Piercing Girls' Ears and Other Female Rites of Passage

So, my younger daughter is now ten years old and finally has
asked that she be allowed to get her ears pierced. Actually, she's been asking for the last
two years but for whatever reason or other, we've just neglected doing it. Yesterday, I
went to WallyWorld to buy shoes for my middle son. While we were there, we saw an
employee piercing a little girl's ears. So I asked a few questions and when I got home, I
presented the idea to my husband that we have Samiya's ears pierced there. He was a
little leery so I looked up "ear piercing" in the phone book and the only thing that I could
find were various "body piercing art" and tattoo parlors. And when I told him, "Hey, we
could take her to 'Pauly's House of Paint and Pierce' downtown. It says here on their ad
in the yellow pages that we should look in Low-Rider magazine for their 'Free Ass-Tatt
with Purchase of Ear Piercing Kit' coupon. What do you think, Honey?" he was more
than agreeable to getting it done at our local discount savings department store.

I took Samiya in and helped her choose the 3mm 14kt gold studs. And then we got the
attention of the woman who worked at the jewelry counter. Samiya looked so young
sitting there on the chair with her fingernails in her mouth and her eyes open wide like a
deer caught in headlights. The lady cleaned her earlobes with an alcohol swab and then
marked her ears with a purple pen. "Okay, young lady," she said, "are you ready?"

"I think I've changed my mind," said Samiya.

"Too late," I said, "I've already paid for it. Man up."

The employee kind of gave me a nervous glance and said, "Uhm, we can always refun...."

"Yes, ma'am," said Samiya, much to my relief. I figured if we did the refund thing by the
time we got out to the parking lot, she'd have changed her mind again and who knows
how long we'd be in and out of Wally-World until I finally held her down in the parking
lot and pierced her ears myself with a paper clip and the spongy end of her brother's
new sneakers. (I jest. I KNOW a parking lot is a public place.) So, the employee
lined up her little gun thing-a-majig and "tak tak" she was done. Poor thing. She looked
a little stunned and her eyes watered up a little before she said, "That hurt a little. I think
my ears are on fire."

"You can cry if you want to," I told her.

"Nah," she replied, "I think I'll wait till I'm in the car so I don't make a scene. But can
you get some tylenol just in case it hurts more later?" So I did. And after a quick trip
to the fast food place on our way out, she forgot all about the earrings. "Mommy," she
told me on the way home, "I'm NEVER gonna do this to my girls when I have kids. It
hurts and it's scary."

"Yeah, well," I remarked, "YOU were the one begging for pierced ears for the last two
years,  not me. Remember that, too, when you're a mommy. Now we're in the same
club though, right?"

"Yeah, I like that at least we both match now." And my baby is one step closer to being a
grown up.