A Storm has erupted across the internet as it was reported in the Mirror (UK Newspaper) that a petition is being signed to ban ear piercing of babies and small children. This picture above is of Little Baby Taylor from 2010. The blog post shares her ear piercing journey, which appears to be very painful and upsetting. She is 5 now and I would love to know whether she remembers it and/or likes her ears being pierced (but does that even matter)?
Some of the people who have signed the petition have made statements like this
- Smacking a child is abuse, so how come sticking metal rods through their ears is not abuse??!!
- This is something I, as a parent, decided that it was up to my children, not me, to decide if they wanted to have
- Pierced ears. To me it is an assault to have this done when a child is too young to even speak, or make this kind of decision.
Some people argue that ear piercing is for “cultural” reasons and this is true, but then so is Female Genital Mutilation and circumcision and they have there own controversial following too.
Should we all just be minding our own business and do what we want? Parent how we think fit? But then where do we draw the line? When does it become OK to step in and help parent. They say it takes a village to raise a child and maybe the internet is just one huge village.
By now you are probably wondering what my stance is on it – I am going to back out on this one and say I don’t have an opinion. I did not choose to pierce my daughter’s ears even though there was strong cultural requirements. She is now 7 and does not want them so it’s just as well I didn’t. She has a very strong personality so I would hate to think that I had manipulated her likes, fashion, style before she had a chance to decide what all those were.
So if you don’t want to pierce your child’s ears then check out these great DIY ideas.
Tattoo Earrings (Removable of course)$6.95 or these Stick on Earrings. However I recall wearing these as a kid and could never keep them on longer than 5 minutes.
Mind your own damn business. We can very easily go back to piercing our own ears!
Child abuse – let them make the decision when they are old to.
I pierced my now 7 yr old’s ears when she was 6 mos old. She screamed mainly because i was having to hold her when she wanted to crawl around plus because a stranger was touching her (but i know it hurt too). She stopped crying literally as soon as i put her down. Recently one of her earrings fell out and i told her to go get another one so it doesn’t close up. She asked why i got her ears pierced without asking her first. I told her she was a baby and couldn’t talk so i did it thinking she’d like it when she was older. She does love her dangly earrings though.
In the 80’s, piercing was a sort of a rite of passage. I believe it should be the child’s decision. Plus, you might get to use it as leverage to get a pre-teen to clean their bedroom. 😀
My girls got their ears pierced when they were older and really wanted them. I used to buy them the cutest stick on earrings that they loved. My doctor does not pierce young children’s ears because he had too many cases of kids screaming and leaving with just on ear pierced and he’s been a pediatrician for over 30 years
Oops typo, should say one ear not on ear. LOL
I used to manage a store that pierced ears. It was horrible doing it to babies and children. Until a child is old enough to decide on their own they shouldn’t get their ears pierced. I once had a woman bring her baby in right after she got her shots and said the baby was going to have a bad day anyway so she thought she’d go ahead and have it done.
I think it’s the parent’s choice whether they do it at a young age. I want to get my baby’s pierced, but my husband wants to wait until she can decide for herself. I’m respecting his wishes, and am going to wait.