Babies & Toddlers With Pierced Ears

It's just so completely selfish of them, isn't it? They're not only wanting to force a baby to go through the pain in having her body modified to suit their wishes; but they're also spending money on boring, potentially dangerous bits of jewellery as 'presents', so she also loses out on getting actual presents that a baby would want or need, such as warm clothes, or toys and other things that would actually encourage her interest and development.

Imagine if it went the other way, and you gave a grandparent a rattle, pram mobile, cloth book or 2-piece jigsaw of a fluffy kitten as a 'present'. Obviously it would be utterly absurd; but the principle is exactly the same - apart from the fact that they wouldn't actually be potentially dangerous for them, unlike a baby, the GP would be able to understand where they'd lost out and express their great disappointment to you for giving them such a stupid 'gift'.

I don't understand why people are giving it a free pass and saying "But it's their culture" in countries like Spain. We British have a lot of widespread negative 'cultures' as well - such as drunken rowdiness abroad, football hooliganism, arrogance in expecting everybody across the world to speak English... it doesn't somehow make these good things, and thus make people from other cultures - who don't commonly do these things - bad for criticising us for it. It's not just something like which foods we tend to eat, what music we like or which side of the road we drive on.

Meh, I didn’t deep it that much it was so mainstream.
Its a culture that adores and centres kids so I don’t see it as abusive in any way just not my bag when dd was very tiny

You could say the same thing about circumcision though.

Those 2 things of not giving consent when you’re a baby and being a wimp/having a phobia when you’re a consenting adult are 2 things in isolation.

No, I don't think you could say the same thing about circumcision! The majority of women have pierced ears as adults, little girls often want their ears pierced.
Not many little boys pester their parents to be circumcised!

Well I would find it unlikely that many little boys outside of certain cultures even know what it is.

Having something done as a baby because you don’t like it as an adult is absolutely not a justification to pierce babies’ ears.

And just like anything else, you don’t have to have holes put in your ears to hang bits of metal from anyway.

Ear piercing is the same whether done in Spain or the UK though.

OK... but you clearly felt strongly enough to actively say No to something that's routinely done by default.

Yeah for a few years- more because my English family would have been horrified and judged lol - we got it done when she was 3/4 I think. 🤔

That’s cruel too! Nobody is trying to argue that one is cruel and the other isn’t!

I wasn’t allowed until I was 16. I desperately wanted them done before but my Mum would not relent- something to do with old enough to take care of them! My brother was left in my care from 13 and I could do far more damage to him that I could my ears! I really don’t like seeing babies with pierced ears and it strikes me as barbaric!

That’s bad as well, unless of course it’s for medical reasons.

i think it looks tacky. I don’t think it should be done until the child asks and are able to understand it and take responsibility for it…about 10-12 minimum.

My friend's MiL was looking after her her 6 month granddaughter for the day and got her ears pierced as "a surprise". Friend, rightly, went absolutely ballistic but MiL couldn't see she'd done anything wrong and called her ungrateful.

Unbelievable.

Me: desperately trying not to offend other cultures, after calling those who do it, ‘lower class!’ 🤪🫣

(I don’t agree, whatever culture is involved btw)

Piercing my daughter’s ears as a baby simply wasn’t on my radar as I think it looks absolutely horrible. However, I can’t get worked up about it in principle. DD had her ears pierced just before she was 8, so in year 3, that felt fine to me and she had no problems. She has a whole load of piercings now that offend me far more than one set of holes in an 8 year olds ears

Child abuse is child abuse regardless of "cultural" norms.
FMG is normal in some cultures but we still prosecute anyone involved in it or arranging/facilitating it.
Piercing babies, toddlers and young children's ears should also be criminalised and "culture" br dammed.

FWIW, Claire’s is still in business and still piercing in the US, although they’ve closed a lot of underperforming locations.

Does the UK have piercing places where all the piercers are nurses? My daughter had her ears pierced at one of those. I had my ears pierced by a nurse in a doctor’s office (way back in 2002).

This was my view. A very quick and painless procedure when young, with no anticipation or fear, and as a parent you can control the aftercare and it's very easy and straightforward.

In older family members (age 12-15) ear piercing has been a much more complicated issue involving fear, multiple rebookings, infections due to aftercare complications, and, in one case, one ear done without the other.

If they don't like it when older, they can just take them out. But I never viewed it as cruel, inhumane, etc, as is the common view on MN.

STTE.

YANBU. It's cruel and tantamount to abuse.

Why people don't think bodily autonomy applies to babies when it comes to body modifications absolutely boggles my mind. This includes circumcision for non-medical reasons, and, of course, FGM.

Literally about to say the exact same sentence! It's cultural, either we ban all cultural markings or we don't. By cultural I'm not just talking about religion or nationality I'm talking about sub cultures too.

Like Sutee,FGM and footbinding?

Yes make it about the male children please!

It's not painless. The hurt is no less because they're small, if anything it's likely to hurt them more but they just can't say anything about it (which is worse IMO).

They can take them out but will still have permanent body modifications that cannot go away.

This is strange, why do you think the phobia has happened