I've Pissed Off My Family (Among Others...)

[FreeThinker]

Am I an asshole? Well, don't answer that. But...

Both my niece and my nephew have become parents to two beautiful, precious little baby girls over the last half year and I couldn't be happier (well, I could be if they were boys, but I accept what fate puts before me). However...

At a family gathering last week, little Aubrey and Tinley had bizarre black ribbons around their heads, both had gaudy fingernail polish, and both had pierced ears. I thought it was... unseemly, a little extreme, somewhat tasteless... All right, I thought they were being prepared for a life as pole dancers and that I should stick a dollar in their ribbons.

Apparently I pissed some people off when I remarked, "Well, I hope you'll wait until they're at least out of Kindergarten before you tattoo them."

All right, my smart mouth could have been engaged AFTER I thought this through rather than before, but am I being unreasonable? Isn't six months just a little young for piercings and nail polish? With all the prostitots on Disney getting into trouble before they get their drivers licenses, shouldn't we let kids have some time to be kids before we start encouraging them to emulate Gaga? How about a few years of innocence?

Perhaps, it's a little ironic coming from one who writes stories about panting and grunting twelve year-old boys, but...

Thoughts?

[Cole Parker]

I dislike parents using their progeny to fullfil their own dreams. How many mothers who rue the fact that they weren't popular in high school push their little girls to do things they couldn't do? A lot. I see it all the time. They impose their will on the girl so she can experience what they couldn't, and often the girl doesn't want to do those things at all.

Little girls can be cute as a button the way nature made them. Dressing them up in today's modern fashions for teens and young adults, fashions that promote their sexuality, is simply wrong. But again, the parents are seeing the world through their own eyes.

It could have been worse, Chris. You acutally could have stuffed a few dollar bills in the appropriate places. And then run like hell.

C

[DesDownunder]

I'm afraid I would have made no friends had I been there.

I would have taken the babes outside under the clear night sky and holding them naked before the star-lit heavens I would have said in my deepest voice, "Behold, the only thing greater than yourself."

[Mountain Dude]

Am I an asshole? Well, don't answer that. But...

Both my niece and my nephew have become parents to two beautiful, precious little baby girls over the last half year and I couldn't be happier (well, I could be if they were boys, but I accept what fate puts before me). However...

At a family gathering last week, little Aubrey and Tinley had bizarre black ribbons around their heads, both had gaudy fingernail polish, and both had pierced ears. I thought it was... unseemly, a little extreme, somewhat tasteless... All right, I thought they were being prepared for a life as pole dancers and that I should stick a dollar in their ribbons.

Apparently I pissed some people off when I remarked, "Well, I hope you'll wait until they're at least out of Kindergarten before you tattoo them."

All right, my smart mouth could have been engaged AFTER I thought this through rather than before, but am I being unreasonable? Isn't six months just a little young for piercings and nail polish? With all the prostitots on Disney getting into trouble before they get their drivers licenses, shouldn't we let kids have some time to be kids before we start encouraging them to emulate Gaga? How about a few years of innocence?

Perhaps, it's a little ironic coming from one who writes stories about panting and grunting twelve year-old boys, but...

Thoughts?

Good Lord!! I truly chocked on my Merlot!

You did good in your response Free Thinker. I myself have been thinking much the same with my nephews young girls. They're going to be going through puburity before they're in third grade. My mother must be going bonkers in her casket.

I don't have a clue what the answer might be~~~~

[colinian]

My parents told my sisters that they could wear lipstick and nail polish and have their ears pierced when they started high school. Liz is 18 and a senior in high school, Annie is 15 and a freshman in high school. Neither has pierced ears (at least as of the last time I saw them about a week and a half ago). Both said that for a school dance they wear lipstick and Liz might use fingernail polish; Annie never uses fingernail polish (she told me it's stupid). On casual dates they don't use either. Neigher has a steady boyfriend.

Colin

[Cole Parker]

My parents told my sisters that they could wear lipstick and nail polish and have their ears pierced when they started high school. Liz is 18 and a senior in high school, Annie is 15 and a freshman in high school. Neither has pierced ears (at least as of the last time I saw them about a week and a half ago). Both said that for a school dance they wear lipstick and Liz might use fingernail polish; Annie never uses fingernail polish (she told me it's stupid). On casual dates they don't use either. Neigher has a steady boyfriend.

Colin

That last sentence has me confused. Do they not have steady boyfriends because of their lack of pretension? Is it a good thing they don't have them, and you're saying it's all due to their not supporting the body decoration businesses? Or are you bemoaning their lack of au courant fashion awareness and so the boyfirends they could be pleasantly dallying with because of this.

Or was this last just a sentence of fact and you weren't sure where to put it in the paragraph and by the end had run out of room anywhere else?

C

[colinian]

Cole,

Things may be different for girls who have steady boyfriends. Liz says about a third of the kids at school are in a steady girlfriend/boyfriend relationship.

Neither of them wants a steady boyfriend. Steady = exclusive. They have lots of friends and go out on group dates: a bunch of guys and a bunch of girls get together and do something like go to a movie, cruise Main Street or the mall, paintball wars, amusement parks, the water park (when it's hot like the rest of this week), swimming at a friend's house (when it's hot like the rest of this week), play tennis, go hiking, go skiing, etc. etc. Liz said that they go on one-on-one dates with guys, usually guys from their social group. School dances are one example.

Colin

[Cole Parker]

It does sound like a whole lot more fun not to have a steady.

I think my mother always told me that. The parents always knew best, didn't they, and we never believed them. What could they possibly know that we didn't?

C

[Camy]

At a family gathering last week, little Aubrey and Tinley had bizarre black ribbons around their heads, both had gaudy fingernail polish, and both had pierced ears. I thought it was... unseemly, a little extreme, somewhat tasteless... All right, I thought they were being prepared for a life as pole dancers and that I should stick a dollar in their ribbons.

Apparently I pissed some people off when I remarked, "Well, I hope you'll wait until they're at least out of Kindergarten before you tattoo them."

I reasd this earlier and was going to say that I despise parents who re-live their dreams vicariously through their children. And I do. I laugh like a drain at some of the documentaries of 'theatrical mums' pushing their little children into being mini-adults.

But then I remembered I follow F1 (the pinnacle of motor racing - coming to Austin, Texas soon :) ), where the only chance a boy has is if his parents enable him from an early age. And spend all their time and money pursuing his dream too.

I guess the difference is the age the bug bites, and who is the instigator. If it was illegal we'd probably not have to suffer or love Justin Bieber. Certainly in your grand-nieces case their parents should be spanked and then certified - and as for the person that actually agreed to pierce their ears....

[The Pecman]

Apparently I pissed some people off when I remarked, "Well, I hope you'll wait until they're at least out of Kindergarten before you tattoo them."

That's the funniest damned thing I read all day.

I think the punchline would have had more kick to it if you had said, "I hope you'll at least let them get out of Kindergarten before you let them have tramp stamps." That has more snap to it.

[Lugnutz]

I think the punchline would have had more kick to it if you had said, "I hope you'll at least let them get out of Kindergarten before you let them have tramp stamps." That has more snap to it.

[ChrisR]

Neigher has a steady boyfriend.

Colin

Tsk tsk, Colin. Talking about the horse-faced girl next door like that!

[Cole Parker]

Neigh, he didn't mean it that way.

c