When my daughter was in junior high she went through a stage where she began to like make up. She didn’t realize how beautiful she was naturally and she thought that black eyeliner and blue eye shadow made her look more beautiful.She had a school picture taken and she had quite a bit of eye make up on.

My mother gave her unasked for advice and said that she didn’t look like a little girl anymore.

I said that was good because she wasn’t a little girl anymore.

My mother asked me “Don’t you still want her to be little?”

I said, “No, Mom, I want her to grow up. Most people do grow up and if she didn’t I would be more than concerned.”

It is amusing to me that as my daughter grew up she looked back at that picture and was horrified that she had used so much make up. She chided me for allowing that.

I told her that if I had fought her she would most likely still be wearing that God awful blue eye makeup.

She agreed.

Sometimes the best way to get a kid to stop doing something is to allow them to do it. I think that may be called reverse psychology. lol