Thursday, January 28, 2010

Skeletons in the Closet

I've been debating on writing about this - because I'm utterly mortified about it - but with the urging of Jenn (she makes a great therapist!  I need to pay her more.  Uh - I mean I need to pay her!) - I'm going to share with you the most recent drama at our house. 

So if you've been around long enough - you might remember our little "bad hair contest" (I'm linking you to March of last year and you'll have to scroll through if you want to see them all) that we held last Spring.  You know the one -- where countless of you sent pictures of your children, or self, or someone you knew that had been on the receiving end of a not so gracious person yielding scissors??!  Well, I'm embarrassed to say, that that happened at our house this last week.  But I decided I shouldn't keep this a secret, despite my embarrassment, because you need to know we're human at our house too!!

I don't know if I've ever mentioned, but I am a piano teacher.  Well, Bug had one of her friends over - who happens to have longer and much thicker hair than she does.  They'd been playing for hours, and were actually rather rambunctious the entire time.  I'd been hoping they'd settle down once my piano lessons started coming.  They did a bit - or at least they stayed up in Bug's room where the noise wasn't as distracting.  Anyway, when Bug's friend's mom came to pick her up and take her home, I was in the middle of a lesson.  As I'm sitting with my student I hear, "Did you cut your hair?"  I thought, "No - she couldn't have just said that."  So I excused myself from my student to go investigate what was going on.  As I came up my stairs to see where her friend Miss K. was sitting - it was very evident there was a bit of her hair that had been cut off on the one side of her face.  Miss K. was wearing her hair down on this particular day, and it looked like someone had bluntly cut a piece about as wide as my pinky finger off on one side.  Upon questioning, turns out it was Bug's idea to cut it.  If looks could have killed on this particular day ....  I was in the middle of my piano lesson and couldn't totally deal with it at the moment.  So I told Bug to go find the hair she'd cut off (I knew it had to be a rather long piece, because Miss K has long hair.)  But with tears and more tears, she claimed she couldn't find it.

I apologized profusely to Miss K's mom and told Bug I'd deal with her after my piano lesson was over.  Long story short - we never found the hair, and luckily it was just a little section and not a major chop chop all over her friends hair.  The frustrating thing is -- Bug TOTALLY knows better.  She's 5 1/2 -- why in the world would she think it was ok to cut her friends hair?  I've always been very uptight with letting the girls have scissors - for the fear they'd cut their own hair - but it never entered my mind that they'd cut someone else's!   Anyway, Bug helped choose her punishment - to ensure it doesn't happen again.  So she's grounded from friends for 2 weeks, and because she thought Miss K might need a trim to help blend things in (which I don't know if that will happen, since it really wasn't too bad) she gave Miss K all her $ from her piggy bank to put towards a hair cut (which amounted to a couple dollars I think.)  Now she has to clean up to earn money since the $ she had in her piggy bank wasn't enough for a hair cut, should her mom choose to go that route.  Yes, I'm a mean mom - but tough love has got to happen some times at our house.  I took Bug over to her friends house later that night for her to apologize to both the Mom and her friend.  She wrote her  friend an apology note and gave her all her money.  The note was sort of cute/sad.  It said hopefully she'd still be her friend, and she was 'giving her all her money so she would be happy.'  It was a good learning experience for her!

Anyway, I'd like to publicly apologize as well, to Miss K's mom - as public as this gets I guess.  I'm so sorry that Bug cut Miss K's hair.  All scissors are out of her reach now, so hopefully they can play again once she's ungrounded. (fingers crossed!)

If you've ever been in my shoes, I'd be curious to know what - if anything - happened to your child after they'd played barber to someone else!??

Of course, I don't have a picture of any of this - just the whole thing frozen in my mind -- that yes, MY child - did it to someone else.  I feel so bad!  Luckily, Miss K's mom was nice about it -- and hopefully doesn't hate our guts now! :)  I think, however, Bug has learned her lesson and hopefully nothing like this will ever happen again.

Ahhhh - I feel much better now - that I let you in on our little secret!  And hey, while I'm in the sharing mood - I'll let you in on another secret!

