Sometimes the hard part isn't accepting your kids as they are, it's getting other people to keep an open mind. For one mom, she was totally fine with her 4-year-old son wearing the same blue nail polish as his sister. It was only when she got a phone call home from their preschool that the polish was "distracting" that she went nuclear and pulled both of her kids from the facility's care. But now her husband's worried that she completely overreacted.
As a mom of boy-girl twins, it wasn't surprising when her son was curious while she was painting his sister's nails.
Many boys are just curious about things like make-up and nail polish — plus both kids "really love the color sky blue," she explained in Reddit post that has since been deleted. So of course, when her daughter wore sky blue nail polish, her son was quick to follow suit.
"My son noticed me painting her nails and thought they were really cool looking and wanted me to paint his nails too so I did," she wrote.
The Original Poster (OP) had no problem with her son donning a little nail polish.
And she never expected that anyone else would have a problem with it either.
"Today I get a call from the preschool saying that my son's nails are super distracting and that he is not allowed to come back until we remove the color," she recalled. "The thing is my daughter was wearing the exact same nail polish as him. I pointed this out and they said 'her's aren't as distracting.'"
The whole situation was deeply "sexist" to the OP.
She definitely doesn't want her kids to go to a school that upholds sexist ideas.
"So I told the teachers that because of the issue that neither of my kids will coming back," she explained.
Because she's taken her kids out of school, she's also needed to take time off of work.
Two weeks to be exact, until she finds an alternative. Her husband is now angry that she's giving up two weeks of a paycheck on principle.
"[He] is saying that it would have been so much easier for me to remove the polish," she wrote. "But what kind of message would that send to our kids. That our son can't wear something that he likes just because he's a boy?"
Some people thought the mom should have at least had a conversation with her husband before giving up that money.
"You're not the a–hole for taking the kid out of preschool, that's dumb of them," one commenter wrote. "YTA for not discussing this with the other half of your relationship before deciding to just not make any money for two weeks. You could remove the polish and find a new school, the 4-year-old isn't going to care, but you decided on your own to just not go to work and bring them home. I think your husband is very entitled to be annoyed that you've taken this decision without his input or discussion."
Someone else agreed. "Add to this the fact that they will most likely have to continue paying for the daycare until their formal notice is accepted. Breaking a daycare contract is much like breaking a lease — they (most likely) need advance written notice. So the fact that they're losing money on both ends DEFINITELY warranted a conversation with the spouse."
"Not only that but will OP actually be able to find a daycare willing to take in new kids within two weeks?" someone else wondered, adding this:
"I don't know what her home area is like but many of the daycares in my area are hesitant to take on new kids. She really could be straining their financial resources for longer than that which is just the worst thing to do in a pandemic."
Others applauded this mom for standing up for her son.
"I wish every parent was like you," one person wrote.
"Even if you lose a bit of cash, your son gained the most by not having to be in a degrading environment. Definitely look for another day care," a second person agreed.
A third person chimed in as well, agreeing with the mom. "NTA — little boys love nail polish just as much as little girls. the fact that a preschool has their knickers in a know over a 4-year-old with nail polish in 2020 is VERY 1950's. I'd have pulled my kid out too."
Finances aside, there's no reason for anyone to make a little boy feel bad for wearing something "girly." The mom is definitely not wrong for supporting her child and wanting to make sure her son can be himself.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
