A couple of months ago, I took my daughter, Molly (7), to get her ears pierced. It was her idea and she was ready, so we went to Claire’s.
I was six when my mom took me to Claire’s to get mine done. Some things never change. A little purple dot of marker on your ear, mom approving the placement, and then…go time!
Following Directions
She twisted her earrings and cleaned them as directed. They looked great. No problems. We did everything right.
Until.
Until we reached the required wait time and decided to change her earrings. I took her back to Claire’s to pick out some new earrings.
We decided on some little M earrings. We went home and I struggled to take out one of the original earrings, but got it. It wasn’t because of her ear, but because of the safety feature on the earring – the earring back sits in a little groove on the post of the earring.
Anyway, she freaked out after that and decided not to change the other earring. She was pretty dramatic about it. “Okay, fine, wear two different earrings,” I said.
A week later, she changed that one M earring for a flower earring she got me for Mother’s day (that I had never worn). I lobbied to go back to the original, so they would match, but she wasn’t having any of that. She wore the little flower earring in that one ear until today, when she took it off and it was super super SUPER gross and infected.
Lesson #1
Only wear good earrings. Go for gold, People! Don’t assume once you make it to the required # of weeks and everything is great that you can let your kiddo wear any kind of earrings. It might look like a simple flower earring, but take the back off and examine it. I wish I had!
This earring looks alright from the front. I mean, it’s not a dangly feather or a hoop. Looks harmless, right?
Here’s the back…
Look at that raised area at the base of the post. That, plus wearing these inexpensively-made earrings too tight was problematic. OUCH! Sorry, Molly!
And (shame on me) for not FORCING her to take it out sooner, which brings me to:
Lesson #2
Overrule your kid. I know, I know, I am the one in charge here, but I thought this was one of those simple, pick-your-battle kind of a things. Um, no. I wish I had just sat on her and taken the earring out and put the original one back in, which brings me to:
Lesson #3
Don’t be in a hurry to change out the original earrings. Whatever time frame they give you – double or triple it, just to be safe. You’ve paid good money for those gold earrings, get as much use out of them as possible.
Lesson #4
Price shop. It’s about $60 bucks (Yikes!) to have it done at Claire’s, which was shocking to me. The day after she got them pierced another mom told me it’s about 1/2 the price at Merle Norman. So, you do have other options. Although, Claire’s is kind of a tradition for us, and I know they know what they are doing there. We are the ones who screwed it up afterwards.
Lessons learned.
Hope this is helpful. Have any of you had misadventures in ear piercing?
We went to a tattoo place. LOVED the cleanliness/professionalism. Used surgical steel hoops. Elley never once had a problem! Would TOTALLY reccommend this method!
Fascinating tip! Who knew?!?!
And I would love to have been on the street watching people watch you take your baby into a tattoo parlor! She’s so stink’n cute, Stephanie. Hope you guys are doing great.
Hedda
How is her ear now? I wish I would have known about the other options before I paid $60!! I think that is ridiculous!
I know, I found out like the next day about the lower cost option. But, you know, you get what you pay for and I know Claire’s has it down to a science. As for the infection from the cheap earring, it healed in about three days with Neosporin and we were able to put an earring (a gold one) back into it and now all is well. If they ask for little cupcake earrings or whatever from Claire’s, don’t do it!