Pierced Ears

After talking to a lot of moms I realize everyone has a different age they allow their girls ears to be pierced. Some of my friends pierce their girls ears when they are tiny and some have their girls wait until they're 12 years old. When I had my girls I wasn't quite sure when I wanted them to get their ears pierced. (I say "I" because Nate didn't seem to have an opinion on the matter.) My mom had us wait until we were 8 years old, the age of accountability. (In our church we don't get baptized as babies, we wait until we are eight years old, until we are old enough to make the decision for ourselves to be baptized in the church. We are also old enough to really understand right from wrong and are now held accountable for the choice we make in life.) My mom's reason to have us wait made complete sense to me. Heavenly Father blessed each of us with these wonderful bodies and even though ALMOST every girl wants her ears pierced, I want my girls to decide for themselves if they want to have a permanent hole in their ears. I decided to wait. Although, I have been slightly tempted when I see some of my friends adorable little babies with darling little studs in their ears.

When Aubrey was 2 she started asking about getting her ears pierced. I would talk to her about it and told her if she wanted to, she could get them pierced when she was older. This answer worked until about a year ago when she became more curious and persistent. She always wanted me to hook my earrings to the top of her ear at church and she would hold really still so they wouldn't fall off. After a while I began to realize that her desire to have her ears pierced wouldn't change. Aubrey IS our little princess and loves everything girly! So we told her she could have her ears pierced, but told her EVERYTHING about getting them pierced including the fact that it was a hole in her ear and it would hurt. Yes, I admit I was trying to scare her a little bit. I wanted to be sure she REALLY wanted them. We love Aubrey to the moon and back but she is a bit of a chicken, I mean a bit cautious. On her fourth birthday she freaked out on one of the "rides" at Chuck E. Cheese. So it's safe to say that this "scary" talked worked. Every time we passed a store in the mall that had ear piercing we would ask her if she wanted to get her ears pierced. Nate and I would smile at each other because we alway knew the answer would be "No" followed by a pouty look.

Let's skip ahead to a month ago when Aubrey told me again that she wanted to get her ears pierced. I said okay and then she throw a surprise at me by saying "K, lets go to the mall!". This was a Tuesday and I told her she had to wait until Friday so Dad could go with us and help with Carlee. I still had no confidence that she was going to go through with this. She proceeded to tell everyone the next couple days that she was going to get her ears pierced. One of her preschool teachers on that Thursday told her how scary it was for her to get them pierced AND that they use these piercing GUNS! I was thrilled because again I wanted her to REALLY want them. (Thanks Jana!) I was taken back when Aubrey was still telling people that she was going to get her ears pierced! What? What happen to my cautious Aubrey? Well she appeared again that Friday morning when the first thing she told us after she woke up was that she changed her mind. I have to admit I was a little relieve because even though she was ready, was I? A few hours later we left for the mall anyway. I had planned on getting a couple Christmas gift while we were there and I still wanted to get that done. Of course we passed Claire's and, just teasing her, said "That's were they pierce ears, do you want to get them pierced?" Her responds, "I want to see". So we took her into Claire's to show her the little piercing area and something pretty and sparkling caught Aubrey's eye... earrings, flower ones! She decided she wanted her ears pierced and took a seat up on the stole...

It's been three weeks and Nate and I are still in shock about how brave our little Aubrey was! She sat there calmly, with a little fearful look on her face when they were getting everything ready, but not a single tear. She has been SO good at reminding us to clean and twist her earrings! She keeps talking about how brave she was and now she has suddenly become fearless. She brought me a spider in her bare hands yesterday and said, "Look, I'm not even scared!" I wish I could have said the same, I freaked out to see that spider crawling all over her hands!

So Aubrey got her ears pierced at 4 1/2... not 8. But Aubrey, when it comes to wearing make up and shaving your legs, you'll have to wait until MOM is ready. And that won't be for a LONG time : )