Cheryl Isaak wrote:

So - when did you let your daughter wear make up and when did your parents
let you?

Going first - 15 for make up -around 12 for scent


Relax, Cheryl. Learn to pick your battles.

I went to an English Girls' Grammar School. Full traditional school
uniform, "hair will be worn off the collar" and no makeup whatsoever.

Fast forward. DD in 6th grade, we met a friend of hers, along with
mother, and said friend was wearing full makeup. I remarked upon it,
and the mother said that oh yes, she liked her daughter to wear makeup,
and had taught her how to apply it. I was appalled and horrified. Then
jr. high. The school was five blocks from our house, I was the only
stay-at-home Mom in a four block radius and as all the other moms left
for work before their daughters left for school the girls all
congregated at my house. I just sat on the back porch in my robe,
drinking tea and reading the morning paper, carefully not noticing how
many bowls of cereal etc were served out of my cupboards but available
if someone needed a safety pin or extra socks. By the time they all
left, both bathrooms smeLled like either a funeral parlor or a brothel!!

One day I saw dd and a friend going out of the house, full streetwalker
makeup, each carrying a stuffed animal, and they stopped halfway down
the block to climb a tree!

That was when I decided to stop worrying and let them get through this
stage in their own good time.

p.s. for Karen. Stage makeup is an entirely different question. If you
are on stage, you wear whatever makeup is required, then clean it off
when you come offstage.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans