Health & Safety Gone Mad - Ear-rings related

[michglas]

DD2 (10.5) has been deciding for the past few months whether she wants her ears pierced and we told her to have a good long think about it. We didn't think there was any pressure to get it done over the summer holidays as in previous years girls have covered their ears in plasters for PE.

Gone back to school 2 weeks ago and girls with newly pierced ears are being told to remove them for PE in line with Council policy. I rang the school today and they confirmed and said there would be a letter going out about this later this week, asking parents to refrain until summer holidays. They said if i chose to remove her from PE, there was nothing they could do about it but they wouldn't be happy. I rang the Council today to confirm and they said it has been policy for 10 years and obviously the school haven't been conforming. They also said that they had emailed the schools before the end of summer term asking them to let parents know that any ear piercings should be done in the summer holidays.

Given that i made DD2 have a good long think about it, I am not about to tell her that she has to wait another year. If the school had put the newsletter out like they were supposed to then we would have got them done in the summer. So I damn well letting her get them done this weekend and i will remove her from PE in the interim - getting them done with needle opposed to gun, so they should heal quicker.

Am I unreasonable?

I have seen worse on a toddler which is very sad

Rules change, promises can't always be kept and sometimes you have to wait a bit longer for simething you really want. All important lessons to learn which will be more helpful in the future than pretty ears.

I don't think the school is being at all unreasonable. Yes, they may have had the directive before the holidays, but I'm guessing they were busy getting reports out on time, sorting out stock, admissions and all the other things which should obviously have been done after the policy on earrings was sorted.

I'm sorry for your DD's disappointment, but I'd wait.

and to answer a posters earlier question, i am teaching her not to be a robot by questioning when somebody else has stuffed up.

Excellent! Let's all adopt this approach and teach our kids the same, then if michglas or her daughter ever fuck something up and expect to be cut some slack we can all harrumph, cross our arms and declare it's their tough shit...and that will be perfectly acceptable.

Hopefully you or your daughter won't need the school to be understanding at any point in the coming year when she comes with the wrong kit, forgets her homework, misses the payment for a trip or something... I suspect you'll get paid back very much in kind 'well Ms Michglas, we did say... therefore I'm afraid it's tough luck on Michglass Jr'...

perhaps the post should begin
'i am unable to comprehend basic common sense with regards to CHILDREN wearing ear rings whilst taking part in physical activity - who can I blame ?'

I was in an important meeting with my boss once. Was making a very important point when I got my (very dangly) earring caught in my woolly cardie shoulder. Needed help to de-tangle. Completely blew my gravity and professional front. Wish I'd removed my earrings before that!

On more serious note spoken as a once piecings addict (21 at highest count I think) holes in ears can wait until secondary school.

Just tell your daughter the school's new rules and that she will have to wait until the holidays. Tell her you appreciate she gave it some thought but you have to stick to the school rules, and to compensate you'll get her a nice pair of ear-rings when she eventually gets it done.

I have told my daughters they have to wait until they are 13. I had to, and I'm glad my parents made me wait actually.

Have to say I agree mrz....they are nothing but a nuisance in school,especially when the fall out and get lost..and turn out to be really expensive gold ones!

Also, I have pierced ears. I had to wait till I was 13 to get them done. My daughter has pierced ears. I made her wait till she was 13, also. I can't bear to see pierced ears on younger children, especially toddlers. And my even bigger hate is tattoos. Why anyone would want to brand themselves with something that will look ridiculous when they are a pensioner,I will never know.

Teaching your daughter that it's okay to just pick and choose which school rules to follow is setting her up for a lifetime of bad attitude, sorry.

If she goes on to do it in her future workplaces her career will suffer. If she does it with the law she might end up in jail. (She probably won't be allowed earrings in there either.)

Call me judgey, but if my DD told me about a girl in her class not doing PE for several weeks because she'd had her ears newly pierced when her mum knew about the new rules - I would definitely think less of that mum.

YABU to start a thread like this without realising what a pointless barney & enthusiastic exchange of personal insults it would turn into. (sigh)
Unless OP started the thread knowing that's how it would turn out, which is even worse :(.

Surely this is a wind-up? The introduction of the tattoo parlour mid-way through the thread confirms it!

This is too funny. No one is this stupid, surely?

And far better a little robot than a spoilt brat who stamps her feet and mummy gives her everything she wants because she's too scared to say no to her. Great parenting there OP. Carry on!

Talk to a doctor or two about the damage a ripped out earing causes. especially in the young.

Perhaps OP will be going into school to sit with her DD while she is missing PE/games? I'm sure if the school stipulated this rule, the OP would be less keen to stand her ground!

I wonder if any of this was real what op did in the end?

It all seems a mountain out of a molehill. 6 weeks of PE is more important than pierced ears. Just wait until next summer.

Good point ImNotaCelberty!

In a similar way, as ds' school, anyone who wanted to withdraw their kids from the SHRE classes (Sexual Health and Relationships Education) had to come in and take their kids out of the school for the hour and return them afterwards, as there is literally no room in the school for kids to sit unsupervised. (The parents also had to go and see the head teacher and/or put in writing to tell her exactly which bit of the programme they were unhappy with - having been given access to all the teaching materials - as there was a lot of scaremongering going on about what was going to be covered)

Legally, I'm not sure a parent can withdraw their child from PE. They can for RE or SHRE, but not any other subject, AFAIK.

You're right Feenie

Oh and for your info, i am not stupid or irresponsible. I rang and spoke to the piercist and then to the head, who has agreed that DD2 can miss PE for 2 weeks and then we are going to get her ear-rings changed over for plastic retainers. The head said that she was pleased DD2 had taken the time to make the decision responsibly, and not rush into it.

I send my children to school to learn - I don't want their learning time being used up by teachers having to deal with - removing earrings, dealing with 'wacky' hairstyles or non-regulation uniform.

BTW no robots here - they are happy to keep their own style etc for hols/weekends and are mature enough to understand this.

Sounds to me as if the Head would rather not rock the boat with you atm - I wonder why?

Uh-huh.