Parents - Really?????

I get bugged all the time by the MIL when am I gonna get Samantha's ears pierced. When she is old enough to understand it might hurt(depends on the person?) and I dont have to keep checking her ears every 2 seconds to make sure the earrings are still there!!

My ears were done as a baby. The last time I wore earrings was my junior prom. I was surprised that I could even still put earrings in considering I hadnt wore any a few years before then.

Im shocked at the thought you would be allowed to pierce a 6 year olds tongue!

 I have my tongue done and it does not hurt as it is done.  They numbed it with a special spray.  I could feel some pressure, that was all.  BUT - it hurt like billy-o afterwards!  And my tongue swelled to the size of a small hippo.  I couldn't eat or speak properly.  Granted, the healing process was quick and pretty simple, but it was still very uncomfortable. Put a child through that??  NO WAY!

Then, as my tongue went back to it's normal size, I needed to downsize my barbell because it was too big and unwieldy, but if I'd had a small one to START with, it would have embedded in my tongue when it swelled.  So that's MY concern.... what is the rate a child's tongue grows?  Leaving a large bar in would make it hard to eat with biting (and CRACKING a tooth - ow!) and would also impede speech.  But leaving a SMALL bar in... what happens if they don't upsize when they should and it embeds in the tongue???  Like when people put a puppy collar on and forget to alter it or change it.... can you imagine THAT on a kids tongue?!!!!

Have to say, I didn't it done for "that" reason.  I just thought it looked good and more subtle than other modifications.  Some people ask me if I got it done for or** s** and I say "No I got it done for 20 quid actually..." 

Piercing a child's tongue sounds barbaric at best to me.   I must be too old to appreciate piercing other body parts besides ears but it's a free country and an adult is free to make that choice.  Children are a different matter, in my opinion.  Some people want desperately to be "in" and their children are treated like accessories to demonstrate how cool the parents think they are.  Sort of like the little dogs the celebs and wannabes carry around like dolls. 

 My mother got my ears pierced when I was just a baby.  It took forever for my hair to grow in and she did it to try and stop the fact so many people would comment one her "cute little boy."  Honestly though if the fact I was wearing little dresses didn't cue them in I doubt the earrings did much.  I can't remember getting them done, and have never had any problems with infections or swallowing them when I was younger.  That being said if left to my own devices it is unlikely I would have had them done since I'm not really into jewelery.

The tongue piercings seem like overkill on a child, though considering what many people do to their little boy's downstairs plumbing, a tongue piercing still seems downright humane in comparison.

 As someone who doesnt see piercings as that big of a deal, I wouldnt let my six year old get her tongue pierced(she has asked)

She does have her ears pierced 3 times each. Her choice and she has paid for it every time with her own money. I did let my 14 year old daughter get her tongue pierced. She got her belly button pierced at 13 but she is responsible. My husband ,myself,my daughter, and both my sis in laws , have pierced tongues .

Cita

I wonder if some of you guys had bad piercing people? 

That's what I was wondering too. I have 3 piercings in each of my ear lobes, 1 in my cartilage, and 1 in my tregas....never had an infection, never had a hole close up. I had my first piercings done in my lobes at 8 years old, my second at 12, my third at 18. My cartilage at 16. My tregas at 23. I had my navel done at 16, never had an issue or infection ever. I still have all of them.

ETA.....I wonder how old the parents are and what they're like. A girl I went to school with had a baby at 15-16 years old. She thought being a "baby mama" was cool. She dressed him like a "little gangster" and basically tried to make him look like an accessory. She even brought him out to a few parties (I wasn't there, hung out w/ a different crowd, but heard it through friends...my school was TINY only 350 kids in the entire high school grade 9-12) only to have him scream his head off or need a diaper change or bottle...just being a normal baby...so she'd call her mom to come get him....and she'd stay and party/drink/smoke.

When DS #1 was in his late teens he got his nose pierced, then decided he needed mom's help to get the back on.  "No! No! Here are your options, kid.  You figure out how to get the back on and off yourself, or you take the dang thing out and let the hole close up."  He chose option #2.

