You work hard for your money

Posted on November 11, 2010 by miniplaymakeup

Recently, my son asked me if I still had a job. He had observed some changes in my time at home. I was home a lot more now than compared to what I typically was. Why the change? I took a role that allowed me to work from home 100 percent of the time. Now, that required change but it didn’t require any less work. I still have to deliver results and I still have to navigate through many challenges to get those results. I just do it at home. I am grateful to have work. Like many people in the last few years, I went through a pay cut and was concerned about losing my job. I was fortunate enough not to have lost work during the worst of the great recession. Like many others, through this process we became more aware of our spending on things that were not absolutely necessary. We identified changes that we needed to make to hold onto our currency longer. We gave up things that we had previously enjoyed and we looked for things that would have lasting value and would not incur extra costs, if we did purchase. It was at this time that we realized that our pretend makeup kits fit into that latter category. They don’t create extra costs for replacement like real makeup. Each of our makeup components is a one-time buy that can be enjoyed repeatedly every time your child plays with it, and never need replacing due to it being consumed. You will also enjoy it because you don’t have to worry about them ruining anything—especially high ticket items like furniture or carpet. You don’t need carpet and upholstery cleaning /replacement expenses during times like these. After all, you work hard for your money and want it to go as far as it possibly can.

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Reluctant Lessons Learned

Posted on November 2, 2010 by miniplaymakeup

Yesterday was Halloween, and we went through the usual costume crises in our home, which is one of two things.  The first, our kids want extremely extravagant costumes and we do our best to satisfy those wants with what we have or what we can find without spending a fortune.  The second is where they can’t decide and we have to figure out something without much help from them.  Well, this year our six year old daughter was in the second category.  She could not decide what she wanted to be so we had to choose for her.  What was the choice?  She was Rapunzel.  Why? Because we had a fancy dress and a blonde wig that must have been six feet long and that was the option that she detested the least.

Finally, she reluctantly went to the church Halloween costume party as Rapunzel.  Mostly, her concern was that no one would know who she was supposed to be.  She quickly realized that her concern was unfounded.  She was completely surprised with the response she received.  Everyone knew that she was Rapunzel.  And they absolutely gushed over her costume.  This included her peers.  Her attitude dramatically shifted toward how wonderful her costume was and how positive her experience was because of her “wonderful costume.”  This happened to the point that she denied not liking the choice earlier and that it had always been her idea.

What’s the point?  We should let our children experience things to teach them.  Or even more interesting, we should let them draw their own conclusions from experience and not draw conclusions for them without letting them try something first.  The exception, of course should be anything that may be unsafe for them.  But, kids need to experience different things for their development.   We’ve seen this play out many times.   Mothers are certain that their daughter will be disappointed with our pretend makeup because it isn’t real and no color shows up on their cheeks, lips or nails when pretending only to discover that their daughter thoroughly enjoys it and plays with it constantly, even without the makeup being real.  Life is experiential.  Our children constantly surprise us with outcomes we never would have imagined.  So let the playing begin.  Be the fly on the wall and watch the wonder!

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Halloween, the Ultimate Pretend Holiday

Posted on October 26, 2010 by miniplaymakeup

At Mini-Play Makeup, we specialize in creating pretend experiences for little girls.  We didn’t invent pretending, we just looked for a way to pretend with makeup in such a way that mom doesn’t have that undesirable side effect of cleaning up messes.  As such, we tend to be on the alert for pretending activities that our children engage in.  This year, as our children began the annual hype around Halloween, sometime in August, I noticed that they tended to not only talk about their costumes but also about the characters represented by their costumes.  They even began pretending to be those characters both in and out of dress rehearsal.  As we dug out the costumes and put them together, the kids began to further amp up their pretending to be their chosen characters.  For example, my 8 year old son has been Obi One Kenobi since July. But since he got his costume this week, he has begun to intensify his pretending to be the Jedi Master.

This got me reflecting on the value of pretending.  As children, every boy among us could fly and every girl was a princess.  Somewhere along the way we forgot that we could fly and that we were royalty.  Since then life changed dramatically for all of us.  We can no longer create our own lift nor can we issue commands such as “off with their heads.”   But our children can.  They are in that magical place in their lives where they believe.  I, for one, think that the make believe window closes way too early and I am in no hurry to short circuit that time for my children.  There is plenty of reality for them ahead and they need this happy childhood to help them cope later.

It’s this core value set that we hold dear that has motivated us to create a pretend make up set for little girls that helps them pretend and use their imagination while in that magical stage of life.   The components, (blushes, shadows, compacts, polishes, and glosses) are all designed with pretending in mind.  In fact, with Mini-Play Makeup, even the mess is pretend since it’s 100% mess free!  No more mess with hours of pretend play.  What’s the point?  Let the pretending begin, again and again.

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