At a recent birthday party, Henry and Wyatt each received a ladybug lip gloss hooked to a key chain. When you pinch the ladybug’s antenna together her wings open up to reveal the lip gloss. Wyatt has grape and Henry has apple.

The boys don’t have a set of keys so I suggested we hook the ladybugs to their backpacks. They loved this idea because it allowed them to take the lip gloss to school and apply it throughout the morning.


But something about my children, my boys, discussing their lip gloss didn’t sit right with me, especially when they got in the car after school and started telling us how many times they were able to put on their lip gloss-- Wyatt put his on during break. Henry did not put on any lip gloss until after class was dismissed.

Stephen was also in the car and I could tell that he didn't like the words lip gloss getting tossed around in the backseat either. So I quickly told the boys it was called chap stick, not lip gloss. I had been wrong, I told them to remember, it's called chap stick.

Which just goes to show that our parenting hang ups are completely random, especially when you consider that just weeks before I told the neighbor girl, when she asked why Henry and Wyatt had on fingernail polish, that we don't limit the joyous experience of nail polish based on gender or societal expectations at our house.