AHA Moment

The following post was submitted by one of our readers:

Here is my parental ‘AHA Moment’: When the girls were 4, I decided I would cut their hair. Never gave it a second thought. I placed Kyle in front of me and cut her hair, which was a little past her shoulders to right above her ears. My decision was based on how much they fussed when it was time to wash it. So let’s just cut it.

After cutting Kyle’s hair, I placed Dana in front of me and started to cut…I got half way through and she asked me, “Mommy, what are you doing?” I thought this was such a silly question since she had just seen me cut her sister’s hair and we had been talking about it. So I replied, “I’m cutting your hair” to which she replied, “Did I tell you that you could cut my hair?” Well to say I was shocked is an understatement. All I could think about was that I had a child’s hair cut half done and what would my husband, mother and mother-in-law say when they saw this mess….so I began to plead with her and tell her how easy it would be to wash her hair and how much fun it would be if she would just let me finish…to which she replied, “Okay”. When I was done and she got in the tub to wash it, she said, “Mommy, you were right”.

Well the moral for me was: All children have opinions….and it never occurred to me to ask for it…..ask your child’s opinion…in the end you will do what is prudent, right and best for them, but ask anyway!