Father Brings 3-Year-Old Son To Nail Salon After School Staff Told Him ‘Not To Paint’ His Nails

Feb 16, 2023 by apost team

When children come home from school upset about something, it’s natural for their parents to be concerned. Such was the case with father Christian Shearhod, whose 3-year-old son, Ashton Shearhod, arrived home from school one day distressed after one of Ashton’s teachers told him “not to paint” his nail as wearing nail polish was “only for girls.”

The protective Christian jumped into full-dad mode, assuring his son there was absolutely nothing wrong with him painting his nails. To prove it, he took Ashton to the nail salon and documented their trip on TikTok.

In the clip posted on Feb. 4, 2023, Christian explained the situation as such:

“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!”

The clip, which has racked upwards of 5.3 million views, then showed Christian and Ashton in a West Hollywood nail salon. There, the excitable Ashton picked out the nail polish he wanted from shelves full of options.

“I want pink!” Ashton repeatedly declares. The giggly boy then said he wanted to paint both his fingernails and his toenails. Once he was done, immense joy was painted all over Ashton’s face as he showed off his fabulous coral-pink nails. 

“Let little boys like what they like,” Christian wrote in the video. “Trucks, Spider-Man, Paw Patrol &&& maybe painting his nails.

Christian scored full points for his efforts, with viewers lauding the lesson of tolerance and acceptance he was teaching his child.

“He’s adorable. Good job parental units,” one viewer wrote, while another said, “I love the way you celebrated what he is into 🙌”

While Christian was happy to see his son back to his normal self, he still felt he needed to address the situation at Ashton’s school. A follow-up video showed Christian as he spoke to an unseen staff at the school. He told the staff about what the teacher had told his son and added, “we kinda just don’t want that to be said to him.” After explaining that Ashton had felt “really upset about it,” the staff then assured him the matter would be looked into. 

Christian again earned praise for handling the matter calmly, with comments that read, “As a teacher, thank you for handling this the way you did,” and “So nice to see someone address the situation in a calm polite manner but still getting your point across!”

Christian later explained he had started painting his nails with Ashton when the little tot had expressed an interest in it about a year ago and that he wanted to ensure his son grew up without feeling restricted by gender norms.

“I really just 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,” Shearhod told NBC of the teacher incident. 

While Christian said most of the feedback he has received has been positive, there were still some naysayers who left inappropriate comments, such as “So he is gay?”

Christian responded in yet another video and said:

“He is literally 3 years old; he can’t be gay, because he doesn’t have a sexuality yet, and you’re not going to assign him a sexuality because he likes feminine things or things outside of his typical gender norm.”

apost.com

How precious is Christian’s relationship with his son? Would you encourage your children to continue doing things that aren’t typically conventional? Let us know and pass this on to friends and family who would love to hear about little Ashton!