A Modern Day Rite of Passage

Today, Kera & I ended up having a small mother-daughter date. It started off with me fulfilling my promise to take her to the mall to get some new tights. But then it took forever to get out of the house this morning--the floor needed mopping, the laundry started, I desperately needed to work out and just when I was ready to jump in the shower Erik called to come unlock his van as he'd locked his keys in there at an onsite job. So across town I drove in my stinky, sweaty workout wear and unwashed hair to rescue him. Go, Kendra Go!

By the time we got home again and I finally showered it was almost one, so our tight errand turned into lunch. Then somewhere between working out this morning and getting to the mall, Kera had asked for earrings. Now, this wasn't the first time and the last time she asked I told her about how you had to get your ears pierced first, but today she just kept asking. So, we got to the mall, had a balanced lunch of a pretzel with cheese and a bag of Doritos for Kera and a turkey sub for me. After that we checked in to see what time to return to Claire's, picked up the promised tights and even had time to swing by VS's for me to check out a couple of bras. Then we headed back over to Claires. Kera was great getting her ears wiped and then marked, and she was even great while we waited for both gals to be free enough to to the piercing. And when they put those little guns up to her ears, she was still great. I would say that "great" turned to very angry at the same moment those guns were done piercing. Then the tears came and the crying reached screaming pitches. I was afraid for a moment that she'd crack the glass, her cry was soo high pitched. She stopped crying after a moment or two, but she wouldn't cave to promises of ice cream or any amount of praise about bravery, she insisted on being mad at me and anyone else that tried to talk to her.

I did buy her these in an attempt to make her happy. It kind of worked. In the car on the way home she said she didn't want earrings and that she was going to take them out. Then at home when I was taking her picture, she told me that she didn't want to get her ears pierced ever again. I told her she wouldn't have to! :-)

While we were waiting for her to get them pierced, I had a chat with a friend on the phone and she'd mentioned that she'd seen an article on being prepared for getting your daughter's ears pierced. She offered to read it, but I figured we were ready. I mean, as long as they have two people to do both ears at once, what more can you really do? Is there anything you can say to prepare your kid for the pain without talking them out of it? I thought I'd mentioned to Kera that it would hurt a little, but I certainly didn't go into detail about how they force the earring post through your ear at a high speed to break through the skin without numbing your poor earlobe. No, I did not explain that to Kera and I didn't explain it to Lindsay back in May when she had hers done. I figure, what they don't know can't hurt them....for too long, anyway.

A blurry close up of Kera's brand new earrings:

All in all, it was a good mother-daughter date. The only tough part was when we got home and Lindsay could see all of Kera's "spoils". Then she got upset that I didn't have any gifts or things for her. The sense of fairness at her age sometimes drives me crazy....so I gave her what was left of the Doritos and explained all the fun things she got when she got her ears pierced and I think she determined it was fair. :-)