Last August I took my daughter to get her ears pierced. Actually I took her several times to get her ears pierced because she kept wimping out. I documented the whole process here.
She never had any problems with her ears, no infections, no irritations. She found a pair of puppy earrings and wore them everyday. She loved her grown-up look.
Until Halloween.
We were invited to a Halloween party at our neighbor’s house, after trick or treating. There were many kids who ran around and played in the yard while the parents sat by the fire laughing and partaking in adult beverages. It was a really fun party until one wild and rambunctious child grabbed my daughter and spun her around somehow pulling the front part of her earring off. The earring just broke, it did not pull through her ear. She didn’t even cry, until the next morning when she saw that the post was still in her ear.
From that moment on she swore she never wanted to have pierced ears again. She took them out and that was that as far as she was concerned. I tried to convince her she was being silly, and I told her that the holes would close up if she didn’t wear earrings. I also made it very clear that I was none to pleased about going through the expense and the ordeal we went through just so she could have the holes close up. I pulled out my spare mom guilt and tossed it at her. I also shot from the hip and told her if she let them close up I was not going to take her to get them pierced again. EVER.
The thing is she looked really cute with earrings, I loved the idea of buying her cute earrings for Christmas and her birthday. I imagined buying her a nice pair of little diamond studs when she was 16. All that mother/daughter stuff I never got to do with my mom. I was sad that she decided to let them close. But, I know my daughter and if I keep pushing I will just make it worse.
So I forgot about it, or tried to.
Every now and then I would try to see if the holes had closed up, she wouldn’t let me actually examine her ears so I had to be sneaky about it. I’d try to look while brushing her hair but she didn’t like me doing that either.
Eventually I just gave up.
Last weekend she said she was ready to get her ears pierced again. I was so excited about it that I completely forgot about my empty promise not to take her to get them re pierced.
So once again, in the rain, we left to get her ears pierced.
I should have read my post from last August before I grabbed my car keys.
We went through the exact same thing, she got scared and chickened out.
The problem was she wasn’t ready to give up. She really, really wanted to get her ears pierced again. She was just too afraid of the pain.
I mentioned that the last time she did it, when she finally went through with the deed, she didn’t flinch and that she told me it didn’t hurt. I tried to convince her that since she had already done it once there was nothing to be afraid of. I named all of her friends who had pierced ears, even the younger friends. I went so far as to say that one little girl, (the mean one) was a baby and a scaredy cat, if she could do it then Maddie could too. All to no avail.
My daughter sat in the piercing chair crying. Strangers walked by and surely thought I was trying to force her to get her ears pierced.
And I was.
I knew if we didn’t get them pierced that day we would have to repeat this whole process again and possibly again. I just wanted to get it over and done.
The thing is she didn’t want to go home without her ears pierced, she just couldn’t get past her fears. We sat there, well, she sat there and I stood there, pinching each other to show how much it might hurt. I wasn’t going to lie to her, it was going to hurt for a brief second. So I held my pinches just a little bit.
I gave her pep talks about facing her fears and plowing through them. I told her she being afraid was ok but refusing to proceed because of fear was just going to hurt her in the end. I was talking like the best of the motivational speakers out there. Of course she had no idea what I was talking about.
She asked me to get my ears pierced to show her that it didn’t hurt. I thought about this for about a second then asked her:
“If I do this do you promise to go through with this?”
“Yes”
“There will be no chickening out, right?”
“Yes, I will go through with it, I might cry, but I will do it if you get yours pierced.”
I didn’t want to get my ears pierced again. It seems every time someone gets their ears pierced, I do too, just to show them that it isn’t that bad. I’m running out of room on my ears to pierce.
Without taking up more of your time, can you guess who got their ears pierced on Saturday and who didn’t? Can you guess who will be taking her daughter to another mall because there is no way in hell I am going to show my face in that last mall again? Do you want to hazard a guess at how many times and how many different malls we will visit before her ears are pierced?
And finally, just guess how many holes I have in my ears now.
The worst part of this whole thing, aside from the fact that we are not actually finished with this project, is that I have to go and get more earrings now.
