Nips and tucks

As a continuance from the post yesterday featured on The Blog up North, http://bit.ly/eMkSAd I am interested to discuss the decision of nips and tucks.

I was informed at a recent playgroup, that perhaps I should pierce Bub’s ears as people keep thinking she’s a Boy. (She’s an 8 month Girl by the way). Apparently this would rectify the situation! Said issue, was a contributing factor in their decision to pierce their own babies ears. Firstly let me say that I’m a big believer in choice, no judgment here. However, for me personally, I’m not about to have a hole placed in my Daughter’s anatomy for purely aesthetic purposes. When and if she chooses to do that later I will certainly support her. (and yes, I do have my own pierced). I think it should be her choice and not mine. Am I crazy?

That got me thinking.. when I was pregnant, prior to learning the gender of the Baby. Hubby and I discussed everything from breastfeeding, to discipline. One controversial subject that came up was circumcision.. Yes I said it! While I appreciate this is my first real blog, I figured go big or go home..

In North America it appears to be common practice to lop off a part of baby boy’s anatomy. As a trained Nurse, I’ve certainly seen my share of circumcisions and for medical reasons I fully support it. But I cannot endorse decisions, based on ‘so he doesn’t look different from Daddy’ or so it’s easier to clean” (yep I know). As this was a big discussion for us I did research it thoroughly, perhaps my views were antiquated or passé?

While studying this, I found a lot of information. Did you know that it is probably the oldest medical procedure still performed? That the most widely known historical record of the practice is in the old testament? Anyway the bottom line is that, circumcision DOES reduce the risk of infection, but so does CAREFUL CLEANING. In the end it was not a decision I had to make as we had 2 girls. What’s your views on that?

In general we are faced with daily decisions for our children based on looks. Does how we choose to dress them in the Morning have a real bearing on who they will be later in life? What happens if they don’t have the right trainers, have freckles, wear glasses? At what age do you let your child start wearing makeup? When would you let your child colour their hair? Why is image so important? We seem to be barraged from every angle on how the perfect person, irrelevant of age should look. In North America there are signs and ad’s everywhere for everything from Acne treatments, Rhinoplasty and Liposuction. When are we going to teach self confidence and the fact that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes? One of my girls has a birth mark on her eye lid, the other has a second toe that is slightly longer than the average. I for one am delighted that they don’t fit into a stereotypical little box of beauty and truly believe that what  makes us different does indeed make us interesting. I don’t need to do any nips or tucks or to pierce my Daughter’s ears to believe that she looks like the beautful girl that she is. Your thoughts?