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"    Did you know you can buy an ear-piercing gun at Wal-Mart? Anything that involves a gun and a sharp pointy object pointed at a head seems like a bad D.I.Y. project to me but when my friend told me she&amp;#039;d gotten one I was first curious and then impressed. She said it was one of the easiest things she&amp;#039;d ever done and she got all three of her daughters pierced for half what it would have cost to do one at the mall. Of course I&amp;#039;m a little more squeamish than she is. Plus, my daughter is only two and it feels premature to me to pierce her ears.  I was 12 when I got my ears pierced for the first time. It was my parents&amp;#039; house rule; I think the idea was they wanted us to be old enough to clean and maintain them ourselves. (As opposed to one of my friends growing up whose parents had the girls&amp;#039; ears pierced when they got their period, a tradition that cause more humiliation than pride I think.) Nevertheless I was super excited for that moment. I still remember purchasing my first real set of earrings\u2014giant neon green palm trees, naturally. I felt all grown up! Which is probably why I hesitate to pierce my own daughter&amp;#039;s ears. It&amp;#039;s bad enough she can put on eyeliner better than I can! Why would I want her to grow up any faster? Besides I didn&amp;#039;t grow her for 9 months just to poke holes in her adorable lobes.  Yet many of my friends see it differently. My friend Janelle pierced her daughter&amp;#039;s ears as an infant because &amp;quot;It seemed like it would be less painful that way and babies heal up so much faster.&amp;quot; My friend Saretha pierced her daughter&amp;#039;s ears because &amp;quot;it&amp;#039;s the culture I come from.&amp;quot; And my friend Amy admitted, &amp;quot;Hello! Because it&amp;#039;s sooo cute!&amp;quot; On the other hand, another friend snorted, &amp;quot;How is infant ear piercing any better than circumcision?&amp;quot;  How old do you think a child should be to get her ears pierced? Take our poll:  poll by twiigs.com  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/mom-kids/news/a13690/mom-debate-ear-piercing/>