I was eating lunch at a fast feeder minding my own business at a table for two while looking out a window when a group of two adult women and two young boys sat down at the table to my immediate left, no more than four inches from my table.
I could not help but notice the glint of the boy’s earring right away. He was a talker with a somewhat high-pitched voice, but he also had a buzz haircut, was dressed like a boy and his mother(?) kept calling him “Devin.” I could not decide whether his parent(s) cruelly dressed “her” like a boy and gave “her” a boy’s name or this was truly a little boy with an earring.
As I left and noticed no earring in the child’s right ear, the child greeted me and we bantered a bit.
Do you think this child’s parents have done him a (great/small) disservice or is this nothing more than much ado about nothing?
My guess is if that boy is still wearing his earring in kindergarten, unless he’s quite a fighter he’s going to get his butt kicked and/or ridiculed more than a few times. 'Course this may all be hypothetical: the school may very well not allow him to wear an earring to school.
Earrings in males are very commonplace these days. I used to have one that I got one week after graduating my Catholic high school (it was my solitary act of rebellion). I got rid of it toward the end of college because I felt it just wasn’t “me” anymore.
It is possible, of course, that young Devin asked for the earring. Children become fashion-conscious at a very early age now. Also, considering that some parents get their daughter’s ears pierced before they can even walk, I don’t see much objection to doing the same for a boy.
When I was in Kindergarten, fifteen years ago, it was definately hip to have an earring if you were a boy.
As a four year old little girl I knew what I wanted well enough to ask my mom to pierce my ears. If this boy asked, what’s the harm? It’s not like getting a tatoo or something.
One of my co-workers has a daughter, less than a year old, who has pierced ears. My first reaction upon seeing such a thing was that it amounted to child abuse. Sure, it’s not the same as beating one’s child, but piercings on a baby?
In fact, I meant to post it on this board, but then I found a good show on TV and my attention was drawn away from the boards.
If this is a hijack, just ignore. If you think that this is related to the OP, then feel free to comment.
In my first wife’s culture the baby girls got their ears pierced before they left the hospital the first time. 2-3 days after birth for my daughter. You go tell them it was child abuse. Put me on your life insurance first, Okay?
Devin might have been wearing one of those ‘stick-on’ earrings.
Have seen a lot of preschoolers wearing those; you really can’t tell that they aren’t real unless you peel them off yourself.
That said, I have seen many little girls, and one or two boys wearing the actual stud earring(s). Not my parental style, but I can think of far worse ways to indulge your kid.
Hey, if they wanna rip their ear lobes open when they get it caught climbing up a tree or something, please go ahead.
Torn ears give your kid that oh so desirable “Mangy Tom-Cat” look.
I’ve seen a fair number of very young children (mostly girls) with pierced ears around here. If I had kids, I wouldn’t do that to them when they’re young. I wouldn’t want to be nervous about my kids getting infected there or ripping the piercing. Also, I’m not a big fan of bodily adornment (tattooing, piercing, etc.) on my own body. I don’t mind it on other people, but I’d want the kid to at least be old enough to realize that this might well be permanent.
[semi-hijack]
I got my ears pierced (once in each lobe) late in high school and eventually stopped wearing earrings. I haven’t worn them for 5 years, and my earlobes still bear visible piercing marks, plus a couple times a year they’ll build up some fluid in the spot where they were pierced. (I scar easily too, so perhaps that’s part of it.)
[/semi-hijack]
The reason babies get their ears pierced is becasue the parents want it, obviously.
Why? i can’t imagine.
Theres a boy in my son’s grade (4th) with pierced ears.
Heck, I didn’t get mine pierced til I was 20.
Fortunately, my son thinks its stupid and doesn’t want it.
I told him it hurts.
[complete and total hijack] Devin is not nessecarily a boys name. In fact I have known more girls named Devin, or Devon, then boys. I think it is Gaelic.[/complete and total highjack]
Happened to me. I’m a girl, by the way - my ears were first pierced when I was two. Thirteen years and three holes (per ear) later, I think it was a good idea to start small and work up.
I’ve seen some recent threads on whether it was appropriate for parents to pierce their infant or young daughter’s ears which generated some quite varied replies of varying intensity which indicated to me that this practice is at least somewhat controversial. My hypothesis, then, was that if it is controversial to pierce a young girl’s ears, much moreso to pierce a young boy’s ear, but that idea is not supported here. Bummer.
It is true that Devin is also a girl’s name, but then I must ask: which is more controversial–piercing only the left ear of a four year old boy (not a stick on) or piercing one ear of a girl, giving her a buzzcut haircut and dressing her like a boy. Or maybe I’m just an old fuddy duddy.
I was maybe five or six when my younger-by-one-year neighbor boy, Daniel, got his left ear pierced. I had begged and pleaded with my mom and she had allowed me to have my ears pierced when I was four, so I felt terribly superior to my friend as the two of us and his mom walked to the ear piercing place in the neighborhood.
Daniel’s mom was a lesbian, and one time I heard Daniel bragging to his younger brother that he was gay and his brother was NOT. See, if you have your left ear pierced, that means you’re gay. And the younger brother didn’t, so he wasn’t! Ha ha ha! The younger brother furiously insisted that he was gay TOO, so NAH!
My girlfriend, I’m told, little older than a toddler when her ears were pierced. It wasn’t done because her parents wanted it, either; in fact they were rather against it. But it seems that she followed her mother around, all day, holding up earrings and tugging violently on her ears until she got her wish. She cried when it happened, of course, from the pain, but after that she was happy as a bug in a rug with her earrings.
I’ve got one hole in my left ear, but I got it when I was 16 or so, so I don’t know if I count.
My first earrings were put in when I was about two. I asked for them for my birthday. I’m quite glad that I had it done so early-by the time school came around, they were well-healed and didn’t hurt when tugged on in rough play. I only wore posts until well into middle school. I remember a little burn, and I jumped - mostly from the sound of the gun that they used - and I remember that I did snuffle a bit, but I was so happy afterward that it was well worth it. I imagine my mom thought so, too, since I stopped bugging her to get it done…until I started bugging her to buy me jewelry, of course.