My 11 yr-old daughter just painted her fingernails black with a

[spacelady]

Permanent Sharpie! GAH! Please tell me what you think about this. I will tell you how I dealt with it when I stop fuming in a minute or so.

[Ariana Celeste]

1. what's wrong with black?

:shrug:

[spacelady]

3. Well nothing, but she didn't ask & I Have black polish. It was the just

going ahead & doing it aspect.

[Ariana Celeste]

5. ooh ok

well then i'd react by explaining she needs to ask for permission or help in the future. at 11 your not quite ready to do a good job painting nails

[Conan_The_Barbarian]

22. wrong reply

meant to do one up

[Conan_The_Barbarian]

23. Paint over them

use the black nail polish so she'll have better looking nails.

[KitchenWitch]

2. I guess I would not have had much of a reaction

especially at age 11. If it were my 5 year old, I would be upset.

[spacelady]

7. I am upset because now she has grimy purplish stained fingernails,

When she could have asked. It is like the time she cut her bangs at 5 & had to deal with choppy bangs for a year. So I got out the black polish & spacked it on & told her to ASK next time. Sheesh, she doesn't need to fly her freak flag in a permanent manner!

[graywarrior]

4. That's how I do mine....and my eyeliner.

[some guy]

6. LOL

:rofl:

thanks!

:hug:

:hi:

[spacelady]

8. Heh, well I guess it isn't the end of the world - no sympathy for me

you all are great. I will not show spacetween this thread though. she'll think she won!

[graywarrior]

9. Draw designs on her face with a marker after she falls asleep.

O wait, you're not all plastered and stoned. Never mind.

[Zookeeper]

10. There is just something about Sharpie markers....

that invites all kinds of creative activities. My 14 year old has done her nails with a black sharpie. And she has decorated her Chuck Taylors as well. My 12 year old son has decorated his hands and forearms with Sharpie tatooes. (And he's normally a very sensible child.)

Sharpies are irresistable!

I would laugh, but let her know that you don't want her to do it again.

[femmocrat]

11. Absolutely! I am an art teacher and I have to count the Sharpies

every time I pass them out, or they will "disappear." Kids love them! And they come in all kinds of great colors now.

If it's any consolation, they are always painting their nails with sharpies, even the elementary school kids.

[SPKrazy]

12. I Wouldn't Think Much Of It Really

she's experimenting with something pretty harmless

messy

but harmless, right?

:hug:

[LeftyMom]

13. You're overreacting.

Thinking back on the appearance of my junior high and high school classmates I think many of their parents would have wept tears of joy if that was the worst they had to deal with.

They're her nails. If they wind up looking purple and messed up she'll wait for the right tool next time. Stay calm and don't protect your kids from minor consequences, they need them to learn.

[spacelady]

14. You all are giving me a laughing fit. The really weird thing about her doing

this is she was allowed to open an early present - It was from my fundy brother - an age appropriate Bible for girls & she has been engrossed in it all evening....I guess she was divinely inspired.

[Ariana Celeste]

15. rofl

that is too great

[SPKrazy]

16. Better Burn It

it must be possessed

:rofl:

[spacelady]

17. Something possessed her. Dang goth girl.

[SPKrazy]

18. RoFL!

dang goth girl is right!

sharpie goth!

:hug:

[CactusJock]

24. aah, the gift that keeps on sucking.

sorry that was a knee jerk reaction from my inner-11yearold, and he's a godless little snot.

how does an age appropriate bible work anyway - did they just take out the begatting and smiting or is it all leet speak and Snoop slang??

[jmowreader]

25. Also all the drinking

They don't want the kids to get the idea that Jesus drank wine...even though in those days EVERYONE drank wine as the water wasn't fit to drink.

They also leave out the part about the Pilgrims drinking beer on the Mayflower because the water went bad during their voyage. (On edit: the Mayflower Pilgrims weren't in the Bible, you know that, but check this shit out: I was home on leave around Thanksgiving time once when one of my nieces was studying the Pilgrims in history class. She told me all about their long arduous trip on the Mayflower, and I asked her if she knew everyone had to drink beer. "Oh no they didn't!" Turns out they were NEVER told that even the kids on the Mayflower drank beer because there wasn't any water. Apparently they drank seawater or seagull piss or something in this revised Mayflower curriculum.)

[CactusJock]

28. wow that's insane

I mean it was grown up jesus that drunk all the wine, wasn't it - its not like the baby jesus sets a bad example by knocking it back.

and as for history, it was only the grim bits (pilgrims with scurvy, the donner party) that made learning it at school any fun, the rest of it used to send us all to sleep...

[madrchsod]

19. this too shall pass...

tomorrow will be another test of your sanity....

[Porcupine]

20. Tell her you like it. Buy her sharpies in four colors.

you want to burn through this one quick before she decides it annoys you. So says a father of two girls 13 and 10.

[pokerfan]

21. She's eleven - she needs no excuse

She's no longer rubbing poo on the bathroom walls.

She's not wrecking the family car.

Enjoy these years.

[Rabrrrrrr]

26. I think it's fine. Not what I would do, but I wouldn't worry about it.

After she's been stuck with the black for a week or two, she'll have learned a valuable lesson not to use sharpies on her fingernails, and to be more deliberative before she does things. Or, she'll learn that she really likes having black colored fingernails.

Either way, it's no issue. The only thing I would do in talking to her is to remind her that sharpies are not good fingerpolish and that she should use the real thing. And that she shouldn't buy that cheap shit "teenage" fingernail polish, either, but buy good stuff.

[graywarrior]

27. I love black fingernails.

It's the current fashion statement. I'm sure Paris has black nails.

[xmas74]

29. Lemon juice

goes a long way to remove it. Also works well if your nails get yellowed from nail polish left on for far too long. (Used to be more common when women wore mostly red and would constantly "touch up" w/o stripping and repainting.)

Soak them in lemon juice. They'll look pretty and white all over again. Then give her some black nail polish and white nail polish-tell her to give herself a French manicure that way. If done right it's a really cool manicure.

[spacelady]

30. Thanks for the tip. Didn't know that!

Update: She grabbed the real black polish & did her fingers & toes today. No Big whoop, I guess it is something she really wants to do & you all have convinced me this is not a battle to pursue too vigorously. Que sera sera.

[xmas74]

33. Just depends on the school district.

The jr high and high school I went to gave ISS(in school suspension) for "abnormally" polished nails. (I should know-I spent time there for black nails a couple of times.) From what I understand, they still do this.

If I were you I'd go to a discount store (Walmart, Kmart-something like that), go to the makeup section and look for the containers of Bon Bons. They are smaller bottles of nail polish (bright and dark colors, glitter,metallics) and they each cost less than a dollar. I used to buy them all the time in high school (so yes, many years ago)and when I was in Walmart the other day I saw they still sold them. I've had some "interesting" manicures w/ Bon Bons over the years!

[Beausoir]

31. Simple: Tell her not to do it again.

Black nails are gross and innapropriate for a young girl.

Tell her to stop it. Your problem is solved.

[JVS]

32. No presents for her!

;-)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

34. It's only "called" a Permanent Sharpie ...

it't not really permanent. More like a fake stick-on tattoo. Nothing to worry about.