Do you allow your kids to get their face painted ?

blue_monkey_2

Gosh we could go on all day about the stuf that is carried in whatever but I will still get my kids faces painted, I paint my friends kids faces when they are round here too. We tend to get them done at fetes where people are raising a bit of money for local charities not paying someone to have them done professionally. Yes, I know lizards carry salmonella - if I orried about it I'd be long gone before now - if you read previous posts about the number of times I have handled lizards then I have more to worry about than my boy touching a lizard. I use out oof date eggs and I give them to kids too. We worry too much - you guys are all proessional face painters coming on here to diss other people for doing it, I don;t think I've ever come across a professional paice painter to be honest - only atDisney and they were very good and very hygenic aut at £10-£12 a time I would expect them to be but thse were no ordinary face paints they got for this price. Paying £1 at my local fete for my child to look like a princess I really don't care. My children have not gotten sick yet and there are far more important things to be worried about then you giving me the 'you kids can get this and that' lecture. You are scaremongering and you go ahead and do so and spoil the kids fun. Just how much do you charge out of interest for being 'professional?..... Will I find you at my local fete giving the money you earn to charity????? Parents can pretty much judge for themselves what their kids are doing. next you'll be telling me I should be taking my kids to playgroup in a bubble for fear of touching another child who might have conjunctivitus (for example - yep, my kids have had it this year from school, can' stop them going there can I and as it comes up in a matter of hours it has spread before you know it!)

sooz

Facepainter wrote: »

It's fine to paint for charity as long as you are covered with insurance - I cannot stress this point enough.

Also one sponge per child is not good enough. It's fine if you are of the camp that thinks "germs are good" but that is not your right to decide on that for other people's children. Impetigo and conjuctivitis etc are very nasty and highly contagious - you MUST have ONE SPONGE PER CHILD. They can be washed in your washing machine at home and reused for another event no problems but do not share sponges please.

Please do not drag down those who are trying to do this professionally by causing bad press please.

the charity itself covers the insurance aspect of holding fundraising days. And they supply all the materials. I can only work with what they give me. Although I sometimes take my own hairclips, as they always forget to bring these.

Having read all of your posts, I'll let the charity know that I am no longer available to help them on face painting duties. I could also help out on their cake stall, as we have lots of disclaimers on the front of the table, that cakes may have been made in non-professional kitchens and worse still, by people who have no training whatsover in baking cakes, domestic hygiene or food health and safety :rolleyes:

thriftmonster

I don't let my kids any more after ds1 got a lovely case of herpes in one eye and ended up at the children's eye hospital and conjunctivitis in the other eye from the same face painting job. I don't have any issues with children getting dirty, building up immunity etc but if you had seen him.....

I'm sure it wouldn't have happened if all the rules outlined above had been followed - however once bitten twice shy!

blue_monkey_2

The point is - it is rare that it happens - and anything could happen, he could of picked something up at school, you can't exactly stop them going to school. My friends boy fell of one of the apparatus and broke his arm, you can't stop them going to the park. I do not know of anyone who has picked up an infection from having their face painted - if I did then this might be different, as you say, once bitten twice shy - but until I know personally of that happening then I will worry. Until then I will carry on letting them hvae it done. All this post has done is now worry those poeple like the above who help out at fetes and the like - the 'professionsal's sure do not offer to do it for free so those who are willing to give their time for nothing do it. As has ben pointed out, where do you draw the line? Bouncy castles (broken limbs), trampolines (ditto), discos (too loud), bubble machines (too slippery), football at the park, walking (getting dog poo on you and contracting some disease from it) - the list is endless, if we spent so much time worry our kids would not do anything would they? As I said before, it is scaremongering by professionals who want you to spend your money with them who would not be giving their time for free to help raise money anyway. Let your kids get their faces painted (if anyone is left to do it now) and use your common sense - if your child has something on their face then done let them get it done and save everyone else getting it. Some diseases are contagious though and they will get them whatever you choose to do unless you keep them at home locked in their rooms 24/7/. I don't like my kids having coughs and colds caught from everyone else but that is part of life.

dee_mum_of_3

I think I am one of those mums who are over cautious as a result we dont do face painting(tbh they never asked anyway) but the biggest bugbear for them is that i wont allow them to go on bouncy castles at the market or trampolines-reason being that i read once about a child whod been brain damaged in a fall on a unsafe castle and noone was held responsible......

another_facepainter

I think you'll find that most, if not all, face painters will work regularly for their chosen charities free of charge. Also most will work at their school fetes without charge too, so please do not be so quick to judge us as purely being out for profit.

We are not trying to scaremonger - quite the opposite. We are just trying to make you aware of hygiene issues. Nearly every face painter started out painting at their children's school fetes and developed their skills from there. A professional painter will carry their own public liability insurance and may be CRB checked. They will work to very high health and safety standards, quite often be members of the Face Painting Association FACE (although this is not compulsory and has no bearing on their professionalism) and will create good quality faces in under 5 mins.

We are not knocking school/village fete helpers, nor are we saying not to do it, as I said, it's where we all started, we are just saying please pay attention to the advice given. If you are helping out at a school or for charity, then you would be insured under their policies anyway, but it is still useful to follow basic health and safety practice.

Somebody said that they'd only ever come across a 'professional' face painter at Disney, but they were quote: 'very good and hygienic' which is exactly the point we're trying to make.

Please do not think that we are trying to put you off having your kids faces done or putting you off trying it yourself, we were just raising valid points as with all trades, there are 'rogues' out there.

Btw, a professional face painter of any good quality will usually charge around £60 - £70 for a two hour party, then around £20-£25 per hour after that.

If you have any further concerns or questions, then we'll all be happy to help and please take a look at previously quoted sites like https://www.fpi-org.co.uk.

tankgirl1

hmmm- who would have thought a thread on facepainting (dragged up from 2004 no less!) would turn out so controversial!

for what its worth, DS has never wanted his face painted - hes too young yet i think at 2 - but when hes a bit older of course i'd let him.

i too am of the school of thought that a few germs are good! DS likes nothing more than 'bigging mud stones' (his words - roughly translated as digging in mud and playing with stones!), and we have a dog and two cats who he regularly plays with. if i made him wash his hands after touching them each time, we'd be in the bathroom all day (i do however think it is of upmost importance to keep pets up to date with flea and worm treatment if they are around kids- but thats a whole other thread!)

until today i didnt realise there was any such thing as a professional face painter - hows that for naivety? good to know that there are guidelines and such out there though.

just my tuppence worth....

raineshoe

This thread just shows me that parents just don't care about their children's well being. Lets face it would you like your face wiped round with a sponge used on the previous childs face when it might be covered in bogies? I doubt it, so why expect your child to put up with it.