Ear piercing of babies, what do you think?

[mamadadawahwah]

Sometimes i think i live in a romany gypsy camp the number of babies i see with pierced ears and jewellery dangling from their little wrists. Having never adopted the courage to get my own ears pierced, i cant imagine piercing a little baby's ears. Its brutal and so common! What gives with this practice? In my opinion, its mutilation. The dangling bracelets are a health hazard to little ones, and i fear they could break their arms if they got them tangled in their sweaters.

What gives with this?

Ear piercing on babies and small children is disgusting and IMO it DOES indicate bad parenting. What parent in their right mind would deliberately cause their child pain - and sticking a bloody great needle through a bodypart DOES cause pain.
There, I've said it, ear-piercers are little better than child abusers!

I had mine done as a baby. I have very loving parents and nothing I read on MN will make me think different about them.

BadHair - have a nice day.

No.

BadHair, it is a cultural thing, though. Lots of European babies have their ears pierced - don't know how I escaped it till I was 6. I know what you're saying, ..... but it's not necessarily always true.

nowadays, everyone who hears of foot binding in china, thinks about how dreadful it was.
but the reality was, that it was caring loving parents who did this to their daughters. it ensured them a life. those who did not have their feet bound, had no prospects of marriage, children, only servitutde and abuse from those who fed them.
whilst no where near as extreme, earpiercing is reminiscent of that.. a parent who allows their little girl to have pierced ears is far and away likely to be a loving, careing parent.
having said all these positive things about ear piercings, i will not be getting my babies ears pierced. once she is old enough to make the decision herself, then she can.

I'm only 26% chav. However I dropped my parents at the airport this morning for a long haul flight. My mother was wearing a designer tracksuit, glistening white Reeboks, a far amount of gold jewelry and carrying a Burberry handbag....

But I didn't get my ears pierced until the age of 10 and she hasn't tried to kit me out in Burberry recently!

i had a year 11 girl who was pregnant. had her baby during gcses. six months later. she had a tongue piercing, and her baby boy had an earing in one ear.
thought that very very sad.

Sorry stitch, still no comparison. Foot binding has to be done as the feet grew. With ear piercing you can wait until they are older.

Unless we're looking at cultures where baby girls with unpierced ears had no marriage options left at the age of 2. That will be another discussion entirely I suspect!

mothers who pierce a baby's ears are bad mothers.

im not saying it is the same. foot binding is sso much more extreme.
im jsut trying to say that the people who pierce their daughters ears are not necessariyly bad parents. they just have different ideas about what is best for their child

If there was any merit whatsoever in ear piercing for babies then I would give them the benefit of the doubt, but there isn't, so they are bad mothers. Babies are not fashion accessories. What next, baby tattoos?

the parents who do it, think they are doing there baby a favour by having it done when it is less painful.
bad parents, imo are the ones who get genital piercings for their kids. or neglect them in other ways.

I must admit I think it's an absolutely absurd habit and I wouldn't do it myself, but I do hope people who are saying that mothers who do it are bad mothers, are joking. Having pierced ears does not have a long term negative effect on a child, it just announces that they're either a member of an ethnic group which does it for cultural reasons, or that they're from a household which marketing people would classify as C2DE. I don't really see how that is seriously damaging to a child - there are a lot worse things that people do to kids, like feeding them things like turkey twizzlers and chips every day. That does far more long term damage.

babies are not fashion accessories, i agree,
BUT, why doe we all want specific pushchairs, and matching nappy bags. and pretty receiving blankets, and gorgeous little outfits for our babies? a baby would be just as happy in an old comfy material used to wrap them. bits of cloth to soak up any wee. a drawer to sleep in. etc etc.
its a bit naive to assume that we dont want our babies to look the best. and parents who pierce their babies ears believe that is what they are doing.

dd had hers done at 5 months go on lynch me

genital piercings for kids!? are you serious?

Surely that wouldn't happen? Now that would be abuse!

Hopefully about as serious as I was earlier on about having one-year-old-tomorrow DS's neck tattooed with f*ck u

My sd's BM, wouldn't let her have her ears pierced until she was 14 as she said the piercing would go through an acupuncture meridian.

That's what she said....

i read an article somewhere saying that genital piering for toddlers was not a good idea. i remember being shocked, first that anyone would do such a thing, and secondly that the person who wrote the articel was notbeing particularly damning.
sorry can t remember where i read it, but somewhere on the net.

I was referring more to parents who pierce for cosmetic rather than cultural reasons, like debs26's friend. Many of these are turkey twizzler parents too.
I wasn't joking either - causing unnecessary pain is a form of child abuse. Most people would find the idea of smacking a baby horrendous, so surely sticking needles in them is worse.

Message withdrawn

A cruel practice carried out in the main by common and poorly educated parents.