I like symmetry. I can’t be symmetrical anymore because I don’t have enough matching earrings. I bought one pair of diamonds when I got divorced the first time, I bought another pair of slightly smaller diamonds when I got divorced the second time. When my mom moved to the home she gave me her diamond earrings that were right between the other two in size. So basically I had three diamonds on each ear getting progressively smaller. When I pierced the cartilage on my ears I just wore the fake diamonds, I hadn’t gotten married again so I hadn’t bought myself anymore earrings. I can’t put cubic zirconia next to the real thing. I have six weeks to figure this out, provided I don’t get them pierced again.
That is not a picture of me, it just came up when I searched for pierced ears. I like it, it reminds me not to be a moron again.
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This is hilarious. I went through the same thing with my daughter only I got my nose pierced – she has also let hers close because one day the dog jumped up and pulled the earring out the front and the back was stuck inside the hole, somehow (sounds like the same thing happened to your daughter). Anyway, she sat in the chair and cried – got one side done and didn't want to do the other. It ended up taking about a half hour of cajoling, harrassing, threatening, begging, bribing before she's get it done. But my son, oh many – he wins the big freaking chicken prize hands down. I had to take him to the doctors a few weeks ago for his T-Dap shot so he can go to middle school next year. This kid is 10 years old – he acted like he was 2 – he was crying and screaming and begging – OMG I was so embarrassed. What a wus. He wants to get his eyebrow pierced before he starts middle school – you think I'm gonna take him? Hell no! Let his dad deal with it.
We went to Claire's and they wouldn't/couldn't pierce my nose or my eyebrow,
I think I am thankful for that actually. My son wants his tongue pierced. I
told him when he is 18 he can mutilate his body all he wants, and then I
told him it looked stupid. He decided, for now, against it because he is
afraid he would get a lisp. Whatever works.
It was horribly embarrassing, not only because of all the onlookers but
because she is such a wuss about things. I don't even want to think about
getting that shot for middle school.
Well I guess this is the only way for me to comment. For the life of me cant find a comment box, unless I click reply on someone else's comment. It says I am comment as a guest.
Anyway I love how you sacrificed room on your own ears to try to get her to do it. Five piercings in each ear, wow!
Sheila, my daughter is such a drama queen that when she got her flu MIST (notice I said MIST) she LIMPED out of the doctor's office (with people snickering behind her back) LOL!
erm, do YOU want this more than she does?
Just askin'
Whatcha gonna pierce next?
Inquiring goats want to know….
Um, YES!
For so many reasons. 1st I will never hear the end of it until they are
pierced again which means begging every day. 2nd she has two little scars on
her ear lobes from the closed up holes, just begging for earrings. I have
half a mind to just force earrings through the closed up holes but that
would scar her for life. 3rd earrings are just so much fun.
Oh, my daughter was scared when she got hers done for her 8th birthday, but she went through with it. She did good, we took care of her ears – no infections. Then one day after being out of school and at my mom's all day, she came home, I went to clean her ears and she had PUSHED her little diamond stud earring through her ear – almost completely through the back. She had a little star wound – I don't know how it didn't hurt. She said that she was afraid the back would come off and the earring would fall out – then the whole would close up (all in a day mind you). Oh, I felt bad, but she had to take them out. She's asked me a few times if she can get them repeirced, but I told her she had to wait until she was 13!
Why didn't you just put another earring in? So how long until you have to bring her back?
I was afraid that it would get infected or wouldn't heal properly. I didn't want her to have a permanent star scar. She'll be 10 in October, so it'll be 3 more years. I just don't think she was old/mature enough to deal with them. She did so well cleaning them (or rather I did) and then she started getting freaked out or nervous – or worried about something and started to mess with them. She almost had a gauged ear!
Ewww. So she is okay about waiting then?
Yeah, she's ok – her step-sister's all got infected around the same time, so she's not jealous 🙂 They had to take theirs out too!
Your daughter is working you pretty good. Just saying. As for the graphic. I think I threw up in the back of my throat just a little.
Have a terrific day. 🙂
She has me completely figured out.
I have boys. They don't care about pain, or at least they can't admit it. I have one with so many holes in his ears that I have no idea how he keeps his brains in.
He wants a tongue piercing and a tatoo. Being the responsible parent that I am, I said NO. When he's 18, he can sign his own consent forms. Maybe by then he'll have leaked the part of his brain that wants them.
I have about 9 months before my son can sign his consent forms, right around the time of college interviews.
