There was a time that I was much more conservative as a parent. When Ava, my oldest, asked to get her ears pierced I made her wait until she was "old enough". When she asked to get second piercing the answer was, "absolutely NOT." The same went for hair dye, bikinis and makeup.
But truthfully, it didn't last long because Ava is, unfortunately or fortunately, an unrelenting child (the CIA could use her interrogation purposes, she's be better than water boarding.) She wore me down year after year, and I consider myself to be fairly tough.
Fast forward to today. My second daughter, Lucia, now 15, asked me to give her a second piercing. Well, not exactly. She actually GAVE herself a second piercing on one ear, but then came upstairs to ask me to do the second one because it was harder to do the "other ear." That's right, she pierced the first ear herself, with a long needle, some alcohol and an apple--I didn't even realize she was doing it. Girl has nerves of steel. When I asked her why she didn't wait and have it done at one of those mall kiosks she said, "you need a parent's permission to do it and it costs like $50." So apparently she didn't consider asking for my permission, but kudos to her for saving $50.
So when she came up and asked me to the second ear, I felt obligated to help. She was one ear in, and clearly not feeling confident about the second hole (and it's tricky to get them even.). She's been a handful lately, so stabbing her thru the ear with a sharp object didn't seem entirely ridiculous.
So I did it. It was awful--it goes against your instinct as a parent to actually stab something into your child that isn't for life saving purposes. It did however bring back a very old memory of a high school party, my best friend, and a similar ear piercing situation (I honestly can't remember if she pierced mine or I did hers--she couldn't' remember either.) I can recall the orange we used to hold behind the ear, and the wine coolers we were drinking for courage (remember those awful things?), which are probably responsible for our poor memory of the whole thing.
So that's it, I've come full circle from piercing ears in high school, to piercing my own daughters ears. I'll add that to the list of things I never I thought I would do.
Yoga today was good, but the best part really was at the very end when we were just about to say namaste and get out of that hot sweaty room and she said "I see you." For some reason that phrase really hit me, and stuck with me. It's what everyone wants, it's universal. To be seen. It's funny though, rarely does someone say it out loud like that. It was lovely I will say.
We had more sun today. It's official, Spring is almost here! I finished my closet today, and have my piles of stuff to get rid of. There were winter pieces that won't make the cut and it's nice because now when I go to put my winter clothes away for good (which will be very soon), I will only be putting away stuff that I know I want for next year. I'm also methodically going thru and washing my cashmere, de-pilling it and then when I pack it away I'm going to use some of the Meyer's dryer sheets in the plastic bins so that they come out smelling wonderful next winter. The only thing better than cashmere, is good smelling cashmere.
Signed, ME {lv}
