Sunday, November 12, 2006

Rite of Passage

Aidan has a problem with scissors. Earlier in the school year, he kept coming home with holes in his pants. Perfectly snipped holes. Not even frayed yet. Freshly cut holes. Hmpf. He was grounded from scissors at home for 3 weeks, and to Aidan, that's a big deal. He loves art and his scissors are one of his favorite tools.

Then last week, he cut his hair.

I know that every child goes through this. Dani did it when she was 2. She still had her baby curls, and she lopped one of 'em off at the ear. I was devastated, and called my Mom crying.

"She cut her curls off!" I bawled.
"It'll grow back," said Mom.
"Her curls won't come back!" I wailed.
"They might," said Mom.
"But she's in a WEDDING next weekend!"

The only way to fix the hack job she did was to give her a super short Bob. She toddled down the aisle with the same haircut Darren's Mom wore. Her curls never came back, either.

This time, with Aidan, I didn't give a hoot about the style. In fact, it was so funny looking - long bangs with an inch-wide chunk missing right in the middle - I had to stifle the laugh. Other people didn't bother stifling it. One of the kids at church said, "Your hair looks like your mouth!" Well, by George, it does. Looks just like Aidan's gap-toothed smile. Anyway... when I first saw the damage, I stifled the laugh and bellowed,

"AIDAN! WHO CUT YOUR HAIR?"

"Me, but I threw the hairs in the trash," he answered in one quick breath without pausing between 'me' and 'but'. See, he was PROUD of that 'cause last week, he got in trouble for leaving his teeny tiny paper cuts all over the family room floor. He actually thought he'd done good.

I asked him if he'd looked in the mirror. He had. I asked if he liked what he saw. "No," he said, hunching up his shoulders and lowering his chin. "You need to take me to the hair cut place so they can fix it."

"I will NOT," I replied. "I don't have any money. You'll have to go to school like that all week."

"But they'll think I look STUPID!" he wailed.

"Well Aidan, you DO look stupid!", I replied.

Sometimes, the best punishments are the ones you yourself don't even have to hand out. For the next day at school, his teacher gasped. "Aidan! Did you cut your hair here, or at home?" When he said home, I'm sure she sighed audibly. Then she made him stand at the front of the class while she lectured about the proper use of scissors. HA HA!

Lesson learned. I hope. He's at the hair cut place right now, getting it fixed. I was starting to get used to it. He had mastered the comb-over. Crack. Me. UP!!

What are the odds that Ian learned from Aidan's mistake and won't repeat it? Slim? Yah. I was afraid of that.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This entry is useless without pictures, Stacy! And you call yourself a Scrapbooker?! HMMPH!

Stacy said...

i TRIED to add a picture! Blogger's bein' a butt!
Check the blog challenge on SS. There's a picture there. :)

CyndiAKADisneyqueen said...

My girls cut their hair at the same time when they were younger ( they each cut the other one's braid ). They were very proud at the time. I was a wreck. Its very hard to do the hair of two little black girls who have a big hunk chopped out on one side. Especially when one is already lacking in the hair department.

Anonymous said...

Ok I'll forgive ya this time Girl! LOL! Love the pic! Good for you for making him have to go to school looking like that! I'd probably do the same! Thankfully my kids haven't had any fascinations with scissors....

Anonymous said...

LOL WTG, Stace! Love how you made him go to school like that. And yay to his teacher for turning it into a learning moment! lol

Stacie

Anonymous said...

Yep Audrey did that, but she hid it under the bed, and her father didn't want to tell me (cause he was in charge at the time) then i found it.. that gap in the back, and the one above the ear... that long blonde hair.. right before Easter Pics... i am sure you remember that.
Karen

Anonymous said...

My sister used to sneak gum to bed during naptime. At some point, she would start fiddling with it to the point that large chunks of her hair were covered in gum. As she got older, she attempted to hide the evidence by removing the evidence with scissors. I wish we would have taken pictures of the gum or cut hair so we could "remind" her now, especially when she brings a friend over. I love my sister.

DKelly said...

Love the story about Aidan! I'm SO glad your boys are 1 and 2 years in front of mine so that I can just copy your punishments when mine get there. . . makes the hard parts of Mommy-ing a brainless activity for me! *Ü* I can just refer back to what you did. I would've never thought to make him wear the snaggle-tooth haircut. I think my instinct would've thought "ooh, let's get this fixed pronto". See, my nature is to be "the fixer" and make everything right and that's not how the kids learn. I know that but can't stop myself sometimes.

LYLAS,
Denise