When your 3-year-old daughter tells you she
really wants her long hair cut off to her shoulders, DON’T DO IT.
Just get a trim!
She’s only 3 years old, she doesn’t know
what she’s saying. She’ll walk out of the hairdresser, sucking her
complimentary lollypop and want her hair back.
This I learnt this afternoon and I’m
feeling terrible. I should never have let her cut it. Even the hairdresser
suggested we come back during the week because it would be $10 cheaper.
At that point we left.
‘We’ll come back on Monday,’ I said.
But my daughter really wanted her hair cut
so I threw caution to the wind, something I rarely do with money. It was our
special afternoon, if she wanted a haircut at the weekend rate, then so be it.
Wrong decision.
We went back and a different hairdresser
served us and asked if I was absolutely sure that she wanted her hair cut.
I looked at my 3-year-old. She nodded.
‘To your shoulders?’ I asked, showing her
clearly where that would be.
‘Yes,’ she said. I think she had one eye on
the lollypop jar and another on the portable DVD player they bring out for
kids.
I asked her about 25 times, if she was
sure. She was and so we went ahead.
‘She’s very mature,’ the hairdresser said.
At that point I started to worry. She’s 3
years old. She’s not all that mature. She doesn’t have to be. I’m the mature
one, supposedly. Was I doing the wrong thing?
Then I saw big pieces of her hair on the
floor and I started to hyperventilate, just a little bit. But my daughter was
quite happy. Maybe all would be fine.
And all was fine. We paid. She got her
lollypop. We walked out.
Then she wanted her hair back. And our
special afternoon went downhill from there.
‘It’s only hair,’ I reminded us both as my
daughter sobbed in the back of the car, green lollypop goo running down her
chin.
‘It will grow,’ I said.
She didn’t believe me. I felt devastated. I
know that feeling of panic when you do something and a second later, you realise
it was the wrong thing to do. For one very dark moment, you can’t live with
your decision. She was upset so I was upset. I wanted her to love her haircut
but she didn’t so I’m felt the same regret. As the grown-up, I should have
known better. I shouldn’t have let a 3-year-old make the decision.
But then again as the grown-up, I know that
her hair did actually need a cut and now it does look much better. She will
have less chance of picking up head lice at daycare and her hair will be easier
to look after.
And as the grown-up, life doesn’t get much better
than that.
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