When work really has you stumped...

Josephine18UK

Virgin
Joined
Aug 16, 2014
Posts
21
I'm a most time student (Not quite part, but not full either!) and my summer job on Tuesdays and Saturdays is face painting for kids at our local beach/park.

I'm creative, and love kids, so it's been a nice fit and helped out money wise the last two months.

Generally it's been simple. "I want a flower". "I want Spider-Man". "I want a bird!".

So I am half way through my shift and a little boy sits down with a huge smile and says "I want Obama".

Now. Let's forget for a moment that we wonder why on earth an 8 year old English boy wants his face painted as the president of the United States, when there's a whole world of neat superheroes out there, and instead consider the implications and logistics.

I was genuinely stumped.

Fortunately I managed to convince him to do something else.

What I want to ask everyone here is, what would you have done?

Should I have felt as uncomfortable as I did? I mean I have enough paint but it really didn't seem tasteful, you know?

I'm genuinely not intending to offend anyone here. I'm just wondering if anyone had any recommendations? (God. I hope this NEVER comes up again but you never know).

Any comments would be most welcome. Even if you feel I really should have just gone ahead and done what the poor kid asked me.


Josie.
 
I don't get why you didn't want to paint his face. I've painted a ton of political figures on kid's faces, not always my favorites.
 
I don't get why you didn't want to paint his face. I've painted a ton of political figures on kid's faces, not always my favorites.

Because painting white people in blackface has certain...connotations.
 
Oh! Ok, yeah! I thought you meant wanted like a portrait done. Like on his cheek. I used to do face painting at political rallies and a lot of kids had that done. But the hope poster would have looked hella cool as a full face piece.
 
Oh! Ok, yeah! I thought you meant wanted like a portrait done. Like on his cheek. I used to do face painting at political rallies and a lot of kids had that done. But the hope poster would have looked hella cool as a full face piece.

I was just going by the OP's language.

;)

It could be a mistranslation...
 
Kids are super political and it's actually really sad because you can tell they've just been brainwashed by their parents. Like there is really no reason for a child to want a politician on their face. They also have really strong affiliations to college basketball teams. The ones who don't want political designs want UK basketball logos. Both those things are weird to me.
 
Kids are super political and it's actually really sad because you can tell they've just been brainwashed by their parents. Like there is really no reason for a child to want a politician on their face. They also have really strong affiliations to college basketball teams. The ones who don't want political designs want UK basketball logos. Both those things are weird to me.

I wouldn't go that far...
 
Yes. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

He wanted his entire face painted. A mini portrait of course I would have been comfortable with.

I'm glad to see I am not alone in that. And everyone else? Thanks for your comments. Appreciate them, even if I look like a numptu because of my question.

http://img106.imagevenue.com/loc369/th_85551_image_123_369lo.jpg

I also did...

http://img219.imagevenue.com/loc1119/th_75690_image_123_1119lo.jpg

But yeah. Kids say the funniest.... I mean ASK for the funniest face paints.
 
I hate when they ask me to paint things that I don't know what they are. It makes me feel old.
 
Why the anguish? It's just face painting. It washes off. It's not as if he was asking for a tatoo.
 
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