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I can't bear it when people get their baby girl's ears pierced

M

Misty Avich

I prefer to be referred to as ADHD
V.I.P Member
I'm sorry but I am against this. It's like "oh my baby is a girl, she must look beautiful", but isn't she beautiful already, without earrings?

It's hard enough for parents to watch their baby getting vaccinated, but at least vaccinations are essential and are life-saving. Ear piercing is not essential and is not life-saving, and it's something that does not need to be done, it just causes the poor baby more pain.

I think piercing your child's ears under a certain age should be illegal, and should only be allowed when the child is old enough to consent to it and understand what ear piercing is and that it might hurt. It is not fair to do it to babies.

Sorry if I have offended anyone who got their baby's ears pierced before, but I just feel strongly about this.

Thoughts?
 
Misty Avich said:
I'm sorry but I am against this. It's like "oh my baby is a girl, she must look beautiful", but isn't she beautiful already, without earrings?

It's hard enough for parents to watch their baby getting vaccinated, but at least vaccinations are essential and are life-saving. Ear piercing is not essential and is not life-saving, and it's something that does not need to be done, it just causes the poor baby more pain.

I think piercing your child's ears under a certain age should be illegal, and should only be allowed when the child is old enough to consent to it and understand what ear piercing is and that it might hurt. It is not fair to do it to babies.

Sorry if I have offended anyone who got their baby's ears pierced before, but I just feel strongly about this.

Thoughts?
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I'm inclined to agree! You should never make any permanent changes to anyone's body until they are old enough to have informed consent. Even ear piercing. Unless a procedure is medically necessary, it shouldn't be done until the person can understand what is going on and agree to It.
 
Wait, people give ear piercings to babies? What?

I aint no doctor but that just SOUNDS somehow dangerous. Gotta be super careful with babies.
 
I believe that's a popular thing in certain cultures and has been for a very long time.
 
It's popular here in the UK. Some women desperately want a baby girl rather than a baby boy, just so they can do all these little beauty things for them. While I'm all for gender differences, I do not agree with this.
 
Nope I think it is wrong to poke holes in a baby's ears to make them look cute, or whatever the reason is - That being said, I don't know at what age someone can really give their consent, what about nose piercings? - should that be a different age?
 
From the converse side....Many pierce their babies ears for cultural reasons and is a cultural norm for cultures worldwide. Mine were done as a baby, as were my mom's, and previous generations before her because it was a cultural practice. Personally I'm glad my mom did them for me as a baby as I have no memory of the pain. And considering that babies don't have the pain memory at that age, it might be one of the reasons why it's done so early. And for the most part, it's not permanent. If you don't wear anything the holes can close back up on their own.

Personally I never understood the outrage caused by this. If it's not in your culture, you don't have to do it. There are entire subcontinents who have done this for generations and I've never seen any generational trauma outcomes from it.
 
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Considering that people actually circumcise babies :fearscream:, a pierced ear doesn't sound so bad. But I would vote no on it. Why poke holes in babies, seems unnecessary.
 
LadyS said:
From the converse side....Many pierce their babies ears for cultural reasons and is a cultural norm for cultures worldwide. Mine were done as a baby, as were my mom's, and previous generations before her because it was a cultural practice. Personally I'm glad my mom did them for me as a baby as I have no memory of the pain. And considering that babies don't have the pain memory at that age, it might be one of the reasons why it's done so early. And for the most part, it's not permanent. If you don't wear anything the holes can close back up on their own.

Personally I never understood the outrage caused by this. If it's not in your culture, you don't have to do it. There are entire subcontinents who have done this and I've never seen any generational trauma outcomes from it.
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Thank you for giving another view on this - sorry, there are many things I don't know, but what do you mean by babies not having "pain memory" ?
 
kriss72 said:
Thank you for giving another view on this - sorry, there are many things I don't know, but what do you mean by babies not having "pain memory" ?
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To put in crude terms, I think it's believed that newborn babies don't remember short-term localized pain or if you think about it, anything for that matter. I don't know about anyone else, but my first memory was far later .. maybe around 2. And it's believed they only remember pain associated with repeated trauma, not something that lasts a minute or two.

