The Great Ear Piercing Catastrophe of 2012

So we decided to let Anna Clare get her ears pierced for her 9th birthday. It was a little sooner than I was ready for. But we offered it up as incentive last summer when all the night time fear started, hoping to get her to stay in her bed all night. This had been a really tough battle (I'm scared of my own shadow myself so, bless her heart, she gets it honest.) After much prayer and many tears and her sneaking in and making pallets in our closet floor in the middle of the night (because it's carpeted and our bedroom has hardwoods), in a weak moment, Steve said, "I'll let you get your ears pierced if you can get through this and stay in your bed." At first nothing changed. Then one night after Christmas when Steve put his foot down and kicked the girls out of our bedroom for good she made up her mind to do it. And do it she did. For 3 months solid. So, because we needed to follow through with our end of the deal AND because we were really really proud of her, the big day came for the ear piercing.

The "before" picture

On her actual birthday, Steve met the four of us at the mall for lunch then on to take care of business.

Little sister wants a piece of the action

She picked out the earrings she wanted. They were a pretty little pair of aquamarines, our birthstone, for March.

She doesn't even look nervous.

At this point, Steve seriously offered her $100 cash to not do it. No chance.

They marked each ear with a black marker and let me check to make sure I thought they were even. All was well at this point.

 On your mark...

Get set...

Ouch!!

She did great. No tears. No problem. UNTIL....I don't remember if I heard, "uh oh" or "oh no" or what, but the lady on the left (who was clearly the manager) inspected the stick job of the lady on the right. And it was not good. "She missed the mark." Steve has it on video and you can hear me say, "What does that mean?" What does that mean? Really? What did I THINK it means?! I'll show you what it means...

This picture so does not do it justice.  But I felt like a terrible mama standing in the middle of the mall saying, "Let me get a picture of that hack job."

The hole was so low it was barely in the lobe. It was so low that when looking straight on at Anna Clare, you could actually see the back of the earring hanging down under her ear.  It was bad.

Steve just walked away down the mall.  I knew he was furious.  The girl on the right never said a word.  The manager was very apologetic and proceeded to tell me that she could not take the earring out right now because it would bleed.  A lot.  She said we had to wait 24 hours and come back, have it taken out and pierced again.  The original hole would grow up almost immediately.  Poor Anna Clare was just in shock.  Not crying, not talking, just shocked.  The manager assured me she would be there the next day at any time we wanted to come back and she would do it herself.  We told her we would see her the next day at lunch.

We caught up with Steve and his words were, "I have no comment on this.  I have to go back to work."  And he left.  Left me standing in the mall with 3 kids...one who just had her big dream turn into a nightmare, one crying to go see the Easter bunny, and a baby.  Nice.

We got in the car and AC started crying.  She said, "Why did this have to happen to me?  On my birthday?"  We had planned on going out to eat that night to celebrate her birthday but she didn't even want to do that.  I told her the good news was that it was completely fixable and in 24 hours, her ears would be as good as new.  My mom told me I needed to demand my money back the next day.  Well, if you know me, I don't demand anything.  I despise confrontation.  But I told Anna Clare that I did think they owed it to us to make it right.  She said, "Mama, it's ok.  People make mistakes.  If we had a business and we made a mistake, would you want people to stop doing business with us?"  I love when I learn from my own children.  It makes my heart swell with pride.  She made me promise not to say anything.  Steve brought home LaParilla take out for dinner at her request and after I let him have it for walking away and leaving me stranded in the middle of the mall with three kids all was well once again. They fixed it right up the next day. The most painful part was taking out the earring. And the lady was right. A day or two later, you couldn't even see the original hole. And they even told her she could pick out any pair of earrings she wanted for half price.

The moral of the story? Owen, when Daddy offers you $100 cash, take the money and run! :)