Joyce

rwbeagles

Hearing some interesting feedback from ER/medical people, and dentists on their thoughts on this...LOL. Yeah...I'm sticking with..."no" LOL. BTW...dentists LOVE...tongue piercings LMBO.

Yep, it can absolutely destroy your teeth and the comment about formng speech at that age was another good point. I seriously doubt that any 6 y.o. would really understand the process of getting their tongue pierced and I too have heard that it hurts like crazy to have done. It makes me hurt just to think about it but I cried when I got my ears pierced. My sister did it by using ice to numb them (Owww!!) and then a large sewing needle to poke thru (double Owww!).

I guess my question is WHY?  WHY would you pierce a 6 year olds tongue?   I can understand ears, because people think they look nice but a tongue?  Doesn't make sense to me - even if the kid wanted it, still..  why?  IMHO bad parenting!   Why don't they get their genitals pierced while they're at it and then they can feel like really COOL parents!

yep I talked with a dear friend today who is both, pierced and momma to a teen, and she was horrified. She got a gum infection from hers, had to switch barbels as it unswelled and cracked SEVERAL fillings and got a lip infection as well...AND for her that piercing is ALL about sensuality and sex...all NOTHING she would inflict on her own child at age six. If she, one of the more progressive with it parents I know was horrified then I am thinkin my first gut reaction was right on LOL.

Myra

.  I know this will make some defensive, but IMHO having any kind of piercing done on a very young child is approaching the arena of child abuse. 

Really, so you would classify me with those that beat and molest their children because I pierced Riley's ears by the time she was one?

I am not being defensive since I KNOW I am not in that category; however, I do get pretty sick of people throwing the phrase Child Abuse around.  Sorry touchy subject with me and not something to just throw around when you don't agree with a parent's decision.

mrstjohnson

Myra

.  I know this will make some defensive, but IMHO having any kind of piercing done on a very young child is approaching the arena of child abuse. 

Really, so you would classify me with those that beat and molest their children because I pierced Riley's ears by the time she was one?

I am not being defensive since I KNOW I am not in that category; however, I do get pretty sick of people throwing the phrase Child Abuse around.  Sorry touchy subject with me and not something to just throw around when you don't agree with a parent's decision.

I started not to post because I knew it would undoubtedly offend someone, but I can't help the way I feel.  I have very strong feelings about inflicting any pain at all on a baby unless it's medically necessary.  Feelings that I'm entitled to just as you're entitled to yours.  I certainly respect everyone's right to have differing opinions.

Heck, I shudder every time I see a little baby girl with one of those stretchy headband thingies on, or a dress with lace around the wrists or neck, because I know they can't be comfortable.

It's rather nice to see that I'm not the only old fart.  Yet, I didn't fuss at all when my sons wanted their ears pieced so maybe I can still be redeemed!

I don't have a problem with piercings.  I honestly don't get it when folks choose to mutilate themselves, but it's THEIR body to do with as they will.  I don't understand the multiple facial piercings, I REALLY don't get the young guys I've seen who pierce their ears and stretch the hole out big enough to slide a quarter in.  I don't get it.  I see really attractive people, male and female, load themselves up with so much metal on their face they must have a sore neck by the end of the day....I DON'T GET IT.  But, I don't HAVE to get it.

But, as I said before, the difference in my mind is that these people made their own considered choice.  Infants have NO choice, and young children don't have the mental capacity to make the choice.

Myra

Really, so you would classify me with those that beat and molest their children because I pierced Riley's ears by the time she was one?

But you didn't answer the question - would you classify people that peirce their children's ears along with child molesters and those that beat their kids? 

mrstjohnson

But you didn't answer the question - would you classify people that peirce their children's ears along with child molesters and those that beat their kids? 

Please go back and re-read my post.  I never said it was child abuse. The words I used were "approaching the arena of child abuse".  And I emphasized by using "IMHO" that it was strictly my opinion.  I don't know how to answer any more fully or clearly than that.