piercing a baby's ears, Right or wrong?!

[waiting4bambino]

Well, i was horrified in town today when i saw various members of a family holding down a baby to pierce her ears!!!

They had already done one, and obviously the baby was crying and struggling before having the other done. I just thought this was terrible!!! The whole family seemed to be there trying to distract her, and they'd resorted to both mother and father holding her down, it was like seeing something from one of those tribal rituals on telly!

What do other mothers think of this?!

see! killed it! wheres Heinz to point at me and snigger!?

so, so wrong - do you need to ask????

wrong wrong wrong

wrong unless cultural reasons

Wrong, no reason would make it right.

@ tingting !! x x

dp daughter from previous marriage got hijacked from dp ex by MIL. came back with pierced ears in italy when she was under 1yo.

dp took ella away earlier in year. was under strict instructions to come back with same amount of holes as she left.

threatened him with removing his knob if she came back with pirced ears.

elmo, how DISGUSTING, your DP must have been furious, I know I would have been. Poor little mite.

Wrong wrong wrong

i hate this - i can possibly understand when it is done for cultural reasons but other than that i just think it's wrong.

some of my friends have done it to their dds at a very young age

apart from anything else, i think it looks silly to see a bald baby with pierced ears

Without even stating the obvious ie. that it's just barbaric to do that to a young child unnecessarily (whoops, I did actually just state the obvious, didn't I?), a baby is pretty enough without having to resort to fake "adornments". Jesus, I even hate those chavvy "headband" ribbony things that some mothers insist on putting on their bald baby girls' heads. WHY?! Do their parents think it looks cute when actually it just looks totally stupid? And what is it with those mums who scrape up a few wisps of hair from baby girls heads to tie sticking up right on the top of their heads. Do they really think it looks cute?

And to stir it up even further.......I HATE trainers on teeny babies who can't even sit up yet never mind go for a bloody jog in them. ESPECIALLY designer trainers on babies. Chavtastic.

If you have done all of the above to your baby girl you are officially a chav.

OK, I'm going to start a fight here probably... but I don't get this 'ok if done for cultural reasons' business. It doesn't change the fact that it hurts, a lot and for the poor baby who doesn't know what's coming to be handed over by the people she trusts to look after her and have this pain inflicted, I hate the thought of it. Fine if your culture requires girls to have pierced ears, but do it when they are older and can be warned/consulted beforehand. I don't think culture is a reason to inflict a fair amount of pain on a tiny baby.

it does hurt and it's not nice but why does it bother you so much? they obviously feel it is important either for cultural or personal reasons and the pain will soon go! My mum had all my brothers circumcised at birth which I'm sure hurt alot more and they don't remember it.

I was waiting by a cashpoint and there was a group of 3 youngish girls and one had a baby buggy whilst another was carrying her child. They were talking about piercing the baby's ears and one said she had her child done at 3 MONTHS OLD. I was horrified!

yes, i know a lot of people who go rushing to get them done as soon as they have had their 4 month immunisation

Even if it wasn't completely wrong and cruel to pierce a babies ears, how do you then stop baby pulling earings out and tearing ears or choking on earings? Don't know many babies who aren't fascinated by earings in mums ears!

Er... if something's wrong, it's WRONG. Cultural reasons or not. It's like the idea of cultural diversity versus human rights. If you don't consider something acceptable, it's somewhat racist to say, "ah, but it's OK for people from that culture." And baby ear piercing is VERY VERY VERY WRONG.

Well of course inflicting pain on someone who is defenceless when there is no need is WRONG.

Dur.

theSuburbanDryad

I know loads on people with these tatoos. The words tramp stamp is so firmly fixed in my brain that I'm worried that one day I'll accidently call it that when they are around.

Well my sister had my niece's ears pierced when she was 2 years old or so. This was in the years befor I had ever seen MN and before I had my own ds. I (and my sister) would really have been absolutely surprised and bewildered by the opinions on it here.

It is just something that many Mediterranean countries do. I suppose if you think about it (and I have since) it probably isn't a great idea but I really had no idea it was seen as so awful at the time. Our whole family just said ' oh dn has had her ears done how sweet' and moved on.

It does make me giggle a bit to think that people in the UK seeing dn when she was toddler would have been likely to think she was chavvy etc (hate that word) when my BIL is incredibly middle class and well off in Italy. His family are bankers and quite wealthy, respectable.

Where were they getting the tattoo done?

I am very tattooed (including a tramp stamp ) and have many piercings. I am not "chavtastic" but a well educated middle class 40 year old who just happens to like body art. I had my ears pierced at 9 and my first tattoo at 19.

Personally I don't think any kind of body art should be allowed on those under 18. I would never go to a jeweller's or chemist to get a piercing because I don't believe they are fully sterile, or that adequate training is always provided. Professional piercing studios will not pierce anyone under 18. Enough said.

Well, I'm agog! Agog I say!! Never heard of the term "tramp stamp"!!!

(not that I have aforementioned article but even so....!)