At what age should I allow my daughter to get her ears pierced?

[GreeenFingers]

My daughter is 6 and has been begging me to get her ears pierced for over a year. I think it is a "right of passage" and not to be done on a whim. That said she is a very clever little girl, who knows her own mind. I've told her to wait untill she's 8 and then I'll consider it. Am I being unreasonable?. TBO I'd have them done sooner, but I want her to appreciate the fact they are going to hurt nad may take some time to heal. Your thoughts please.

I'd say as a treat in secondary school but maybe I'm old fashioned! 8 seems way too young to me.

12

Don't do it until she is old enough to look after the piercings and make sure they don't become infected etc.

DD1 waited until starting senior school (11).

Six is too young to be wearing jewellery in my opinion (but you know your own child).

Another vote for 12 or 13 earliest.

I was 11, my sister 6. I think she needs to "beg" for a while longer to really appreciate them.Her earlobes are tiny (as are mine) I don't want the holes to end up too high or too low. We've tried magnetic earrings but they were pretty useless. I alow her to wear make up on non school days, just lip gloss etc, and see no harm in that. She's still a little girl who likes her dolls and sylvanian friends.

My dd1 got hers done at the end of p5 - she was 10. Last in the class!

Dd2 got hers done last wednesday on her 9th birthday. She's had a disability (hip condition) for years, and we saw the doc that day who said she's going to be fine! So as a treat, we took her to get them done, she's been begging!!

She's been brilliant, cleaning them 3x a day with her solution, never had to be reminded, taping them (with micropore) for gym at school.

I'm glad we did it cos it has made me the best mum EVER

DD had them done recently. She's 9 and was also last in the class. I had always said I would wait until she was 13, but here it seems to be the 9-11 year old girls who are actually having fun with earrings. They want to go to Claire's and buy the fun little studs and talk about what earrings they want, etc. I kind of thought it was a shame for her to miss out on that just because of some principle I inherited from my Mum!

I think they have to be old enough to take care of the piercing and understand what that involves. Other than that, they're her ears, not mine!

I was 13 but my mum had originally said 16.

My DD wanted hers done at 7. We took her to a piercing place and made her watch someone else having theirs done. It put her off.

She then wanted it done again when she was 8. We did let her have them done. She was very careful about not touching them and keeping them clean.

I was 12, have already decided no earlier than 10 for dd. 8 seems quite young to be able to care for them herself.

I also told DD that she had to know that it was the aftercare that would probably hurt the most. I explained a billion times that she wouldn't be allowed to make a fuss about it at all. This was all part of her being "old enough".

My DD was six IIRC. She had them done in Claires holding a teddy. She had no problems with them at all. I don't' think she cleaned them more than three times and then we left the bottle of cleaning gear somewhere.

My parents said 16 - partly because my father spent a lot of time sewing little girls ears back together where earrings had ripped out whilst playing, or pulling jumpers off etc.

I have told DD she has to wait till she is 16 - in reality I will see what the situation is with the girls in her class at school when she starts at secondary school and if the majority have them then she can too.

I wouldn't agree to them in primary school.

The other thing to consider is whether your DD will actually be able to wear 'fun' earrings. My mother, both my sisters and I are all allergic to anything other than gold or platinum. Silver earrings or surgical steel earrings would mess my ears up really badly in just a couple of hours.

So I never had the cutesy earrings other people did as it was expensive buying gold ones.

8

DD was 13, she possibly was the last, lots had it done between primary and secondary. She can hardly wear them though because of all the sport she does.

I was 13. The summer before I started high school (and had to take them out every day).

Re young DC my main thought on the subject is I want my DD's to be free to be children for as long as possible - with all the rough & tumble & games etc that that involves. I want them to be able to climb and pounce and jump and fall without fear of damaging themselves due to earrings. I do not understand people who get babies and young children's ears pierced - mainly for this reason. To me it is like stealing a bit of childhood freedom.

When you play contact sports, for example, earrings & other jewellery is traditionally removed so you aren't injured or don't injure anyone else.

So for my DD's my minimum age will be around 13 - if they want to do it that is (I imagine they will but who knows - I do have several female friends who have never pierced their ears)

I was 7. My Dd is almost 6 and has been asking for over a year now too. I said maybe when she's 7, but I think she looks gorgeous without earrings and would gladly wait until she's older. The only other thing for me is that it seems to be that all the women in my (mums side) family who have never had pierced ears have very long ear lobes which I find a bit cringey and of course this could just be a coincidence, but still .

Hoists bosom, Les Dawson style, dons judgy pants and waits..

The first day of the summer holidays between primary and secondary school. It's a right of passage and it must be that day or it's wrong!

DD is 8, I'm thinking of letting her have her ears pierced (if she wants to) for her 11th birthday. This would be at the end of the summer term in Y6, so she'd have the summer holidays to get into the habit of doing the after-care, before starting secondary school.
I don't want her ears pierced any younger than this because she still plays in a very active way and playfights with her brothers, so I would worry about injury.
I don't want to make her wait too long, as I'm already quite strict about clothes and will be about make-up, so I want to give her some lee-way on the ear-piercing, which I'm less get up about than I am about the other things.

My dd had hers done this year just before starting at secondary school.

I was around 8 or 9 when I got mine done. DD1 is almost 4 and is already asking. I have told her she can have them done on her 8th birthday. Not that that makes any sense to her at all.