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Please don't paint her toes
Last week I took my kids for a haircut. We go to a terrific woman in our neighborhood who runs a hair salon out of her house, and she's cut my kids hair since their very first cut. She's warm, patient and loves my kids. While my 6-year-old son was squirming in her chair, she offered to have her daughter paint my 3-year old's toenails.
Since I'm hardly a fan of carcinogenic ingredients and am unsure which nail polishes contain them and which have removed them, I said no.
Saying "no" can be hard.
Saying no, of course, is far easier said than done. Oh, I can say no to my 3-year-old (do it all the time), but I also had to say no to this super nice woman who made a generous offer to please my daughter. Slightly trickier, right?
So I explained to my crying daughter that we can't paint her toe nails because the polish might have toxic ingredients that "aren't healthy for her body" (my kids hear this all too often). All said, of course, in front of our friendly hairdresser whose judgment I was insulting. Ugh.
How it should be.
What was running through my mind during this noisy, teary, confusing conversation was how great it would be if I could have said,
Sure, Ana, that sounds fun. You're really nice to offer. Georgia, would you like to have your toenails painted?
But I couldn't. And I won't until I can be confident that the personal care products being sold in this country are safe. Safe for me, super safe for my growing kids. But there's no way to be sure, because our laws are far too weak.
What can you do?
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics offers this practical advice:
Look for less-toxic brands and formulations of nail polishes and treatments in Skin Deep, and practice BYOP -- bring your own polish -- on salon visits. Try buffing nails instead of lacquering, skip the mani and just get a pedi, limit polish use by children and pregnant women and always apply and remove polish in a well-ventilated area.
And be sure to read our Enviroblog post, "Making Makeup Safe for Kids." It covers nailpolish and more.
Be safe out there. There's a lot of unknowns.
Ohhhh, I can so empathize with this one! And you're right, it's often the kind, well-intentioned adult I feel worst about disappointing. I totally BYOP, btw. ;)
Great story. I can relate. this happens oh so often to me and sometimes I cave because I'm too embarrassed about insulting or embarrassing the adult. I wish it were easier and I wish more people scrutinized what they put in/on their bodies like I do. My husband brushes it off say, "Oh, it won't hurt once in a while." But that 'once in a while' attitude turns up too often. And yes, I do think that even once in a while is not good for my infant.
I hate the nail polish fumes...give me a gas mask, please. BUT, at last, I found an alternative...Water-based nail polish by Suncoat! I wrote up a post about it and, I'm shameless, I carry it in my store. It took me a long time to find this stuff and it is actually a great product.
With warm weather coming, my 2-year-old is going to want her toenails painted, I know it. Especially when she sees me doing mine. Time to stock up on non-toxic nail polish -- and nail polish remover!
In that situation, I probably would have said yes -- mostly because I wouldn't want to seem insulting to the other adult. And because it would just be once. There are so many environmental toxins that we're exposed to all the time, being militant about everything that our kids are around seems too all-consuming. I was thinking about that last night while trying to fall asleep and imagining how I'll handle the inevitable day that the kids want to start eating some of the foods (like sandwich peperoni) that my husband eats.
It's so nice to hear from other woman about having to say "no" to things, especially nice gestures. My daughter just turned 3 and I know it will become more diffcult as she gets older. It's the nail polish, the sugary treats and for us gluten so everytime we go out it seems to be something. I'm hoping my efforts to educate her on why we make certain choices will help us in the long run. I think you should do an article just on this subject so we can hear how other moms talk to their kids and others about the more "informed" choices that women like us make.
I feel your pain!!!
I feel like I'm in a constant uphill battle, not only with nail polish, but other things as well. Most significantly food.
I feel like I'm always the bad guy. After a while you wonder if it's worth it.
My daughter is almost four and a couple of months ago I went out and bought some Zoya and painted her fingers & toes. I feel like the occasional painting in our home (not as many fumes), but I wouldn't take her to a salon.
let me guess, you think nothing of the corn syrup and other junk thats in the food she ingests or drinks..but you'll rant about polish that's applied to the least porous portion of a kids body.