child cruelty

[gilly88]

I was appalled this morning to pass a popular young girls accessory shop (claires?), and see a young mother holding her baby whilst the assistant prepared to pierce her little ears, the baby was certainly no more than six months old. is this not child cruelty? if not it certainly should be in my opinion the poor thing screamed the shopping centre down.

[GillD46]

I know others may not agree, but personally, I hate to see children with pierced ears, much less babies. My niece had her son's ears pierced when he was tiny - I was horrified.

[gilly88]

hi gill
it was also the fact that the baby was so beautiful and innocently smiling away, only to be assaulted two seconds later, it made me cringe to see it.

[Jacknian]

I think it's disgusting to mutilate a poor baby's ears when they are too small to make their own decisions. Even worse than that I saw a baby on YouTube having a tattoo! This was in Slovakia and of course would be illegal in this country. I think it should be illegal for a child to have their ears pierced until they're at least 16. I think it looks really 'chavvy' anyway for a baby to have earrings ( controversial ? )

[Dancing Queen]

I wonder if there is an age limit and if it is even legal or is it just a case if the parent is there it is ok.

Personally I think there should be some sort of age limit maybe 16.

[gilly88]

apparently there is no age limit

[GillD46]

I wonder if there is an age limit and if it is even legal or is it just a case if the parent is there it is ok.

Personally I think there should be some sort of age limit maybe 16.

I agree, 16 seems about right.

[Boris+]

Exactly - 16 years seems about right. There's nothing wrong with a nice bracelet or a locket or necklace, I think that any piercing should (like tattoos) have an age limit.

Poor little dab!

Em

[GillD46]

Necklaces of any description are not a good idea for young children as they can easily get caught and strangle them.

[Meg 50]

my 2 nagged and nagged for their ears to be pierced - I said 13....
in the event all 3 of us were done on the same day - one 13, one 11 and one 40.

It was useful having set an age cos their cousin was nagging too and sil could tell her she had to wait until she was as old as mine!

[Kendhni]

The mother should be done for child abuse

[Jean W]

I agree that that there should be an age limit - 16 sounds about right. At that age, they are making their own decisions.

[jay-ell71]

No younger than 16. Babies with pierced ears look quite bizarre in my opinion, same as little girls wearing shoes with (high) heels.

[Manoverboard]

It is certainly not something that we would have agreed to at such an early age but I would wish to point out that many different civilised peoples from all around the World have very different ideas, customs and values to those that are being expressed so strongly here.

For example our Daughter in Law lives in the UK but is Galician, Spanish, and our Grand-Daughter was 8 when her ear was pierced but never in a month of Sundays would anybody convince me or any of our family that they were engaging in child abuse ... .

The parents should decide, however I do agree that there should be a minimum age of some sort albeit not 16.

[Boris+]

Oh Gill,

I hadn't thought of danger with necklaces - well done you!

Em

[Meg 50]

The parents should decide, however I do agree that there should be a minimum age of some sort albeit not 16.

My younger daughter was about to go to Secondary school - so we got it sorted before the problems that come with not being allowed jewellry in PE at High school and not being able to remove the earrings for 6 weeks ( ish).

[Meg 50]

The things that worry me about tiny children having their ears pierced are:
1)keeping them clean
2) the children aren't big enough to deal with them alone. School and preschools aren't allowed to deal with studs that fall out during the day (and even if they were, have better things to do with the time)

[GillD46]

Oh Gill,

I hadn't thought of danger with necklaces - well done you!

Em

Many years ago, I nursed a young child brought in unconscious from strangling herself on a necklace - she ended up severely brain damaged.

[The Monocled Mutineer]

Gilly88,

It is truly appalling.

But then one can expect little else given some of the specimens of parenthood I see hanging around town centres with their disfigured offspring with their fags going, littering and f--k--g as every fifth word.

Derek Kane

[oldbluefox]

Gilly88,
........ their disfigured offspring with their fags going, littering and f--k--g as every fifth word.

Derek Kane

I must admit I have never seen them smoking.