to think it should be illegal to get your childrens ears pierced...

[CklarahAndMarbellasMum]

...before they're of an age where they can soundly make their own sensible decision?

Babies in earrings look vile

If you don't like it, don't have it done. Simple. It's normal in my culture to have it done and I had mine done by a doctor when I was 6 weeks old. I wore the tiniest of gold or diamond studs-- no big hoops or rocks. My ears are fine and I don't hate my mother. Those of you comparing something as benign as ear piercing to foul practices such as FGM and other horrors are plain stupid.

I dont think piercing another human for the fun of it is benign

Wasn't trying to imply that all middle class Brits dislike piercing babies' ears - sorry if it came across that way. I just meant that currently most people don't pierce their babies' ears - my perception is that it's more common among certain age-groups/cultures/etc, and it's undeniably much more common in some countries than it is in the UK. I only dislike it really because it's not usual where I live and among the people I know and carries a certain image.

Fashions like this come and go - crewcuts and tattoos had a very different image in the past to what they do now. In 20 years' time maybe everyone will pierce their babies' ears and no one will think anything of it.

I agree TalkingBiscuit.

I really dont see its a problem if the child really wants it done and they know its going to hurt maybe 8 onwards.

But babies? Still dont get it, why?

TalkingBiscuit -6 weeks?

I had mine done for my 11th birthday, it really hurt. I dont really have good earlobes and it looked really stupid on my ears. They did not stop hurting and after two weeks I gave up adn asked my mum to take them out.

So imagine unnecessary discomfort you are causing a child? Its not 30 secoonds of pain. My ears hurt for a few days and it was really uncomfortable when i slept. Two weeks later they were not hurting as much but I was still aware of them being there.

Maybe my experience is not what happens to everyone but at least I could tell my mum.

Nothing can justify hurting a baby unless of course for medical reasons.

I think it should not be allowed under 8 years.

When it comes to ear piercing I'd rather listen to the opinions of people who have been subjected to this "vile and chavvy" practice as the norm (i.e. basically all my fellow countrywomen I've grown up among) than a bunch of women who have limited experience of it. I have not known one story of anyone complaining about their horrible mothers who did this to them. I think that speaks for itself. Why get het up about something that the "victims" are not bothered about?

And I just cannot understand the logic of saying that a baby cannot have it but a child of over 5, or even 10, can have it if they want to? If I had such a low opinion of ear piercing on children I wouldn't let any minor in my care have it, until they are adults and can make that decision themselves. If it was so vile, cruel and pointless why let a minor make that decision? Would you let an over 5 get a tattoo then?

SGB, you say that someone who pierces a baby's ears is a "fucking moron", would you say that about the paediatrician who did dd2's ears? Countless medical professionals around the world perform this very minor procedure on baby girls as routine, and no medical/health/anything body has condemned it. Do you have some knowledge that they should know about?

FYI, there isn't much pain involved. My daughter (at 18 months) had a numbing cream on for 1/2 an hour, and when the first ear was done she furrowed her brow and tried to turn and see what the doc was doing. The nurse showed her a picture and distracted her and when the second ear was done she didn't even notice. If she had any soreness and pain in the coming days she must have kept it to herself!

I think my 2 yo DS cries for longer than 20seconds when we are wiping his eyes with warm water and cotton wool. So I find it hard to believe that it's less painful than that.

No megapixels, I wouldn't let a 5yo have a tattoo but I would let an 8yo (I think - not been there yet!) make a decision about what is to an adult a minor procedure, hurts a bit and needs attention once done. I think they're mature enough to decide that.
Can someone tell me - in a culture of ear piercing, if for whatever reason a baby hasn't had it done, would you then get it done at an older age even if the child said they didn't actually want it done?

megapixels, well you would say that because you have done it to your child.

your littl girl was lucky then but she may not have been so lucky.

i grew up on a council estate and nearly every little girl had them and yes i do think they look really "chavvy".

but we are all different with different tastes so why cant you just wait until your child is older and ask them if they want it done.

all of my family wear a bit of jewelery - not much. My mother was always making me wear a bracelet or something when I was younger and i hated it. i only wanted my ear pierced because my sister had it and thank God took it out. Since about 16 I actually hate jewelery and can not even bear to touch it.

so i am SO glad my mother did not pierce my ears when i was a baby because probably all the mums around her were.

it should be your childs decision not yours.
my mother likes jewelery, i hate it. simple.

You would let an 8 year old get a tattoo? Well that floored me.

