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.

[DowntonSprouts]

DD is 10 and has been asking for a couple of years. I keep telling her 12 in the hope that she'll forget about it but I imagine sometime in the next 12 months I will cave in. They are not allowed to wear earrings at her current school so we have been able to use that excuse so far.

I'm afraid I think earrings on small children are awful.

[ImperialSantaKnickers]

The summer holidays is the only time off school long enough to get through the settling in stage when the new earrings should not be removed without falling foul of PE teachers.

Children with earrings in primary uniforms in this area tend to get the judgey pants look on the streets.

[PearlyWhites]

Earrings are not an expensive gift ie pony or unhealthy ie chocolate and of course I wanted them to have it done I think it looks cute.

[SauvignonBlanche]

Between primary school and secondary school. My DD tried 'begging' but it didn't get her anywhere.

[cq]

Holy crap, 3??? Because they requested it?? Like they request chocolate for every meal and a pony for Christmas. Not sure my DD even knew what pierced ears were at 3.

She's getting them pierced for her 12th birthday. And I still feel that's early but running out of ideas for what to get her.

[PearlyWhites]

My eldest two dd were 3 ( both requested it) and my youngest dd will get hers pierced when she is 3 if she wants them done.

[booklava]

I always said to my DD1 she had to be 16 but then gave in and she had them done the summer holidays when she was 13 she is now 16 and has 7 piercings in her ears and her belly button possibly a reaction to being made to wait as she has had them all done except the 1st since she left secondary school!

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

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.

[AfterEightMintyy]

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

[3b1g]

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.

[Mooook]

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!

[charlieandlola]

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

[GoodKingWenSOLOslas]

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 .

[HipHopOpotomus]

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)

[RatherBeOnThePiste]

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.

[givemeaclue]

8

[Pyrrah]

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.

[Pyrrah]

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.

[ripsishere]

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.

[TheCatInTheHairnet]

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".

[Fairyegg]

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

[2kidsintow]

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.