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'm intrigued about your infection comments Buttery... I take my earrings out every night I have never got an infection as a result of this?!

YABU imo.

School rules say no earrings for PE. That's the rules and has been for many schools for many years. Every school i know has the same policy.

Even when I was little if you wanted your ears pierced you had them done right at the vey start of the summer holidays to give you the six weeks for them to heal and then be able to remove them for school.

At DD's school earring sare banned full stop, so I definitely don't see having to remove them for PE as an issue.

Nothing ridiculous with the rule either. Friend of my little sister got her stud caught in a pe lesson and it tore out. It ripped the lobe, caused a lot of pain and left a huge scar in her ear afterwards and made having pierced ears int he future very difficult.

AbigailS - they are just little pieces of plastic in the shape of an ear ring bar, hard to catch, hard to see. I used to have glow in the dark ones as a teenager!

thanks

Wjilst we are on the subject I'd like some advice for dd.

She had her ears pierced 6 weeks ago all fine and dandy. School started last week, no earrings allowed she took them out in the morning and put them back in at night.

On Friday she was stayed over at her grandparents and forgot to take her earrings with her. Wh I picked her up Satuay night we couldn't get thm back in. we got one in but the other ear seemed to have healed over at the back. We used the sharp point of he earring (The ones she was pierced with) at the back of her ear, it bled little but we got them back in

I've told her to bathe them every day but am concerned that it is an open wound again and she has to take them out every night. Do peoplethink this is OK or shoudl I make her take thenm out compltely and wait until next year (she will be devastated she has waitined 2 years to get them done.

@CaptainMartinCrieff, I doubt whether you are 5 years old and had your ears pierced 7 weeks ago. Don't be daft, of course you can take them out at night if you've had them pierced years ago

@mrz, i am a doctor. Tampering with newly pierced ears is asking for trouble...it takes months for ear piercings to fully heal. Sterilizing earrings and cleaning the ear are fine but taking them out for a couple of hours to do PE and then shoving them back into a partially healed hole is not!!! The people on this site are either really daft or too set in their ways to listen to reason.

Career reveal by stealth, now!

Doctor, my foot.

I think you'll find that the majority of people of this thread have said that the OP should not let her dd get them done in the first place, given that, at that point, her child hadn't yet had them done.

They haven't advocated repeated taking out and putting back in.

Yes it seems obvious to me that the sensible thing is to tell the DD that she has to wait until next year, thereby avoiding the whole problem.

If she'd already had them done, not realising that it would be a problem, then there's a valid argument that it might be better for her to sit out of PE rather than have to take them out and put them back in repeatedly. But as they haven't been done yet, we're not in that situation.

Perhaps you should have made it clear in your post that you were talking about newly pierced ears Dr Butterymoon. The obvious solution is don't get your child's ears pierced until the end of the school year allowing six weeks for the piercing to heal. Although your suggestion of a total ban is far more sensible.