I don't think there are many babies that haven't been done in cultures where ear piercing is done. Even poor people do it, even though the studs have to be 22carat gold. So someone buys it for them (a rich relative or nice person), as it is something that's supposed to be done for a female child.

no, sorry, that's not what I meant, but I can see how it came across
I meant the ear piercing of course. Never had a tattoo but even as an adult I would imagine they hurt like h*ll - whereas ear piercing, if you know why it's being done and are in agreement to it is fairly quick.

did i say that? where?

i'm not talking about tatts - thats a whole other story and you should be 18 for that.

my friend is a tatooist and does piercing and she always tries to talk people out of getting it done first.

and she would not pierce a child.

i can see its done in other cultures, my italian friend did it to her little baby girl. still dont get it!

anyway we will all probably go around and around on this all day so i guess we should just agree to disagree although i think i am more right ... only joking!

devotion I would say what? I have two daughters, I was only speaking of my younger one. With the eldest (she was only about 40 days old) I was a nervous wreck and trembling when it had to be done. I didn't want to do it because I didn't want her to be hurt, but I thought she'd hate me since every girl in the country (Sri Lanka) had pierced ears and she'd be like some kind of an oddity among her friends. But when it was done it was over so fast that neither me or dd even had time to react!

My second was born soon after I moved to the UK, so I wasn't too bothered about piercing her ears (since it's not something that every female does). But it stayed in the back of my mind that we'll be going back home in some years and it didn't really hurt anyway. So when we went on holiday when she was 18 months called the hosp and booked her in.

But why should it be done? What is the benefit? Why would a baby need to wear jewelry? If there is a genuine benefit then I can see your reasoning. Apart from making a girl look girly I can't see the point. When a child is old enough to have an opinion on what they like to wear or not then they can have ear-rings; their choice. I can accept over 5 yo being OK but for my dd it will be later and as her school don't allow them the decision is taken.

What? No I was talking about stealth wrt the tattoo. I didn't like jewellery as a teenager, but I didn't mind the earrings. It never occurred to me to not wear them really, you can't even feel that they're there.

Stealth - Thank goodness for that!

There is no benefit as such, it's just tradition I guess. And if people who have gone through that have been satisfied with it there is no reason to stop is there? A person's opinions are coloured by their experiences, so if I'd known cousins/aunts/friends etc. (even just one) who were resentful of the choice not being left to them I wouldn't have done it to my daughters.

Or if I'd known people who've had accidents or infections. It's odd that I don't know any! All school girls in Sri Lanka wear studs at school, there is no requirement to remove it for PE. And yet I've never known an accident to happen (not saying it wont, it's quite logical that something can catch on it, I've just never heard of it).

I just don't get why people get so het up about this issue!

I'm British, married to a Somalian/Indian man who's mum keeps encouraging us to get DD's (14 weeks) ears pierced. It's completely normal in their culture, all his sisters had their's done at birth.

We're not going to get it done till she's at least 10 years. End of. But I don't feel the need to point out that it's cruel, or mean, or they're 'fucking morons'

Each to their own. I don't like the way it looks, but I certainly wouldn't be bothered about anyone else having their babies ears done. Not everyone in the world in British middle class you know

is

If you do it to an under five, youlre a fucking moron becuase there is NO GOOD REASON to do it. 'Culture and tradition' are not good reasons to do anything without thinking about it and only fucking morons think they are.
It's exactly the same principal to call people who mutilate their children;s genitals for cultural reason fucking morons. DO what you want to your own bodies, and by all means allow a child who is old enough to ask for pierced ears to have them pierced, but nothing that isn;t medically necessary or at least strongly medically advisable should be done to infants' bodies because their parents are too dumb to question a 'culture' of fuckwitted cruelty.

Classy.

I begged to have my ears pierced for my 16th birthday, i was allowed and fuming that my 12 yr old sister was allowed to have hers done too!!!

BUt now at the grand old age of 38 I never ever wear earings and wish I had not bothered

I HATE it on kids, but i can see that it is a cultural norm for some families and communities.

Don't like seeing it on babies/small children.

Once they can make the decision and understand the risks and aftercare then I suppose it's different.

DD(6) says she'd like to be able to wear pretty earrings, though she doesn't realy make the connection between the earrings and the piercing yet. She will be allowed to have hers done (if she wants it, which if she is anything like me at that age will be a YES) once she starts her periods. Seems like a nice rite-of-passage and also an age where she will be getting used to dealing with hygiene/personal care.

I'd rather my kids have my ears pierced than be a reactionary asshole. Ear piercing and genital mutilation aren't the same thing, but I guess in your tiny mind they are. I don't like long hair on little boys, but it's up to the parents to cut it or not.

Hopefully, your kids have more of a vocabulary than you do. My "fucking moron" of a mother has more class in her crap than you do.

My mother was a debutante, by the way, so it isn't just chavs that do this. In so-called "tolerant" Britain, why should anyone care if a baby has their ears pierced? Also, why does everyone want to ban anything they don't agree with.

I'm sure if ear piercing was so bad, the doctor that did mine would've refused. Had my mother tried to take me for a clitoridectomy, I am sure he would have put his foot down.