My daughter is so fantastic.  I adore this child more than words can express.  I'm so proud to call her mine, and I'm proud to have raised her as a strong, thoughtful, compassionate and hard working little person. 

So, when it came time to ask her whether she was ready to join the big girl ranks and get her ears pierced, I was excited to hear her answer.  I've raised my kids in such a way that I try to give them as much structured independence as is appropriate for each of their ages and the stages that they go through.  So, when it's time to give them full reign over making certain decisions for themselves, I trust their decisions implicitly and support them completely.

When my daughter, Lavender, turned 8 years old, it seemed like a good time to offer her the decision of whether she wanted to pierce her ears.  Her best friend, Aurora, had actually just pierced hers, so the timing was perfect, and of course, Lavender wanted to be just like her friend.  Making this right of passage at 8 years old seemed like a great time for her to take further ownership of her little body and decide how she wanted to care for it.

The day of getting her ears pierced turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than we were expecting, though.  The area that we live in didn't seem to have any Claire's ear piercing boutiques or other typical ear piercing places nearby.  But after driving around for a while and finally just googling the issue until we found a solution, we ended up at the Beverly Center in West Hollywood where they did, indeed, have a Claire's. 

She was such a trooper.  I know that millions of kids do this everyday, and it's really not THAT big of a deal, but I love using these unique moments to watch how my kids respond to pressure and anxiety and teach them skills for how to cope with it positively.  Knowing how to handle oneself in small, yet challenging situations can really translate into building skills for how to handle the bigger and more challenging situations that inevitably come up in life.

When we got there, Lavender was pretty unsure of what to expect.  After signing off on all of the paperwork and placing the dots on her ears, the moment of having the pair of Claire's ear piercing girls standing over her, with their ear piercing guns pointed at her head, was kind of intense for sure.  But I could see Lavender talking herself down inside her head and trying to take deep breaths to stay calm just before they pulled their triggers.

Then, POOF, it was over ... and her ears were pierced!  But of course, that's right when the red hot stinging sensation hit her.  She sucked in her little cheeks until her face looked like a tiny blond-haired fish.  I knew that this was her way of dealing with the unexpected pain that hit her at that second.  I reminded her to keep breathing and excitedly showered her with praise for being so brave.  I was so proud of how she was handling it, and she did look so cute!  I wasn't expecting for the children's earrings that she chose to look nearly as good as they did on her, but it made me that much more excited to share with her all of the other children's earrings styles that I have in my green jewelry collection.

About a month ago, I was lucky enough to spend a few minutes with my photographer friend Elijah Star.  As a favor, he took some shots of Lavender now that she's made it through the healing period after the ear piercing.  She chose to wear the Blue Belly Spiders from the Rebekah Green Jewelry collection that day.  Since all of my children's earrings are made of 100% 14K recycled gold, not only can I offer my daughter the highest quality pure gold earrings, but I can rest assured that the earrings are also nickel-free and hypoallergenic for her little ears.

Making this right of passage together was such a great experience for both of us, and although piercing a child's ears is a completely personal experience for every family, we both got more out of it than we were expecting and we hope the same for you!