A dad in the US has taken his son to get a manicure after a teacher claimed “painting your nails is only for girls”.
Christian Shearhod, an LA-based teacher, said he wants his three year old son to enjoy his childhood without the “strict gender norms” after having noticed his son was interested in nail polish at the age of two.
When his son was told it was “only for girls”, however, Christian took to TikTok to share a video showing him taking his child for a manicure.
In the video which has been viewed more than seven million times, Christian said: “My son came home from school upset because his teacher told him that painting his nails is only for girls, so today I’m taking him to the nail shop!”
Three-year-old Ashton is then seen heading to the salon and shouting “I want pink”.
Later speaking to NBC News, Christian said: “We started painting our nails together.”
“I just really wanted to make sure that he didn’t have guilt or shame, because it is something that he enjoyed, and we had done together multiple times.”
He went on to say that he wanted his child to live life to the fullest without “strict gender norms”.
The following day at school, Christian spoke to the teacher. “I just told them, ‘Hey, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say that kind of thing to Ashton, kind of let him do his own thing’,” Christian recalled.
The video has garnered thousands of supportive comments, with one user saying: “I’m a girl, and work on cars. My brother-in-law loves the colour pink. My son loves his nails polished. The earth still turns the right way.”
Another said: “As a teacher, I am so sorry. I always tell my students there aren’t ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ things. Just things that we like.”
