Calling all moms

And cosmetologists.  And wedding planners.  And anyone else who has an honest opinion on this one.

In many ways, our oldest is more mature than her age, but in so many others she's just a baby.  I think going through the divorce put her in a rough spot and she has sometimes been put in the position of being the other adult in one house or the other.  I have seen Man put responsibilities on her that I don't think she should have (little things like taking her sisters to the restroom when we go out to eat or being the one in charge while he works from home) and you can tell just from spending time with her that her mother has done the same, though even more so.  She is quite the mother hen to her sisters and doesn't call them by their names or "my sisters", but always calls them "the little girls" and gets upset if you remind her that she is little, too.

It's tough, because she's 10, so she's right at that age where she thinks she's big and she's well on her way, but she's still a child.  This is evidenced by the fact that she still needs tucked in every night, still wants me to brush her hair and still needs Man to make her plate and cut her meat at dinner.

So here's the deal: I'm battling our 10 year old on the makeup issue right now.  She wants to wear makeup for the wedding and I told her we could do a little.  Then her mom bought her clear mascara and she suddenly thinks that's an every day thing.  In fact, our middle child was going through the bag they took to the sitter's today (my awesome cousin has the girls today and was going to take them to the pool until the weather turned sour) and found a bag of makeup our oldest had packed, even though I've told her countless times she is not to take it places.  So now that the little bit of makeup I was going to allow for the wedding has become the norm, since her mom gave it to her without clearing it with Man or me.  This wouldn't be such an issue, except she thinks she has to do more than what she does every day for the wedding, so now she has decided she needs black mascara for the wedding.  Bear in mind, not only is she 10, but she's got red hair and a porcelain complexion.  Black mascara is going to make her look like a raccoon!

So today when we were duking it out in the car on the way to our dress fitting before I had to be at work, I got to thinking about what I did when I was 10.  And unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I had the clear mascara back then.  The difference was, BBS is 3 years older than me, so I pretty much got things when she did, so I was ahead of the curve, while our oldest is (obviously) the oldest and I am so NOT ready for the other 2 to be wearing ANY makeup!  So here's where I need help: do Man and I make her put the clear mascara away somewhere when she's here so it will be a special thing for the wedding or allow the clear mascara as a daily thing and then allow more for the wedding?  And if we go that route, just how far do I let her push it for the wedding?  I KNOW I'm not going to let her do black mascara, but does anyone have any other suggestions?  Help!