There's a wide range of folks who believe that providing these kits at an 'early' age tends to lead young ones into further 'non-appropriate' behavior.

To me, letting them use it freely and with their own imagination gives them a better balance of using the kits for 'fun' rather than 'attention'.

I say you're doing what works, and those parents are expressing their dismay at seeing the young ones create with their imagination.

Here's to parenting in style!

thank you, mid. the folks who give these gifts agree with your second statement. i would be okay with letting them use their imagination, but these precious princesses want coaching and? ? ? i know more about paper art than body art. . . i have yet to find my comfort with the body artists. the current generation of youtube queens confuse me as badly as the big hair artists of my own childhood.

plus. . . even kid safe cosmetics leave gruesome messes on the furniture, etc. they have a way to go on the "mess-free" chemical engineering.

can i parent in the machine shop style i have more experience with, inappropriate behavior and all?

sigh. . . my mama told me that one day i would regret not taking those charm classes seriously. i hate it when my mama is right.

plus. . . in today's playdating style, if mama don't like the other mama, baby doesn't get a second date.

I was old school and tended to avoid overt cosmetics for my under 13 daughters. We did finger nail polish but not face stuff very often. The girls used to brush my hair and that was heavenly. The push to sexualize young girls bothers me, meaning the clothing in the stores for toddlers to pre-teens is often kind of sexualized, meaning sexy mama clothing in small sizes. It isn't easy parenting these days. Which is not to say you are doing anything wrong.

And my estranged daughter does not even brush her young daughter's hair! It is so weird.

I will tell you a story about boys. I had a friend who got so upset I allowed my son and her son to play "guns" with sticks and chase each other in the backyard playing cops and robbers while laughing and not hurting each other. They were age 4 and 5. I told her this is typical boys and that her son had initiated the gun play. She was determined to raise her son to be artsy, not athletic, quiet and no weapons or chase games. My kid loved to play weapons and wrestling, never hurt anyone, and turned out to be the mildest mannered of men, adult men. My friend was an engineer by education and didn't understand males.

So it simply isn't easy with the blamers and the criticizers of how others parent.

amen to the difficulty of blamers and critics, whatever the topic at hand.

i am brand new to girlie world. these two beautiful girls are my first willing exposure to all that. as a "tomboy," i maintained safe social distances from that crowd. i gave birth to only sons. my foster daughters are my trainers in the art of ladyhood.

i'd be okay with letting the whole mystery be, but i opine that these girls need a social life, whether i know playdating protocols, or knot. is helicopter parenting required by law yet? it certainly seems to be on the playdater scene. no dates with children whose mamas don't pass mama's approval.

do i really have to learn the virtual world order? is there a machine translator app for that? nobody seems to carpool or trade babysitting any more.

HELP! ! ! intergenerational translator needed. my metaphorically young heart is fluttering in odd rhythms. maybe a new hair color? many find my silver streaks offensive.