Allison is a wimp. I can say that – ok, maybe I can’t – she’s actually very brave, just super SUPER cautious. She analyzes situations completely before she acts. Sometimes she has amazed me with her bravery though, in pushing through obvious fear to achieve a certain goal. However, now that she is a bit older, she sees the benefit to having younger sisters when it comes to analyzing potential situations. The guinea pig benefit that is.
Meredith has recently decided to get her ears pierced. Meredith has very little fear. Well Allison has been afraid of getting her ears pierced for years now, and she’s so excited that Meredith is going to go ahead and do it so she can see what its really all about. Meredith and I are going to have a mom/daughter day and do this soon, and Allison is upset that she can’t be there to watch the ear piercing first hand. I told her she would have to deal with hearing about it afterwards. I am afraid that if Allison comes with us, Meredith’s ear piercing will be more about Allison than Meredith, and I am also concerned that if Meredith changes her mind, Allison will work extra hard to see to it that she doesn’t. I’m also concerned that Allison will only notice the one second of pain and not notice anything else..which will confirm her own fear of ear piercing, plus probably make that one second much worse for Meredith. Plus Meredith and I really need a day – it will be fun…I’ve been meaning to do more one on one days with the kids. Allison and I did one in the fall when we were shopping for Meredith’s birthday. It was fun. Now its Meredith’s turn.
Ok, back to the guinea pig thing. Today I woke up to Meredith saying in that tattling tone of voice she often has, “Mmmmooooommm, Allison is trying to get me to pierce my nose and my belly button too!!”
Oh my goodness! At least they aren’t asking for tattoos.
When we talked about piercing ears with my very cautious daughter, I was just honest with her. Yes it hurts, but only for a second, after that, it doesn’t hurt at all. I compared it to a strong static electricity zap. “Ow!” then it’s over. However, after the first ear was done, she insisted she didn’t want to do the other one, and we had to really talk her into it. If you’re going somewhere to get it done, check ahead of time to make sure they have more than one person on staff, and are willing to do both at the same time.
I’ve been honest with the girls too, how it hurts, but just for a second and then its all over. You’re right though, I’ll have to make sure they can do both ears at the same time…I’m also going to do the ear piercing early on in our mother/daughter day, so the rest of the day will be filled with the other fun stuff. That way, when she recounts the experience to her sisters, she really will remember it as a pinch and then it was over and we had a great day together…rather than at the end of the day, when we’re tired and she remembers it as “it hurt! and I cried all the way home!”
lol – funny.
Sounds like my cautious daughter who reeeeallly wants to pierce her ears but can’t not bring herself to do it. Once we got as far as her sitting in the chair and the person was getting all the stuff ready. As soon as she saw the piercing gun, she was off like a flash. I had to fish out from under a table.