Age Is Just A Number

Kenzie's nose ring by amyturtle10

At what age should your child be able to make decisions concerning her body? My son is fifteen years old now and he’s wanted to get his ears pierced and to get tattooed for quite some time now.

We gave him the age appropriate answer that I suspect most parent do. That is, he’d have to wait until he turned eighteen to make this decision.

He’s one wily teen though; he pierced his nose himself without his other parent knowing. He told me so that’s how I got the information. He did it one day, at home because he wanted to see how it felt and he’s not afraid of pain. Of course, his nose was swollen for several weeks and very sore. I don’t know how he got that by his dad. Go figure!

He had no ring to put in his piercing so obviously it wouldn’t stay open. I told him that since he had no ring it was a waste of his time. I wanted to make sure that his nose would heal properly and passed along what he needed to do.

I had my nose pierced and it took a long time to heal. I am not sure why but probably just the way my body is.
I know that my parents would never have allowed me to get that done. I wouldn’t even have been able to bring up that topic when I was young. I didn’t even pierce my ears until I was an adult.

We’re different in many ways my parents and I and yet they were my starting points. I’m getting older and I learn new things all of the time. I’ve relaxed somewhat and I see that my children teach me as I teach them. I don’t need to hold onto old ways if they aren’t serving me. I can adapt them and make them better.

I think that when my son turns sixteen, I’ll allow him to get that nose ring or ear ring but leave the tattoo for eighteen because it’s a permanent fixture. I want him to be sure that that’s what he wants.