I have a thing with finger and toe nails. I despise nails with black dirt under them. I hate seeing kids with long nails, specially on their fingers and I hate it even more when they are dirty.
Having said that, I make sure that I cut my children’s nails regularly: once to twice a week for the fingers and once or twice a month for the toes.
When my kids were infant, I only cut their finger nails after a month or two from when they were born. So that they will not scratch their pretty face with their long nails, I put mittens on their tiny hands. When I remove the mittens, I replace it right away but without not cleaning the in-betweens of their fingers. You know, dirt can form in them, specially when the tiny hands perspire.
Now that my girls are older, I have made trimming of their nails more fun. We play pretend salon where I am their salon girl and they are my customers. Both of them line up for their turn. I nip each nail according to its shape and make sure that the sides are untouched. After trimming, I do a little filing to smoothen each finger nail’s tip. I also make sure that there are no dirt left on the skin of the fingers.
Timing plays a role when nipping my kids’ nails. More often than not, I like nipping their nails after they take a bath. In that case, the nails are softer and the skin is already clean. I avoid nipping their nails when they are sleepy because they get irritated easily, which may wound their delicate hands and feet.