My kids went to a hockey game Sunday with my husband, his father, their cousins and the in-law parents of their cousins and...Actually that was it. I was lucky enough that there wasn't one more ticket so I got to stay home.
At some point, either intermission or after the game all four of the kids got their faces painted. The next day three out of the four had red, itchy eyes. Catherine, on top of the itchy eye, had a splotchy red face. My sister-in-law had the best best guess for the culprit, the face painting of course.
I hadn't really thought of it but face painting at public events is probably not the most hygienic practice. There's the risk of countless kids who may or may not have colds, flu's pink eye or face rubbed by hands that never got washed after a bathroom trip. All of the same possibilities are there with the person that paints the faces. And never mind the makeup. Most of us know that our private stash of eye shadow and blush has a limited shelf life due to the chance of bacteria taking up residence but what about that face paint that's been exposed to countless people and possibly been used on previous occasions?
Yuck.
I'm not a really careful parent and I allow for a lot of risk in my kids life but balancing the tiny benefit of blobby, misshapen dinosaur ham-handedly painted on the side of their cheek with the possibility of illness, eye infection of worse...Not worth it. I can paint their faces at home and, if I do say so myself, do a much better job of it.
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