Baby with pierced ears

[mrsbeeton999]

School mum friend had baby in April and I’ve just noticed she’s had her ears pierced. Scrolling back through her Facebook they were pierced at beginning of July when piercing was still not open. This is seriously bad isn’t it? I’m a bit judgy about babies with pierced ears anyway so this might be clouding my opinion but having a new babies ears pierced illegally during a pandemic has really annoyed me

This subject has been absolutely done to death. Some people think it's ok, some people hate it. I have no feelings on the subject. Not something I would personally do to my baby but I wouldn't judge someone if they did. Might think to myself it looks a bit naff but apart from that I really don't care.

@fuckinghellapeacock

All of those saying "Why would ANYONE EVER do this?" - do you understand that my family have asked me why English mothers

• give their child an odd name that means nothing and is the same as so many other children
• do not vaccinate when it is free and available (it is not in their home country)
• eat junk foods when it makes people so fat
• work and leave dc in childcare - seen as very damaging and harshly judged
• allow children to walk around partially dressed and with unbrushed hair etc - like a beggar

I do not agree with this but it seems beyond the comprehension of the average English woman that a lot of people do not think their child rearing is the best!

Just as your family clearly think they know best about the many things you have listed them as being critical of?

I never really get this line of argument- oh you can't criticise people piercing babies because there are things normal in your culture that people outwith the culture think are wrong. Yeah and? Criticise away- if you think things we are doing are harmful and wrong, say so, I'm happy to listen, they may well be harmful and wrong and it might take someone with an outside perspective explaining why to get those of us who see it as the norm to realise it should change.

Pierced ears on babies are horrid (in my white British middle-class opinion), pandemic or no pandemic.

However, OP, YABU for flapping about what other people get up to.

I'd also say YABU for going on Facebook.

YANBU.

@makingmammaries

It should be illegal IMO along with cutting bits off babies’ genitalia for anything other than medical reasons. All the things you can’t do to dogs these days, but for some reason can still do to babies.

What exactly can people no longer do to dogs that can still be done to babies?

The only things that people can no longer do to dogs, that I can think of, is docking their tails and cutting bits off their ears, things that most definitely are never done to babies.

Having bits of dog's genitalia cut off has never happened, so nothing's changed there. And as much as I hate to see babies and small children with pierced ear, it cannot in any way be compared to genital mutilation.

Dogs are routinely spayed and castrated: not something that is ever done to babies as far as I'm aware.

The baby's mother may be personally acquainted with a profesional ear piercer; I doubt she just did an amateur job.

However I agree that the ears of a baby should not be pierced, it's horrible. Little girls often ask for pierced ears as they get older, for example for passing 11+ or something like that which is fine but babies don't need that.

I don't care if it's judgemental, if it's done purely for aesthetics it's gross and disgusting on babies.

I don’t agree with piercing babies’ ears, but the “illegal” bit is hilarious. Anyone who has any knowledge about health can do it. In the country where I’m from, some doctors and nurses do it.
It’s not illegal to pierce babies’ ears whether you do it at the salon or at home.

@fuckinghellapeacock missing the point of the thread but what do you mean by giving a name that means nothing, do they only have names that are passed down in the family perhaps? Not being critical just curious.
OP i think you are a bit over invested to be checking Facebook to see when the babies ears were pierced. I didn’t have my daughter’s ears pierced that young, but if the baby is healthy and cared for, there are a lot more important things to worry about in life.

I'm interested in a few earlier posts - what are the cultural reasons for ear piercing baby girls in other countries? Forgive my ignorance, looking to learn :)

As someone whose ears were pierced as a baby, I am totally against it. I did not choose to have permanent holes in my body.

That said. Don't get involved, OP. Opinions are allowed but they don't need to be shared on FB.

When I see a baby with pierced ears I assume the parents have a complex about people not knowing she's a girl, and possibly calling her a boy.

@Liland

I'm interested in a few earlier posts - what are the cultural reasons for ear piercing baby girls in other countries? Forgive my ignorance, looking to learn :)

Google "Cultural baby ear piercing" and you'll get loads of links. The first one is interesting:

www.romper.com/p/9-things-white-families-dont-understand-about-piercing-a-babys-ears-64446

Regardless of whether you have an issue with piercings or not there isn't anything you can do about it, OP so why waste the energy getting cross? Just unfriend her on social media and move along.

@fuckinghellapeacock

All of those saying "Why would ANYONE EVER do this?" - do you understand that my family have asked me why English mothers

• give their child an odd name that means nothing and is the same as so many other children
• do not vaccinate when it is free and available (it is not in their home country)
• eat junk foods when it makes people so fat
• work and leave dc in childcare - seen as very damaging and harshly judged
• allow children to walk around partially dressed and with unbrushed hair etc - like a beggar

I do not agree with this but it seems beyond the comprehension of the average English woman that a lot of people do not think their child rearing is the best!

Does your family not judge English fathers as well? Or is it just the men in your family that can have an opinion on women? Are Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish children beautifully turned out and always named after their great grandparents? No, just the English then

I assume the PP means ‘British’ people. I know that in France everyone calls Britain ‘England’ and Brits ‘English’, not realising it’s not the same!

@CrumpetsAndPuzzles

I assume the PP means ‘British’ people. I know that in France everyone calls Britain ‘England’ and Brits ‘English’, not realising it’s not the same!

It's just if you're going to be so judgy about a group of people for having scruffy kids with shit names you should probably try to identify their nationality and not be unintentionally mysogynistic.

@Iwalkinmyclothing @Starwind74 @ConstanceSalinger fuckinghellapeacock is simply pointing out bluntly that parenting standards are different in other cultures including those in Europe.

YANBU about it being done during pandemic.

YABU, and others, about being judgey. I had my ears pierced when I was newborn. So had majority of my friends when I was young. None of us felt "mutilated". However, that said, people where I grew up are smart enough to have it done by a doctor or specially trained piercing person, not some barely trained staff in the middle of a shopping mall Claires.

@DopamineHits

When I see a baby with pierced ears I assume the parents have a complex about people not knowing she's a girl, and possibly calling her a boy.

I daresay there are people who pierce one of their baby boy's ears (or maybe both, just to be on the safe side; he can always leave one out when he's older).

For some people, ear piercing is a cultural thing and I make no comment about that; for most of us British, it is not.

I wonder what the next thing will be - having a baby tattoo perhaps?

Cultural differences shouldn't be used as justification for adults intentionally inflicting pain on babies and small children.

@jessstan2 only in your circles. In my British circles, people know why ears are pierced while children are babies regardless of whether they agree with it or not.

Oh get a hobby

@SchrodingersImmigrant

YANBU about it being done during pandemic.

YABU, and others, about being judgey. I had my ears pierced when I was newborn. So had majority of my friends when I was young. None of us felt "mutilated". However, that said, people where I grew up are smart enough to have it done by a doctor or specially trained piercing person, not some barely trained staff in the middle of a shopping mall Claires.

When were you born (just roughly)? I never saw that once when I was young nor when I became a mother except Asian amongst friends amongst where it is often the cultural norm.

I had my ears pierced for my fourteenth birthday and when I became a mother, girls tended to have them done between the ages of 11-14. That seems fair enough, the children are old enough to choose then.

@jessstan2 I wasn't born in UK, central Europe. It is still normal there. 99% of my friend's had their daughters' ears pierced, many recently. But as I said, we have it done in a really safe and professional environment.