wearing it every day when I was 15/16, but now I never wear it in the daytime and just put it on for things like evenings out, an arrangement I'm quite comfortable with.