OK, that is HYSTERICAL Jen! You got hosed! LOLOL!!!!!! I am dancing with joy at the fact that your daughter TOTALLY HOSED YOU. You know I love you, right? But I have been hosed so many times before.. now I am not alone. Happy dance!
I hate seeing babies with pierced ears. Putting a baby through that hurts my heart. And babies are naturally beautiful without jewelry. I also feel it is a right of passage…. something between a mother and daughter. Maybe b/c I begged for YEARS to get my ears pierced and wasn't allowed until I was teen… because we have “keloid scars in our family.”
So when my daughter begged for pierced ears in kindergarten, although I thought it was too early, I caved. Fortunately, it happened on the one and only trip. But it was a nightmare. The minute they did it, it was screaming, “Get them out GET THEM OUT!” I picked her up and whisked her out, talking, pointing, anything I could do to get her mind off of it. Once the pain stopped she was happy she did it. But they bothered her. Big time. They also came out a few times on the trampoline. Getting them back in was a bigger nightmare.
She finally took them out. Done. Over.
And a few weeks ago, she told me she wants her ears pierced again. Sigh. I called her bluff and grabbed the keys. She changed her mind. A week later, another request and then an immediate “no never mind.”
I have one in the left and three in the right. I used to have one higher up too. Now I know NOT to tell her I'll get mine done first! ha ha!!!
I think we lead double lives sometimes!
Too bad you don't live closer, we could make a day of it.
Haha. This is too funny. I'm sure you don't look like a 21 year-old hippie, at all.
I am old, so things were different when I was young. I didn't get my ears pierced until I was 15 or 16 and my doctor did it! Yes, back in the day when your doctor was in your neighborhood, maybe even on the next block and their office was part of their home. Yes, THAT old. But the point is, she used a numbing agent on my ears and then did the old “cat gut” string through the hole. Painless. A week later I went back and she put my earrings in. She made a total big deal about it, like it was a rite of passage. Sometimes the “good old days” really were.
As to the tongue piercing – lisping would be least of his problems – he will also be looking forward to major dental work.
My father pierced my ears in his office, though he didn't use cat gut and he didn't use a numbing agent. He just poked a sterilized needle through my ear which was safer than when I pierced them again a few weeks later using a needle I held under a burning match for a few seconds, snow to numb my ear and a potato behind it so I didn't poke my neck, all in the locker room of my jr high school. Those were the good old days. My daughter has no idea what pain and ear piercing is all about.
OH MY!!!!!! Have you tried bribing? Like with money….not your ears.
I tried that while we were in the store. That just made her cry more because she was powerless, or at least thought so.
That is a great story. Just great.
I got all my girls ears pierced when they were babies. We live in Florida in a very Cuban influenced area, so most little girl babies have pierced ears. When my middle girl was 18 months old, she pulled her earring out through the back. There was some blood and tears and I vowed she would never wear earrings again. I took them out and they closed up. when she was 10 she announced she wanted to get her ears re-pierced. I was going to take her but then I decided to see if they had really closed up. In the middle of the night, I crept into her room with some earrings. There had always been a little dot where her piercings had been. I slowly pushed those earrings into that dot and wouldn't you know? After some pushing, they slid right in. There was a little bit of blood, but she never woke up. She's never had a problem since.
You are my hero. I wanted to that with the tooth and the earrings. I wish I
had balls like you do. How old was she when she got her ears pierced? My
daughter only wore earrings for two months. I haven't tried to poke an
earring through, she won't let me, but I bet I could if I pushed hard
enough.
After the photo, I almost didn't read the post! Ack!
How old is your daughter? Maybe she's not mature enough to make this decision. Just saying.
She is 7, of course she is not mature enough to make this decision.
Kudos mom! Its amazing what we'll do for them so we get what WE want in the end lol.
And I went thru the same process….at least 3 trips to the mall before my kid finally got hers done. Crying, promises and everything inbetween before I figured out what the button was. She'd been asking for a Dan Marino jersey for a long time and I'd just never gotten around to it. Her birthday was coming up so I kept putting the jersey off, knowing full well I'd surprise her with it on that birthday. Well, about a month before her birthday she started in with wanting earrings again. I got a flippen bright idea!!! I told her if she would follow thru when we got to the mall and got her ears pierced, I would buy her the jersey. Worked like a charm!! She silently cried while they pierced her but as soon as we were done and paid we ran to the sports store for the jersey.
