Yesterday afternoon I’m sitting in my office, minding my own business, when I get a whatsapp message from Megan (our Au Pair. Yes, I’m using that dreaded word these days):
“Hi, do you maybe have nail varnish remover because Isabel and Mignon are covered in nail polish and it won’t come off”
So I call the house like a Good Mother, not really comprehending the possibilities of the words “covered in”. I knew I still had some nail varnish remover left in a bottle lurking somewhere in a dark corner of the bathroom, thinking that should do it for the clean-up job.
10 minutes later, another message:
“The nail varnish remover is finished now, please bring some more when you come home.”
Still no warning lights flashing in my mind, call it denial if you want.
Fast forward to home time and I arrive home to the cupboard guy there to give us a quote* and the usual evening chaos. Etienne says, have you seen what Isabel looks like? Out of the lounge comes Isabel, pleased as punch with her altered looks. Blue neck, one leg completely blue and the other foot blue. With a teeny weeny little bit of bright purple nail varnish on some of her toes. I also saw that her hands must have been covered in the stuff as that’s where Megan must have focused her cleaning power.
The fact that there was so much lurking on her hands just tells me that she wasn’t completely innocent in what shall henceforth be called The Incident. It appears that some rubbing was involved. Along with the suspicious looking finger-painting efforts on her leg. She alleges that their friend at school did it all, complete with doe-eyed innocence. Bah.
They apparently nicked the polish out of their friend’s bag (friend helped them) and hid at the top of the jungle gym at school, obviously knowing that they were going to get into trouble.
All of this is fine, it’s easy enough to clean up. You know what made me really cross? I bought each of the girls a lovely ballet-type dress they have been asking for for absolute ages on Saturday and that’s what Isabel was wearing. There are massive splotches of nail varnish on the dress and I can’t get it out. Beautiful purple stains on the soft pink dress.
And the whole time I’m cleaning her leg I’m mumbling away to myself, telling myself to calm down and children make mistakes and they have to explore and don’t let her be scared of my reaction when she makes a mistake in future and ah fuckit I’m really cross and then then the crazy dialogue starts all over again.
So now I’m stuck with a brand new little dress that has nail varnish all over it.
Shall I just let her wear it?
(note how I’m not for a nanosecond thinking I can MAKE her wear it, that would be ridiculous)
*My parents sold their house and wanted to swap dining room tables. We had a comfortable little 6-seater and we now have a massive (Beautiful!) 3m long table lurking in our dining area, so we need to knock out a cupboard in our kitchen to make space. When we can one day afford to do this I’ll post before and after pics.
You made my day! Such a good giggle
Oh good heavens, I have had nail polish incidents but no where near to this! Gosh. Ag and yes, just let (force) her to wear it.
The girls obviously had such a great time when you took them to have their nails done they thought they’d relive the experience AND include their friend. So, in conclusion, it’s all your own fault – hahaha.
Thanks for sharing. I really enjoy your family stories.
OMW…….nail varnish is very unforgiving.Sorry the dress has been personalised:)