I don't comb my kids hair every day.  Really.  Ok, well - for school - yes, and church yes.  But most Saturday's, and on day's we don't have school -- the girls hair usually doesn't get done.  Nope.  And *GASP*  - my husband even takes them to the store (and every blue moon I do) without their hair combed.  *GASP!*  I have so many people thinking that we look like we're heading to a prom or a wedding every single day.  AB.SO.LUTELY. NOT!  We really aren't super human hair doers over here!  Honest.   In fact - Bug, especially, loves to not have her hair done.  She likes to get dirty in the garage with her Dad.  This last weekend, she put on her grubbies (aka jeans with holes, an old t-shirt and uncombed hair), and headed out to help rotate the tires, and change the oil on the Sequoia with him.  She must have gotten cold, cuz she found The Dad's "neat" orange beanie and was sporting that with her grubby purple coat!
So - see?  We're just normal people - with silly, crazy kids that don't always do what you want them to!  Anyway, hope you don't mind me sharing this with you.  I just know there is a false impression that might come about by me having this blog that's all about hair.  And in reality - we are only human! :)

Oh, and please, don't forget to comment on Coins for Comments.  There are only a few days left, and with as many people looking at my blog each day -- there is only a SMALL fraction of you taking the time to comment.  So come out - come out - wherever you are and share the comment love so I can keep donating $$ to help Lori & Brent.  So please go HERE now & comment & continue to do so daily through 2/2/10.  Thanks so much!!
Pin It
Share |
Posted by The Mom @ Babes in Hairland at 12:16 PM
Labels:

15 Hair Lovin' People Said:

  1. Wow, what a story! When my girls were 2 and 3, the younger cut the other girl's hair to her scalp in many places (this after the older had cut her own hair twice before and it had finally started to get longer again). So any pictures before the age of 3 with my oldest are all with super short hair, like pixie-cut short hair! Because my youngest was only 2 and really didn't know what she was doing, I put her in a good time out and tried to explain things to her. That was about all i could do She not only had cut her sister's hair, but chopped a lot of her own hair too, but not to the scalp. I gave her a cute shoulder length cut and the older another pixie cut. The only way the older ever looked like a girl was if I put in flowers, headbands or bows! Now she's almost 6 and her hair is finally to the middle of her back with big natural curls! I know your frustration! I've been there!
    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha ha ha--- its still funny. I love that girl. And truth be told she wants to be like you and was styling her friends hair. LOL--- Its all good. I'm glad you shared the truth about you.... Now everyone can know what I already knew. hahaha.
    ReplyDelete
  3. I used to hide the scissors because I had the same fear of hair cutting. My girls haven't cut their hair or anyone else's but the day after I had a talk with them about not letting anyone cut their hair, an otherwise perfectly sweet and darling little girl at school waved the scissors at my Little B and threatened to cut her hair. It's such a five year old thing.
    ReplyDelete
  4. My four year old found some scissors and gave herself a mullet! When I told her she looked like a sixteen year old boy from 1982 she lost it and cried for half an hour! She felt that her mother calling her a boy was the worst thing ever! I decided that was punishment enough.
    ReplyDelete
  5. one day my dd went to school and the boy who sat behind her cut her ponnie tail. MY DD WAS MORTIFIED!
    She has thin hair and takes forever to grow so every little bit counts. my dd came out of the class all red eyes and ratted the boy out.
    ReplyDelete
  6. You know, I think I was the same age when I did that to my friend. We were playing barbershop. I can't remember whose idea it was but I cut her hair then she cut mine. My hair was already short so not really a big deal but my friends hair was seriously to her butt! She left that day with a nice bob!

