My dad used to say it’s three weeks between a good haircut and a bad one. He should know as he used to cut our hair, and I have the family photos to prove it!
I had the opportunity to use that advice when my 14 year old son turned up to the table for dinner wearing a Star Wars-esque helmet.
Obviously, I’d missed that chapter in the parenting manual so, as I was trying to determine what was going on and the appropriate response, a couple of things became clear:
- he had taken himself for a haircut (yay!)
- he was very unhappy with said haircut (bad),
- but that he had sought advice from his sister (yay!),
- and she was actually being reassuring and supportive (cue warm fuzzy feeling as she can also cut ice with her eyes if she wills it, and is not known for holding back),
- and he could actually cut food small enough so that he could eat without taking the helmet off (impressive…).
As you can imagine, he was not particularly taken with my dad’s advice or the fact that we’d probably really like the haircut (just the day before, I’d thought it would be nice to see my child’s face again).
You’ll be pleased to know that it was much less than three weeks (it’s impossible to play football wearing a helmet after all) and we did like it (although he still isn’t impressed by that).
Tough Mother 