now she's begging me to get her ears pierced! (bit long but bear with me)

[cariboo]

Recently I posted that dd(8 next week) wanted an ipod or a mobile phone for her birthday. In their infinite wisdom, MNers said 'forget it' to phone & 'maybe' to more modest MP3 player. I agree & so do my RL friends. Fine, we're all in agreement

BUT dd's also desperate to have her ears pierced & I've always said no, not until she's 10. At a girls' night out last night, my RL friends said they thought I should relent as ear-piercing is far more acceptable for an 8yr old than a mobile phone. Well, maybe it is in Switzerland but for us anglo-saxons, ear-piercing is, well, yuck. Or was that 20 yrs ago?

What do you wise MNers think?

I wouldnt, I was allowed to have them done on my 13th birthday as I was then officially a teenager.

tasjaSAmuminUK on Sat 31-May-08 13:33:28
"My DD is 2 and I'm going to have her ears pierced in the near future.

I just don't get why the British are going on and on about how young the children is when they get their ears pierced. I should think that you would not worry about it that much. What's the issue????"

In my case, it's knowing several youngsters who have developed nickel allergy- and you'd be surprised at how a nickel allergy comes to dominate your life; there is nickel in so many everyday objects.

I don't want dd to have her ears done until she is old enough to consider the risk and make a balanced judgment for herself. If she decides, when she has reached a reasonably mature age, that this is worth taking the risk for, then fair enough, it's her decision. But I don't think keeping her from whingeing now is an important enough goal for me to take that decision for her.

And btw I am not British.

/raises hand to having nickel allergy - absolute pain it is.

I had my ears pierced when I was 9 (I think) but hadn't thought about the nickel side for dd (had thought maybe summer before senior school.)

hmmm. well I think two is waaay too young, but I had mine done when I was 7. I was at boarding school already by then (had them done at home for those who might think I rebelled at boarding school at such a young age ) and I had to take the spirit etc to school to do the dabbing/turning myself and it was fine.

I'm 34 now and have never had any problems with them.

And most of my friends had theirs done at similar ages.

And I do think the comment about wanting a tatoo is a bit just because you have your ears pierced doesn't mean you're going to want to take it further - I know I certainly didn't.