Dad goes viral for taking son to get nails done after teacher said it was ‘for girls’

A dad has been praised for tackling gender norms after his three-year-old son was told by a teacher that “painting your nails is only for girls”.

A dad has gone viral after his three-year-old son was told by his teacher that painted nails was only ‘for girls’. Picture: TikTok.

A dad in the US was seeing red when his young son came home from school “really upset” after he was reportedly told by his teacher that “painting your nails is only for girls”.

Christian Shearhod and his girlfriend, Eden, were stunned, so took their three-year-old son Ashton to a nail salon to make a point about “gender norms”, Page Six reports.

They documented their journey on TikTok in a clip that has had nearly five million views.

Ashton was thrilled during the salon trip. Picture: TikTok.

At the salon, green-haired Ashton giggled with excitement as he selected a bright pink colour for his nails.

He said he wanted to get his fingers and his toes done, telling the technician, “I want pink” – and was overjoyed to see Eden decided to match him with the same colour nails.

After the polish was applied, Ashton blew on his fingernails to dry them. Mr Shearhod noted he had “no idea where he learned this at” with a laughing emoji.

At the end of the video, the dad wrote: “Let little boys like what they like … trucks, Spider-Man, Paw Patrol and maybe painting his nails.”

@mr.shearhod

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Mr Shearhod, a teacher himself, told NBC News he and his son have been painting their nails together since Ashton began expressing interest in nail polish at the age of two.

“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,” the dad said.

The salon trip came after Ashton was told that ‘nail polish is for girls’.

The dad stressed that he wants his son to enjoy life without “strict gender norms”, adding that he had a conversation with Ashton’s teacher about the incident. The teacher’s name was not disclosed in the article or video.

“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,’” he told NBC.

More than 15,000 comments were made on the video, most in support of the family.

The little boy is a big fan of pink nails.

However, Mr Shearhod told NBC he sometimes fields inappropriate comments and questions, with one user even asking, “So he is gay?”

He responded to the comment in a separate video, saying, “He is literally three 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.”

Despite the negative remarks, he hopes to use his platform of 936,000 TikTok followers to help LGBTQ students however he can.

“I just want to inspire students to really want to be themselves, unfiltered,” he said.

The Post has contacted Mr Shearhod for comment.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and has been reproduced here with permission

Originally published as Dad goes viral for taking son to get nails done after teacher said it was ‘for girls’