Makeup!!!!

To set the right tone, let me help you hear what I hear when I read the title of this post.  Remember the Looney Tunes cartoons?  In at least one of these animated features someone gets blown up (Wile E. Coyote comes to mind) and then another character yells, in a manner that curdles blood:

MAKEUP!!!!

Eeewww. My circulatory system is in havoc, pulse racing and heart pounding.

This is the same way I felt, and the same voice I heard (in my head), when I saw my child’s  third grade friend wearing, you guessed it, lots of….

MAKEUP!!!!

Now she had just come from rehearsal for a dance recital and I know that little girls often get their faces done so they can be better seen by the audience.  But is it really necessary to cover these sweet faces with an inch-thick layer of

MAKEUP????

The reason I ask is this:  my sons’ third grade class recently had a music performance and there was a dress code.  Not only were the kids to be dressed their best but the guidelines specifically stated no….makeup.

(Since my poor heart can’t take any more of Daffy Duck’s screaming,  I figure you feel the same way.)

And not a smudge of lip gloss, either, which would seem a pretty innocuous exception. But the rules clearly stated:  no. makeup.   And you know what?  We audience members could see, quite clearly I may add, the unadulterated joy and nervousness on the kids’ faces.  Without makeup.  And the serious concentration as the kids performed their memorized dances and xylophone pieces, furrowed brows fully visible without makeup.  And let’s not forget the beautiful facial expressions of the young lady playing the apprentice in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”  (Psst….she didn’t NEED any makeup.)

So unless children are playing toy soldiers, animals or inanimate objects, let’s not hide their beautiful, real expressions with….

makeup.

(Hair design on Barbie courtesy of my daughter and myself.  Makeup courtesy of Mattel, Inc., and “retouches” completed by my daughter.)