    The good news is that hair grows back! (I still won't even let my baby see her brothers get their hair cut for the same fear.)
    ReplyDelete
  7. Ha ha! I feel your pain! Several years ago now I had my 2 boys (aged 5 and 9 then) watch their 2yr. old sister in the house while their Dad and I finished splitting wood in the yard (in the rain) so we could get the log splitter we'd rented returned on time. It was only maybe 20min. When I came in I found my little girl in a little pool of golden curls... I went outside and yelled in the downstairs window to the boys asking if they were watching their sister, "Yeeeeesss" was the reply. I could hear them run up the stairs so I waited a minute before going back in. The looks on their faces was priceless! Sheer terror as their minds worked overtime to figure a way to hide the damage! So funny! I must admit I played it out for a little bit, helped ease the trauma of seeing all those beautiful curls on the floor but thank goodness hair grows!
    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh that would be awful. It sounds like you handled really well.
    ReplyDelete
  9. well atleast she is 5 and not an adult making that mistake. My husband decided he would go ahead and "trim" my daughters bangs and they were SO short and crooked and horrid. He called my (I was shopping) and he said ummm you are going to be really mad. I asked why and he kept saying "oh you are going to be really really really mad and guess what I was! I have pics if you wanna see lol!
    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh dear! one day you will be able to laugh about it :0) As the parent of the child that did the act though, I understand how guilty you feel. At my daughters nursery the other day, my little one accidently knocked into a little boy who was hanging his coat up and he banged his head against the coat pegs, I felt awful and kept asking his Mum if he was ok....I felt as though I had hurt him myself!

    I have a question about hair if you don't mind, my daughters hair doesn't want to grow, she is 4 years old and her hair is only to her shoulders, is there anything that I can do to encourage it to grow?
    *hugs* Heather x
    ReplyDelete
  11. Whenever I get out the scissors to trim my girls' hair I always say, "Who cuts hair?" and they have to say, "Only mommy!" I say it several times while I'm cutting their hair! Luckily I've only had one kiddo cut their own hair - a foster boy - buzz cuts are okay on them! =) So frustrating that it was one who "knows better!" I think your punishment fit the crime perfectly - those are the best kinds.
    ReplyDelete
  12. I remember being in my bedroom as a young child - maybe 4 or 5 - & taking the scissors to my own bangs. I can still (almost 30 years later) clearly see my reflection in the full-legnth mirror with scissors in hand chopping away. Of course, they came out totally crooked & at an angle. When my mom asked me if I'd cut my hair, I thought I could bluff my way out of it, not realizing how noticable the damage was! At least Bug didn't try to lie her way out of it and confessed right away. As a parent to 3 kids now, including a 5 1/2 year old girl, I think your punishment was perfect!
    ReplyDelete
  13. First, good job! You handled it perfectly... you gave her very natural and age appropriate consequences... losing the privelege of seeing friends after we do something we shouldn't to a friend is very natural... and when you break something (by cutting, she broke the haircut), you have to pay to replace it, so making her earn the money to fix the hair so it's even is a great solution.

    My daughter cut her OWN hair... down to the scalp in the front (she wanted her hair like her brothers, who were sporting new buzz cuts) and of course all over the sides and back.

    She was younger - tender age of 3... but now at 5.5yrs, she knows better. So when she accidently (her hair was down and contacting the paper she was working with at the time) cut an inch off of a 1" wide section of hair, she was immediately upset and told me about it... that she didn't mean to... that Mommy cuts hair, kids don't cut hair.

    We didn't cut it to even it up, as I've been regrowing her hair ever since that first time she cut it... except for trims when needed to even up that first cut, or to cut off dead ends.

    But the reason we chose not to is because, when it was brushed, you couldn't really tell it wasn't all even... especially when her hair was put up... which is now the new rule for scissors.. if your hair touches your shoulders, it needs put up to let you use scissors so you don't accidently cut your pretty hair.
    ReplyDelete
  14. Ok. So that was me! I was the little girl in school who cut the other girls hair. She asked me too! I remember thinking "OK...hehehe , this is going to me great!" I was 5 or 6.
    The next thing I remember is sitting in the Vice Principal's office and she pulled out her Giant teacher scissors and said "DO YOU want me to cut your hair off!" I remember crying because my hair was the bowl cut already! Wow so glad not to run into her ever!

    Well anyway you did a great job handling it!
    Have a great weekend!
    ReplyDelete
  15. I think you handled that 100% correctly!!!!!! I also teach lessons (piano and flute) and I know how nerve wracking it can be to have a situation you need to deal with in part while the lesson is going on. I also teach middle school and it amazes me how many parents shield their kids from having any negative consequences for their actions. This totally strips a child of the ability to make a mistake and then LEARN from it. I'm sure that Bug will learn from this mistake and that if she doesn't already, will see that this consequence comes from your love and wanting her to be able to learn and grow. Kudos to you!!!
    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting & showing me some comment love. Hope you'll come back often!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts with Thumbnails