7 Year Old Has Plastic Surgery to Avoid Bullying
OK, I think that I have heard it all. How to avoid bullying in school a 7 year old just had plastic surgery because her parents were concerned about an increase in bullying! Now at first I was thinking, “are you kidding me.” Luckily for this family ABC did a great job reporting the story and now I am waffling on where I stand.
This particular girl had plastic surgery for what is called cupped ears. Now after some investigation I discovered an important point. Cupped ears do not impact the way this girl hears. She can hear fine and her ears are functioning as they should be. The 7 year old girls ears made a cup shape and were fairly large. So off too New York this family went to fix the problem and the bullying.
Now I have to start this by saying that one of my own children has pretty large ears. As a girl I was never concerned about it. If she did not grow into them I figured that her hair would cover them. Over time I have discovered that she has grown into her ears. By the age of 6 your ears are grown to 90% of the size they will be as an adult. We all know that our heads have more growing from that point. So why not wait for plastic surgery?
I think that there is one other major thing to consider here. The girl said that she is not really bullied about her ears. Her mother seemed more upset over explaining why her ears were so big. So was there a need at the age of 7 to put a child through any unnecessary surgery? There are risks with any surgery and personally I would rather have a daughter with large, cupped ears than lose my daughter during surgery.
In this case it seems as if the ending was happy. The girl felt great about her new ears and mom is relieved that no one will ask questions any more. I just wonder what the rush was? Why not wait until she is old enough to say that her ears bother her? Shouldn’t we all be teaching our children that they should respect differences? Shouldn’t we be teaching our daughters to love who they are? To me, plastic surgery on a 7 year old seems to teach this child that if there is anything she does not like she should change it.
How do you feel about this issue? Should a child have plastic surgery just because they have large ears or a large nose? What does plastic surgery solutions for minor imperfections teach our daughters?
How to avoid bullying in school
What tips do you have let me know…
Becca
It teaches that we have to be perfect to be liked or accepted…………. this is a dangerous road we are heading down in my opinion !
I would have to agree. I think that we as a society are going a bit too far. I am not sure that these feelings are new though. If you think back, children who looked different were either hidden away or tossed aside. With the technology changing, I suppose that people feel that there is a way to make their children’s lives more “normal”. While stories like this can be upsetting you have to think about the advances that have been made in repairing cleft pallets in infants and children. I guess we as a society have to know where to draw the line.
Becca
This is a tough topic to cover. Teaching your child that plastic surgery is Ok if you don’t like the way you look is not a great message to pass along. However, if it a simple surgery like pinning ears to avoid bullying then maybe it would be something to consider. I just read an article on a women allowing her 7 year old to get Botox injections. I don’t remeber why she may have needed Botox at 7 years old. Society has to reshape they way we look at people, espically children. I think that children should not have anything to stress about at all but by adding perssures of looks, style and money sets them up for anxiety problems later in thier lives.
Thanks
Allison