Have you ever had the unfortunate pleasure of witnessing your oh so curious child cut their hair or take off a chunk of it? Well how about shaving off their eyebrows? Yep. You read that right!
Let me start by saying I have a very curious, creative, and sassy 5 year old. She is compassionate but bold with her intentions. She is sweet and at times extremely testy. Y’all, my patience gets tested on the daily around here!
About a week ago, my daughter was being watched by close family. For just an hour while my fiancé had a dr’s appt. A disposable razor was accidently left out in the bathroom, and within a 2 min trip to use the potty, she took off a chunk of hair from BOTH eyebrows. Happened in a split second, and while we are extremely thankful that nothing serious happened, she took off a good amount of hair. [Insert crying emoji here]
I got a text while at work and it literally started with, “I don’t mean to add stress to your day at work love, but…” and well, you can imagine how the rest of that text went. I was initially floored. But soon after, I calmed down and realized this could have happened at any given moment. I had already heard stories of kids cutting their hair off or shaving off their hair. But eyebrows? This was definitely a first for me.
Olivia learned her lesson and she was very remorseful and very bummed afterwards. When I asked her why she did it, she said, “Well, I wanted to have beautiful eyebrows like you mommy“. And can I tell you, that’s literally when my heart sunk. Man, that one hit deep. Why? Because, the last thing I ever want my daughter doing is comparing herself to others nor thinking that she is not beautiful enough.
When I asked her why she did it, she said, ” Well, I wanted to have beautiful eyebrows like you mommy”.
I went through that as a kid, so much so, that my intention is to break that toxic cycle with my daughter. I always felt like I had to look a certain way or have a certain image. I constantly saw my own mother look down on her own body and so that’s really where it started. The ongoing cycle of not feeling good enough, or looking good enough. And furthermore, always comparing myself to others. In essence, this molded my brain into always, and still, thinking I need to look a certain way. In realty, we only need to be healthy in our own way and feel comfortable in our own skin, no matter the size or look! That’s the truth of it all.
So, there I was explaining to my daughter how beautiful she looks already. I told her to look in the mirror and as we both looked at our reflections, I told her how perfect she was in her own unique way. I told her she was good enough, I told her she was the most beautiful girl I ever laid my eyes on. While I know my opinion is biased, it’s my whole hearted truth to my daughter.
And so here we are. She has a little less eyebrow hair, but she’s just as beautiful. I can’t help but laugh about it now. It will grow back. She learned her lesson. And there will be other mistakes. More trial and error. We are here to guide our children and help them make the best choices along the way. As long as we are our children’s biggest supporters and there to always help teach them right from wrong, they will be just fine.
Have your little ones ever cut off their hair or eyebrows? I would love to hear your stories below. No judgment, as always.
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