Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to want to punch the mother I saw yesterday getting baby's ear's pierced?

477 replies

ElleBelly · 21/08/2013 11:59

Was in Claire's Accessories yesterday with my 4yo daughter, and there was a Mum getting baby's ear's pierced. Bab must have been about six months, and was screaming her head off, made me feel sick. Cannot for the life of me understand why people put their children through that at that age. It's so cruel. And mother was laughing with friends about it! Have got DS second lot of imms this week and dreading it, pathetic,over emitional,hormone befuddled woman I am, and just think its so wrong to put a baby through that pain uneccessarily.
Sorry for the rant but I so wanted to give her a slap.

OP posts:
m0therofdragons · 21/08/2013 15:36

Hate babies with earrings but what's go my blood boiling is the comment that a GP offers ear piercing for free in the doctor's surgery. Brilliant, glad I'm paying NI for that service! (sarcastic tone for anyone who missed it)

forehead · 21/08/2013 15:48

Cultural reasons- yada yada
Mutilation- yada yada
Child's rights- yada yada
Chavvy- yada yada

Heard it all before

Surely there are more pressing things to worry about than whether some random woman decides to get her baby's ears pierced fgs
OP, yadddddddddbu

cheerfulweatherforthewedding · 21/08/2013 15:49

I saw this a couple of years ago (in claire's). They had two assistants, each with staple gun, and they pierced both ears simultaneously.

Apparently it gets the procedure over and done with more quickly and prevents the likelihood of great distress of having the second ear done once the child has realised how painful it is.

StephenFrySaidSo · 21/08/2013 15:49

"MummyBeerest Wed 21-Aug-13 14:17:26

My Dr's office offers ear piercing for a fee."

*motherofdragons you can calm down now Grin

usualsuspect · 21/08/2013 15:51

It's like bloody grounding day on here.

Yeah I know ,I will hide the thread,and the next one and the next one..

usualsuspect · 21/08/2013 15:52

Groundhog*

MunchkinJess · 21/08/2013 15:56

In South America its our culture to get babies ears pierced before they are 6 months...still undecided if we are going to do this ...

celticclan · 21/08/2013 15:58

Nobody has explained what the cultural reasons are.

Is there anyone here that has pierced their child's ear for cultural reasons?

roundtable · 21/08/2013 15:59

I suppose most threads on mn are about current affairs and for as long as people see it being done and object to it, they'll be threads on it.

calopene · 21/08/2013 16:02

OP - you sound awful ! Why is violence the answer to violence ?

roundtable · 21/08/2013 16:02

I think culture can get intertwined with tradition possibly.

Some people find it very hard to break tradition even if there's no apparent reason for it. It's just how it is for them.

celticclan · 21/08/2013 16:04

Well if that is the case it's time for people to start questioning outdated practices. Doing something because its always been done that way is no reason to continue.

BlingBang · 21/08/2013 16:07

it's probably tradition. we have cultural norms in the uk that look strange and often cruel to other cultures.

celticclan · 21/08/2013 16:10

I can't think of any BlingBlang.

celticclan · 21/08/2013 16:13

Not that is relevant anyway.

MrsOakenshield · 21/08/2013 16:17

usual - why are you here then?

It's got fuck all to do with culture - it's traditional with some people, that's all. And like many traditions, needs to be knocked on the head. Who the fuck is anyone to decide on behalf of a tiny baby (a person, not a possession) that they want their ears pierced? It might surprise some people on here that quite a number of girls and women don't want their ears pierced. These babies don't get the choice.

I find it extraordinary that the RSPCA managed to get tail docking made illegal, but it is still fine to mutilate a child for no actual medical reason. And even more extraordinary the number of people who actually need this explaining to them.

I thought the poster who mentioned taking a woman in her 80s with dementia to get them done, regardless of her being distressed, made an excellent point. That would be disgusting beyond belief, but it's fine to do that to a baby?

Sheesh.

MrsOakenshield · 21/08/2013 16:18

yes, I'm still waiting to hear what these cultural reasons are.

BlingBang · 21/08/2013 16:19

well many other cultures are shocked at how our old folk go into homes rather than be cared for ay home for eg.

loopyluna · 21/08/2013 16:20

*it's probably tradition. we have cultural norms in the uk that look strange and often cruel to other cultures.

I can't think of any BlingBlang.*

How about toddler reins? Where I live, people are absolutely outraged and disgusted to see a toddler being held on a lead. They prefer to teach their DC from a very early age, how to behave safely in public.
There are certainly no more toddlers getting lost or being hit by cars here than the UK.

However ear piercing is just seen as being well presented which is very important here, along with neat hair and clean clothes.

Thepowerof3 · 21/08/2013 16:24

Toddler reins are not a cultural norm! I have never seen anyone using them so hardly 'the norm'

celticclan · 21/08/2013 16:24

I was just skimming through a forum called Spanglish baby and they had debated the issue. It would appear that people choose to pierce their babies ears because they had their ears pierced as babies they don't want their babies to be mistaken for a boy. Neither of these are good reasons in my opinion.

One poster attributed piercing babies ears as part of the over sexualisation of girls. She said it is not uncommon for 6 year old girls in her home country of Costa Rica to wear track suits with the "Playboy" logo emblazoned across the backside and girls are introduced to the beauty industry from an early age.

celticclan · 21/08/2013 16:27

BlingBang in this country most of us do not have homes big enough to accommodate elderly relatives. Dh grew up living with his elderly grandmother and my best friend did too. Unfortunately house prices do not allow for multi generations to be living under one roof.

loopyluna · 21/08/2013 16:31

Thepowerof3 -really? Every time we're in the UK, one of my kids expresses horror at seeing some poor child being dragged along on reins of some kind. I've also heard numerous French people talk about seeing British people with children on leads in holiday resorts!

Goes to show how judgements can be so easily made!

(Disclaimer -my children were never so well behaved in public as their French counterparts and I was often tempted to use reins. Just sharing an observation of something perceived as cruel by non Brits.)

celticclan · 21/08/2013 16:33

You can't compare toddler reins to ear piercing.

Ear piercing hurts and can cause infections. I had numerous infections after having my ears pierced and my niece ended up in hospital.

Toddler reins prevent toddlers from running into the road in front of a lorry and do cause any harm to the child.

The two are not comparable.

Jolleigh · 21/08/2013 16:33

So you know MrsOakenshield - tail docking is only outlawed for breeds of dog that are no longer considered to be working dogs. There are however a lot more hoops to jump through in order to dock a dog's tail. Those hoops only need to qualify for a single dog out of a litter for it then to become legal to dock the full litter. The RSPCA only made it more difficult, certainly not illegal.

(I did extensive research on this after adopting a dog with a docked tail).

Swipe left for the next trending thread