Yah I don’t know where I fall on the little girls with makeup thing. I know it can be a hot topic on this site, but I enjoy hearing other people’s opinions on it. My ears were pierced shortly after birth with tiny diamond studs, as is customary in my mother’s country. I will do the same if this baby is a daughter.

However, I wasn’t allowed to wear even “kid makeup” when I was little. I could start wearing clear (flavored) lip gloss in late elementary school, light nailpolish in early HS, and no other makeup till I was 16. I understand the no makeup till 16 and didn’t have much of an issue with that, but there is a big gap between 3 and 16. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do if I have a daughter, but I think I will do a compromise and buy her one of those makeup sets with the clear lip gloss and nailpolish, if she’s interested that is.

I think there is a difference between playing grown-up and growing up too fast, but I can understand how it’s a fine line.

I find the girlie girl issue very interesting. While my mother is a beautiful woman who wears make-up and clothes wonderfully, she has never been a definitive girlie girl the way I am; as a result, I matured into said girlie girlness somewhat slowly compared to my peers. I had to wait to go to my neighbor’s house for my friend’s older sister to paint my nails, didn’t start really getting into clothes at all until halfway through junior high, and had to figure out the tricks to hair and make-up on my own.

While all of the above is definitely normal, I don’t think the fact that my mom was so apathetic about my clothes et al. as a preteen did me much good beyond not overemphasizing my looks. Point being, I would have really loved and appreciated having the mother-daughter mani/pedi sessions, trips to the mall, and hair styling I didn’t get. Even now as much as I’d love to go shopping with my mom, we have such different tastes (I tend to shop at comparatively “higher end” stores that she finds pretentious and is disinterested in going to) that it really doesn’t work out.
So while I in no way encourage clothing and make-up that is too mature for little girls, I also don’t think there is anything wrong with allowing them to wear earrings and nail polish. Part of the fun of having a daughter is taking part in the female bonding that occurs over girlie girl activities, and the importance of that is really underestimated imo.