I Forbade My Teenager From Getting Her Nails Done
I’ll now end up caving when she wants something else!
My 15-year-old daughter, Sivakami, wanted to get her nails done after her exams got over. She wanted to get acrylic extensions and have them painted, the works.
I forbade it.
I’m a dentist and I don’t wear rings, which are further up the fingers than nails are. Still, rings on fingers have been proven to cause more cross-contamination than bare hands.
Just imagine how many more bacteria could get lodged under fingernails.
To my surprise, Sivakami raised Cain.
Sivakami said that she wasn’t asking for a tattoo or a belly piercing. All she wanted was to get her nails done. It didn’t entail any blood or needles.
How could I possibly say no?
For someone who is usually smart, Sivakami was pigheaded about this “getting her nails done” business.
Sivakami had heard from a friend that it was cool. They could flutter their fingers and feel fashionable.
She wanted to get her nails done (in the company of this friend) even if I didn’t like the idea of long fingernails on my daughter.
Fortunately for me, the friend’s sister finished her exams first. The same day, the friend’s sister charged around the corner and stretched out her fingers to get her nails done.
And she HATED it!
She said that getting her nails done was awful. It felt like a punishment. She couldn’t write or type, and she could hardly eat. She couldn’t as much as press her spectacles up on her nose.
Saved by the bell!
If it hadn’t been for the friend’s sister becoming their experimental Guinea pig, I would have lost a lot of parental cookie points with Sivakami, losing my capacity to forbid something else.
For my good luck, and hers, the friend’s sister went ahead with the nail extension and painting first, getting the girls to realize that it wasn’t all fun and fashion having long nails.
I’m chronicling this not-very-impactful event because this is the first time my younger daughter, Sivakami, was forcefully insistent upon doing something I abhor.
I did end up sending Sivakami to New Delhi for an all-expenses paid holiday with her cousins and Gayatri; my older daughter, who lives there, for the Indian festival of Holi.
Sivakami had a grand time, which she deserved after the effort she put in for her Board exams. I gave a weak objection about how not having to go to school for a couple of weeks was enjoyment enough, and how she didn’t need to go all the way to New Delhi to have fun.
I’m just wondering if this is a pattern. Refuse a child one thing to cave in for another, much bigger thing.
What do you think? Agree or disagree?
- Acrylic nail extensions are unhygienic.
- If parents refuse children one thing, parents cave in some other battle where they should have stood firm.