by Sara McGinnis posted in Parenting

I thought that because I can remember what it felt like to get my ears pierced as a tween, it probably wasn't that bad of a thing to have done to a baby.
I thought that because it's cultural tradition to pierce a baby's ears in some parts of the world it wasn't my place to say if it's right or wrong.
I thought that I probably wouldn't choose to have it done if I had a daughter, but since I only have sons it wasn't up to me to speak about it one way or another. I opted out of having to form an opinion.
But just recently, for the very first time, I saw a video of it being done. I watched as this smiley baby girl put all of her trust in her parent, then found herself screaming in pain. Her face.
It seems crazy to think I've been a parent for a dozen years now and have never before seen a video of a baby getting her ears pierced, but here we are. Through one 2-minute clip I've gone from deliberately neutral on the topic to feeling awful about it.
I wondered if it could be just that one clip that was so bad, so I clicked on another.
A voice off camera reacts to the baby's cries by insisting, "But you look so pretty," as though to say, 'Never mind the pain, little girl, your appearance is more important!'
Faced for the first time with the reality of what baby ear piercing looks like, I find my tune changing. It's not the same as when I elected to have it done as a tween and I signed up for the pain. It's not the same as getting ...