Nail varnish on little boys

[notanumber]

This is hugely trivial, but wondered what you thought.

I slapped some nail varnish on my gnarled old hooves yesterday as the glorious weather meant that I could no longer hide my podiatry shame in boots. DS (3) doodled up and demanded paint on his nails too. He likes paint, and I was irked by the notion that something fun would be forbidden to him because it's 'only for girls'. I slicked some glittery purple varnish on his toes, he was pleased.

When DH came home he raised eyebrows at DS' feet. He asked me whether I would have put nail varnish on a three year old DD.

I had to admit that no, I wouldn't. I get all judgy and cringy when I see little girls wearing make up (including nail varnish) on the grounds that little girls should be jumping and playing not smeared in make up being a 'princess' etc.....

DH said that in Sexist Top Trumps?, surely the principle that little children shouldn't be getting tarted up with adult goo is more important than the principle that there is no such thing as 'boys' and 'girls' toys/colours/activities.

He's probably right. And there was me being all smug about not submitting to gender 'rules' for my little boy and giving him freedom of expression etc.

Yet another Feminism Fail. I'm really sucky at this - I hope I get better at it soon

I think you feed into the notion that appearance is all important if you make a fuss about appearance/clothes/nail polish etc where small children are concerned. DS never bothered much with nail polish and DD3 was the same but the others liked all that glam business.

[am surrounded by a lot of pink stuff here]

I have a 4 year old DD and a 2 year old DS, they both wear fairy dresses, play shoes and makeup including nail polish (at home only not for school). They also both play fight with sticks, run around with cars, trains and dinosaurs and million other things.

We don't have any limits based on gender, just on expense or age grounds. However I do wonder what my DS will do at school, am I setting him up for a fall by supporting him to do what he wants to do ? But I never worried about his sister so I guess I should not be worried about him either.

We have a great photo of him climbing a really difficult part of the play castle with a tiara firmly in place on his hair...bless him :)