I feel kinda mean because I pulled one off on her as I was gonna get the jersey anyway but hey, I avoided what was sure to be another wasted trip to the mall so I win! Bribary does work. =)
And that pic up there made me throw up a little in my mouth lol.
I was 32 when I got my ears pierced for the first time. I can relate to your poor daughter. Needles scare me. Now as far as you are concerned, Darling Jen, think about getting something else pierced. You've run out of real estate on the ears. The brow can be a nice look, or perhaps the nostril? Or, dare I say, even something more intimate! You would be like a wonder woman to your kids, and the holes will close up if you change your mind!
I think I am done with piercing body parts, but I have been thinking about
another tattoo…
As a mom of 3 girls; (2 with pierced ears) Thanks for the laugh. 🙂
Im sorry. I probably shouldn't be laughing THIS HARD! But the way you wrote this whole saga is friggen hilarious.
Too bad your daughter chickened out again and your going to eventaully go through this all over AGAIN.
I think this is why my Sister In Law Maya [the GOOD sister in law – that I love, who is married to my OTHER Brother Lee] had both of her daughters ears pierced when they were each six months old!
If I had known then what I know now I would have done it while we were both
still in the hospital following her birth.
Ahahahahhahah!
I never thought I'd say (or write) this but here goes:
Thank God I have boys.
Great. Now I need a drink.
Cheers, I'm having one with you right now.
That is too funny! I can just hear you promising your daughter that you'll pierce your ears too. It's something I would do.
Hey, you probably look pretty hip with a bunch of piercings. Maybe at the next mall go for a nose piercing or a navel one?
Good luck!
I have to go to a tattoo parlor to get a nose or other body part piercing.
The mall can only do ears, they don't even do that little doo-hicky part of
the ear right in front of the entrance to the ear. I'd pierce something else
if it would convince her to just suck it up and get it over with. I do like
Joann's solution.
Oh, no, how many holes are you up to??
The whole ear piercing thing can be so traumatic. My sister passed out once. My daughters were scared, but too vain to pass up the opportunity. Maybe she needs a shot first. Vodka?? Or maybe you do?
OHHHhhhhh… that's NOT a picture of you…
huh. I coulda sworn it was.
😉
You could always start piercing your labia since you're running out of ear cartlidge.
Just a thought.
too many for me…. That pic looks more like a pin cushion than a style statement.
I can just picture you going through this, Jen! I'd probably do the same thing if I had a daughter. Reminds me of when I got my ears pierced… I feel a blog entry coming on….
Always glad to inspire a blog post. I hope you didn't chicken out.
My older daughter has gotten her ears pierced 3 times. The 3rd time took. She never chickened out, she just wasn't old enough to take care of them and they got infected. So how many holes do you have in your ears? I was going to get my belly button pierced when I was much younger. I chickened out because of the expected pain.
Your daughter is brave. I have ten holes in my ears. Five in each. Four in
the earlobe part and one in the cartilage. I'm done now, might even let some
close up. If I had a decent looking belly button I would do it but that
might require sit ups.
That sounds like some story. Another reason I am glad I don't have my own children. Too bad she didn't want to do it again especially if she looked cute with them. Oh well, maybe you can think of something else.
That picture of the woman or whatever with everything pierced is something else.
Have a great day
I got my ears pierced the first time when I was around 11 years old. Once the six weeks has passed, I went to put in new earrings and nearly passed out. I just couldn't do it, so I let them grow up. I got them re-pierced in 8th grade and a second hole in 10th grade. My daughter is four and really has never mentioned getting her ears pierced. Of course since I never wear them anymore, I guess she will be exposed to pierced ears more when she starts school. So I have a few more years anyway.
Yikes, that photo is scary. I like your article, it made me giggle. You definitely have a lovely way of telling a story.
You're so sweet, thank you. That picture is scary, it makes me glad my
daughter is afraid to get her ears pierced.
I took a neighbor's granddaughter (she is the legal guardian) to pierce her ears for her twelveth birthday. I loved it. She let them close up several months later…wah, I was sad then! I'll say that pic is surely to keep the piercings in check!
Yikes! That picture is sure to give me nightmares tonight. Feeling your pain. I go through the whole ordeal when it comes time to change Buggy girls earrings or take them out for cleaning. I got her ears pierced when she was about 15 months old and she has never had a moments trouble with them.
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