All about EARS

Here is a classic example of being caught between 2 cultural norms. I didn't get my ears pierced until I was... 9, maybe 10 years old. In my family, to have pierced ears is a very grown up thing. In lots of other cultures, African, Indian, Middle-Eastern (and I would guess Romanian, lol) getting your daughter's ears pierced when she is a baby is the accepted thing to do.

When Maymuna was a baby I was asked a lot if I was going to pierce her ears. It was an ongoing debate for me - to which social practice would I adhere? I feel it's my duty as Maymuna's mother to make certain decisions about her body for medical reasons, but I just don't feel it's right for me to make a permanent change in her physique based on what I believe is pretty or attractive. I really don't feel that it's my right - it's her body. That's not to say that I believe it's wrong, perse. But I am not comfortable with it.

That said, I have always upheld that when she wanted to get it done, and was old enough to understand the consequences (pain!) and that it was permanent, she could get it done and I would take her. There was no cut-off age for me as long as she understood. Well. You can see where this is going.

Maymuna and I have been discussing ear piercing for the last few weeks, it comes up occasionally and I've explained it and asked her to think about it some more. This past weekend she decided that she definitely wanted to get it done: TODAY. We looked at pictures of another girl getting it done (crying and all) and she still wanted to do it. She asked Ozayr if we could drop him off at work so we could have the car to go and do it. So off we went this morning... here are the pictures to show our adventure!

This is Maymuna picking out her earrings. She chose a sparkly, pink flower. (she is almost 4 afterall, in my mind there was no other choice than the sparkly, pink flower)


Here we are waiting , hugging the Claire Bear for comfort...


Drawing our dots...


And here is the AFTER shot:


Yes, she shed a few tears. Luckily I had brought an allergen-free lollipop along and she perked up pretty fast.

The earring itself is made up of 5 little pink stones and one white one in the center. It's hard to get a good picture because the light reflects off them so brightly. Here's the best I've come up with:


This is happy little Maymuna checking herself out in the store window next door...

What a big girl... I am already wishing I'd kissed those earlobes a few more (hundred) times before it was too late!