Not sure if this is the best example, but my oldest son had to have surgery when he was a baby and I was very worried about how he was deal with the pain from the surgical area afterwards.. but he went back to being his normal self as soon as day 1 post surgery. Of course if we had waited to do it until now, he would have felt the pain more intensely and carried the memory with it. I believe that's also why many doctors suggest doing certain surgical procedures as young as possible, but someone can correct me of I'm wrong about that.
 
I look at it like this; if I have a baby and it's healthy, then I'm happy with that. I'm not cutting anything off or making holes in it.
 
My daughter was a tween, and l asked her if she wanted pierced ears, and she thought it was fun. But l didn't feel a need to do this when she was a baby.
 
I think it's easy to poke holes (pardon the pun) in cultural practices that are very different than your own. I personally don't agree with many of the western cultural practices either, but as I've learned from even my own culture, it's to each their own. I mind my own and don't try to meddle in what others feel what's best for them and theirs.
 
LadyS said:
To put in crude terms, I think it's believed that newborn babies don't remember short-term localized pain or if you think about it, anything for that matter. I don't know about anyone else, but my first memory was far later .. maybe around 2. And it's believed they only remember pain associated with repeated trauma, not something that lasts a minute or two.
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I agree that what a baby experience isn't usually something they can remember when they are older - I don't remember being a baby my self, but I do remember my own child being born, she was born prematurely, so couldn't eat on her own, she was fed with a tube trough her nose, actually I don't remember how she was fed in the beginning i remember she was in a "heating box" with many wires attached - but when she left the box I sat with her when they inserted the tube through her nose to feed her milk, first time she didn't resist, the second time she was kind of resisting and the third time, it was clear she didn't want it, I remember the nurse telling me it was a normal reaction - but that might go under the "repeated trauma" thingy you mention, anyway I think it is clear she registered the discomfort and hence would probably register and remember pain as well - at least short term.
 
kriss72 said:
Nope I think it is wrong to poke holes in a baby's ears to make them look cute, or whatever the reason is - That being said, I don't know at what age someone can really give their consent, what about nose piercings? - should that be a different age?
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Here in the UK, you have to be over 18 to get a tattoo or a piercing anywhere other than the ears as far as I know. You can get tattoos when you are younger (I think over 16) with parental consent or a body piercing (unless the law changed in the last 25 years). Ear piercing can be carried out at places like Claire's Accessories but only if a parent is there or the recipient is over 16 I believe.
 
LadyS said:
I think it's easy to poke holes (pardon the pun) in cultural practices that are very different than your own. I personally don't agree with many of the western cultural practices either, but as I've learned from even my own culture, it's to each their own. I mind my own and don't try to meddle in what others feel what's best for them and theirs.
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I tend to agree with you - we should respect other cultures, but there must be some boarder somewhere that shouldn't be crossed when it comes to what you can do - piercing their ears, is probably not on the wrong side of that boarder, even I wouldn't do it to my own child.
 
Forest Cat said:
I think what makes it a little strange is that it's babies. If someone wants to cut pieces off adults and make holes in adults, no problem. It seems like a strange thing to do but they are adults. Babies, that's different. They can't agree or disagree to anything. Completely helpless.

Cultural practices, human beings do many, many strange things all over the world and call it cultural practices. That label, "cultural practices", doesn't necessarily mean that what they are doing is smart or makes any sense.
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If you truly think about it, everyone has cultural practices (no quotes) that make no sense in the grand scheme of things. We all do, no exceptions. Some have long term repercussions that are far more psychologically significant and scarring that you might not see for generations. No one's culture is perfect and many ancient cultures and the significance of their practices have been wiped out by those who thought theirs was superior. Many only now being "rediscovered" in their significance. Anyway, I still believe I do what's best for mine and let others do for theirs.

For the record, I wouldn't have done it if I had daughters but I have hundreds in my community who have done it, no judgement.
 
Piercing baby's ears is part of my own culture but I still disagree with it and wouldn't do it if I had a daughter.
 
I have very little objection to disrespecting the disreputable aspects of "culture," mine or anyone else's. If it hurts other people then it doesn't get the protection of etiquette. The baby ear thing is something that has never made sense to me.

Girl friend and all time top contender for title of Mrs. has never gotten her ears pierced. It's rare enough for people not to do that, that I think it is neat. Seems more normal even though it's less common.
 
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