“Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction,.” – Northanger Abbey.
Try telling that to a 7.5 year old. In fact, try telling that to a 27.5 year old postpartum mama. Or try telling that to anyone at all. The way we dress – more importantly, how we feel in our “dress” – plays a huge role on our feelings of self-worth and self-esteem.
What I’m really saying is… my daughter got her ears pierced. That’s right. Her ears.
It turns out that the little girl who had this great big fear of the pain it would cause her to have her ears pierced, was no longer afraid anymore.
It all started when she began noticing her friends ears. Every one of them (or so she claims) has theirs pierced. This was in no way the reason I let her pierce hers – just prompted a lot of discussion about what it means to be like everyone else… Don’t worry, I was careful not to use the clichéd response of, “if you’re friends jumped off a bridge, would you?”.
All I wanted was for her to understand what it was she was asking for – the cold hard truth of it all… We even watched the episode of “Full House” when Stephanie pierces her ears. You see, Stephanie goes against her dad’s wishes and has the neighbour, Kimmy, pierce her ears for her, only for them to become horribly infected afterwards.
For a while this scared her away from the idea of piercing her ears. Until she got a brilliant idea. She decided that if she got them pierced during her Christmas Break then she could suffer the worst of it at home, where she was comfortable and would return to school after the worst of it was over. I couldn’t really argue with her after that.
We researched the best place to go and made an appointment. It turns out that before they’ll pierce a little girl’s ears they have to measure her ear lobes, and informed me to prep her in case her lobes were too small. I had never even heard of this and was so worried for her little ears and big giant hopes.
We went to the appointment with the understanding it may not happen for us. When Hailey was initially measured, it sounded like her worst fear would be realized, her lobes were too small. The lady explained this to us and said she would get her colleague to remeasure just in case… She left us to look at all the pretty earrings while we waited… Worst idea ever on her part.
Luckily her colleague seemed to think they were juuuust big enough, so Hailey was able to suck back her tears and regroup for the next reality – the pain.
The lady at the salon was incredible. She knew exactly what to say and when to say it. Hailey was as ready as she would ever be. Her only request was a couple of hands to squeeze. I took one and Zach took the other, and just like that it was over. My darling girl had pierced ears.
The follow-up has been easy. They haven’t caused her near the discomfort I believed they would, remembering back to when I got mine done.
She has done fabulously well and is counting down the days until she can wear dangly ones.
Do they really have to grow up this fast?
Here we go…
serendipity.six 