WWYD: Piercing 3 year olds ears?

[tempstamos]

Dd(3) is insisting she wants her ears pierced.
I have 3 older children who already have there ears pierced and have never had an age rule, just done it when they have asked but they have all been 8+. DD’s fathers said he’s not going to take her but I can and basically left me to make the decision.
WWYD? Let her now or make her wait?
Anyone have any positive or negative stories about piercing their kids ears young?

Somewhere on u tube there is a video of a small mite having her ears pierced.someone filmed it,it was on the daily mail web site ...Lordy she screamed and cried...watch that ,surely that will be enough to put you off

I'd do it, it looks so cute and lots and LOTS of people around the world pierce babies ears so it's not uncommon

Posting for the deletion message

Your kid your rulz hun xxxx

If you aren’t sure Temp then it’s a no until you are sure.

Babies with pierced ears just look awful. Those poor poor children. Why would you do that to your child? Vile.

Meh. I'm half Arab and don't understand the upset this topic causes in the UK; mine were done when I was 2, and my sister's were done when she was 4 DAYS old as a courtesy from the (Saudi) hospital

The main thing that would put me off would be the extent of whinging while they heal. Bugger that.... also, she's old enough to fiddle with them and get food caked in and whatnot. Probably not safe now for a few years.

1. Not my body, not my choice. A three year old doesn't have the capacity to choose until much older.

1. Until a child can independently deal with ALL body cleaning tasks, I'll not be adding another voluntarily. This means the DC will wait until age 12 or older. I won't be in charge of ear cleaning, they will.

A friend of mine posted a photo on FB of her 3 year old after having her ears pierced. Apparently she had been insisting that she had them done for ages! The little girl has much older sisters so assume she got the idea from them.

Must admit it's not something I would do

It’s awful. Don’t do it.

She’s 3. She can’t insist. Say no.

It looks bloody awful on any child under the age of 10. And it hurts. So don't do it. There you go. Decision made. :)

I'd do it, it looks so cute

It really doesn’t

@Wolfiefan

This is my first week on mumsnet and I havnt seen any. I also didnt know there was a rule about having threads on similar issues, I've seen loads of double threads in the last week. I was asking if anyone had any positive/negative stories on piercing their kids ears young. Obviously I am the parent and make the final decision, Just asking for others advice as that is what I thought this site was for?

@Laceup

I'm not abondoning her, I am raising her and helping her make decisons, I was just asking for others opinion/stories etc.

Don't pierce your tiny child's ears.
Simple.

One thing to consider is whether she can take them out by herself (and without causing herself pain). At my children's school the girls have to remove earrings for P.E. and swimming and if they can't do it by themselves their parents are asked not to send them to school in earrings. Children's earrings tend to be tighter than adults' so they don't fall out while playing and have the plastic backs that are harder to remove.

I would just say no, too young.

I would say not until 13, but as yours have them done at 8 tell her that is when she has to wait until.

Home School her sure it won’t matter. You can let her get a tattoo and plaster herself in make up while you’re at it.

HTH.

Good luck catching her after the first one is done. She will be off like a whippet.

If her sisters have theirs done I don’t see the issue. Plenty of children get their ears pierced as pre toddlers.

No, no, no, there's just no need for a kid that young to have ears pierced.
Kids are cute enough without all that.

My daughter was 3 when two of her preschool friends got them done for their 4th birthdays. She asked every single day and I was adamant she was too young. She wouldn’t let up so I showed her videos on YouTube of girls the same age having them done and it still didn’t put her off.

In the end, and after talking to the mums who’d let theirs have them, I went against what I’ve always said and let her have them done. She was 3.5 and do you know what, no regrets over here! She wanted them done so much she was full of excitement, she didn’t cry and didn’t mess with them afterwards. She’s 4.5 now and we’ve had no infections or issues, and she recently started school and I was quite surprised that half the little girls in her class have got them done too.

I would add the week after, we took her cousin who’s 8 to have them done. She fainted and cried (despite being desperate for them and in no way was forced to go through with it)

If your happy for her to have them done then do it, if not say no. There will always be different views on it. But no one else’s views matter at all, it’s down to what your happy with for your daughter

Personally I would happily see it banned for under 11s.

However I think 2-4 are probably the worst ages to get it done because they will be unable to understand the need to leave them alone and not play with them, they won’t be able to understand the importance of cleaning them much less keep them clean themselves and they tend to be much tougher in the playing so much more likely to get them knocked.

And 3 year olds don’t get to insist anything. They can ask and they can be told told “yes or no” by the parents they don’t make the decisions because they haven’t got anywhere near the capacity to be able to

She’s 3. You say no. End of.

Only two of ours have chosen pierced ears. They were 16 years at the time, when in a position to give informed consent without parental influence.
Three is too young to insist on anything.