Pierced Ears

Last year, while some friends were visiting from out of town, my daughter and I tagged along while my friend’s daughter got her ears pierced. I pierced mine to show her that it wasn’t all that painful. I wrote about the experience and didn’t think much more about it.

Occasionally when my daughter and I were visiting the mall we would come by a Claire’s Boutique, the place where my friend’s daughter got her ears pierced, I’d jokingly ask my daughter if she wanted to get her ears pierced knowing I would be faced with screaming and ear holding. My daughter thought the idea of putting holes in one’s head was barbaric and wanted nothing to do with it. We were not even allowed to discuss it.

My daughter is 6 and I figured if I continued to ask her if she wanted her ears pierced she might never want to get her ears pierced, especially since she had such a hard time losing a tooth. I assumed I would never have to share earrings with her nor would she need money to buy earrings when she became a teen. Suggesting to my 16 year old son that he get his ear pierced has kept him hole free so the plan had been working.

Until the most recent tooth fell out. After the tooth was pulled out rather painlessly by my daughter she decided that she didn’t need to be nor was it beneficial to her to be such a wimp. One after noon, while watching an episode of iCarly, my daughter turned to me and said she wanted to get her ears pierced.

“Really?” I asked, stunned.

“Yes” she replied.

“Really, really” still stunned.

“Yes, I am ready to do it” she said.

It being a rainy Friday afternoon with nothing better to do I agreed to take her out to the mall to get her ears pierced.

Her dad was going to be picking her up the next day to take her to a picnic and I must have been extremely bored since I was looking forward to the drama that would ensue when he saw her ears.

We arrived at the mall, found one of the many Claire’s and watched while a five year old girl got her ears pierced. She didn’t flinch during the process and I figured this might go off pretty easily.

Daughter seats herself in the chair, she has picked out the earrings and the ear piercer/manager is cleaning her ears and marking them with dots so she knows where to pierce them. She actually gets about six inches away from her my daughter’s ears with the little ear piercing machine before my daughter starts to scream and hold her ears.

Daughter says she is really not ready, she thought she was but isn’t fully prepared. The manager takes off her gloves and returns to the counter to ring up a few customers who had been waiting patiently since they only have one person staffed at this particular Claire’s. Daughter hops down off the chair but sees all the cute earrings and announces that NOW she is ready. She hops back up into the chair while I tell the manager that we are ready to try again.

We repeat the previous scenario three times. We leave the malls without holes in her ears. The manager of the shop was gracious and kind about the whole thing even though she had to suit up three times and she never got a sale for her troubles. She was a trooper and said to come back in a few years when daughter was ready.

We arrived home and that was the end of it.

When daughter returned from the picnic with her father he said:

“If you get her ears pierced make sure they use gold since she probably has sensitive ears like mine”

Her father has a pierced ear and believes he has sensitive ears. In reality he has a mother who has told him he is either sensitive or allergic to everything. The man crawls around in attics and basements all day long breathing in questionable chemicals and materials. The only thing I have ever seen his skin react to is poison ivy. It’s all in his head and I’ll be damned if it ends up in his daughter’s.

And there was no drama. He could care less if I put two holes in her head. Too bad it didn’t work.

Five minutes after he dropped her off she announces that she is really, really, really ready to get her ears pierced.

Fine, I still have no life and it’s still raining. I take her to the mall, a different one this time however and we find a Claire’s. I was not going to subject that poor manager to another visit from me and my daughter.

At the new Claire’s, in a different mall, I mentioned to the manager that we had tried this before with no luck. She nodded and winked at me which I thought was a little odd but then she got down to business. She asked which earrings my daughter wanted and then showed my daughter to another part of the store while she readied the equipment. She then called my daughter over who was expecting to go through the whole process of gloves, cleaning, marking, worrying, quitting, rinse and repeat. This manager didn’t bother marking or panicking and had done the cleaning without my daughter noticing. Before my daughter had a chance to back out her right ear was pierced.

And she didn’t cry.

The left ear was pierced without incidence or tears as well. It was amazing.

I tried to tip this woman but she would have none of it. I did buy my daughter a couple of pairs of earrings which she could wear in about six weeks provided she doesn’t have some reaction to the surgical steal posts that were forced through her ear lobes.

This was a couple of weeks ago. We have cleaned them twice a day and there has been no complaints, swelling, redness or any kind of irritation. She obviously does not have her father’s “sensitivities”. Though it probably didn’t hurt that she had been taking antibiotics for the prior week due to piercing her mouth with a straw.