Ear piercing and child abuse...they really can go hand in hand

Megan is definitely a "girly-girl" in every way possible. Although I had wanted to get her ears pierced when she was younger, Bill was against the idea. Ultimately, I really didn't care one or another and so we mutually agreed that we would wait until she wanted to get them done.

As she has gotten older, she has continued to show an interest in all things girly and of course, earrings were a part of that. For more than a year now, we have asked her if she wanted to get her ears pierced and she has always been adamant that she didn't want to. She would explain to us that it was because it would hurt, although we were never quite sure where or how she figured that one out as we refused to scare her with any "stories" of ear piercing.

The way the story would usually unfold is that we would make our regular trips to the mall, Megan would inevitably check out the earrings in the piercing pagoda's and other boutiques, but would ultimately end up deciding against going through with the piercing...until this past week. Something changed, and I have no idea what it was, but she suddenly decided that she might actually go through with this.

We were already planning a trip to the mall to purchase some birthday gifts, so I told her we could buy the gifts and get her ears pierced while there too. I tucked her into bed Friday night with her stating, "Mommy, I'll probably get my ears pierced tomorrow...or I probably won't."

I thought for sure that she would continue on this rollercoaster, but the morning rolled around and the first thing she said when she crawled into bed next to me was that she was getting her ears pierced that day. Not wanting to scare her or make her feel pressured in any way, we simply let that particular topic roll in any direction she chose to take it, thinking that she would flip flop back and forth in her decision and would again end up not going through with it. Boy were we wrong.

As soon as I gave her the indication that we were heading in the direction of the "earring store", she marched right in, picked out her earrings in 10 seconds flat, hopped into the chair and was ready to roll without a moments hesitation. We had asked the store clerk upon arrival if it was possible to do both ears at once but unfortunately in order to do so we would have had to wait until 1:30pm...it was 10am...we were not waiting. So on we marched...

The clerk was fantastic, talking to Megan the entire time, telling her what she was doing with the antiseptic, the purple pen to mark the spots and letting her look in the mirror when that was complete. Out came the "gun"...and Megan never flinched...until "SNAP". The first ear was done, the crying began................................................and didn't stop for at least 30 minutes.

We tried reasoning with her, bribing her, sweet talking her...you name it and it was tried. She kept telling us that her ear was hurting. And even though we knew she was laying the drama on us thick, we felt bad and tried being patient with the hopes that she would eventually get past this.

Bill grew so frustrated that he was getting pretty snarky with me and finally had to walk out of the store with Matt just to get away from her. The clerk took some time to take care of some other customers and that's when I threw in a last ditch attempt. The "mean Mommy voice". The "I've had enough - this is ridiculous - stop telling me it hurts because I know it's not true any longer" voice. And throughout it all, she continued to chant the same response, "I just need another minute". Or a variation of it such as, "...sob, sob....in another minute...sob".

Finally, with the store clerk probably thinking we were the absolute worst parents ever - and to be honest, I pretty much agreed with her at this point, we convinced her to go through with the remaining ear. And by convinced, I mean - Bill held her legs and torso, while I held her upper arms and put her in a head lock so that the clerk could zap in that final earring.

Less than two minutes later, she hands me the little cotton ball with antiseptic that she had been gingerly applying to her ear and says, "it doesn't hurt anymore Mommy. Can I call Aunt Alicia and Grandma to tell them?"

OH THE DRAMA OF IT ALL!!!