4 year olds should not cut hair

Am I in trouble?

I have heard of people having to take their kids to get a hair cut to 'fix' their hair after a fiasco with scissors. I just never thought it would happen to us. Well, I was wrong. Chloe was brushing and styling Abbey's hair. I was writing an email to my pastor which is yet to be completed. The girls disappeared to the bathroom. I assumed they were still 'fixing' hair. About 20 minutes later Chloe comes out and proudly announced that she had a hair cut. Horrified, I stared at her not knowing what to say first. I was infuriated, sad, shocked and amazed that what I saw was real. About 7 inches of her hair was gone, she had really short bangs and of course it was all uneven. After a series of questions about if she thought that was a good thing to do and if she should play with the blunt kids scissors that way, I walked her to the bathroom. All over the floor lay her long ringlets. Fortunately, I never yelled or lost it. I told her to go sit on the bathroom stool, while I stepped into the hall to gather myself. As I started to walk out of the bathroom, Chloe began to realize what she had done and began to sob "I want my long hair back. I don't want short hair." Every time Chloe takes a bath she talks about how long her hair is getting and how she loves having long hair. She wants it to get long all the way to her feet (I think that is a bit long though.) So it is rather shocking that she decided to cut it. Chloe is now quite devastated that her long hair is gone. No further discipline was needed tonight. She is so sad at what she as done. She finally said she just wanted to see what it would look like. We had much hair to clean up. Then I discovered hair in her bedroom as well. Abbey's hair. John Caedmon's hair. Fortunately, only parts of their hair was cut. John Caedmon has really short and crooked bangs and Abbey had a section on her right side that is ear length and several other uneven gaps. They will all need to go to a salon to get "fixed" I don't think I'm trained to handle hair repair. Chloe has cried off and on all evening about her hair. She cried at bed for her long hair back and asked how many hours til it got long again. I guess she learned an important lesson tonight, what that lesson is I'm not real sure yet. But it will be a memorable night for all of us. You just never know what they'll do next!
-Janet

Chase's note: (very rare for me to post here) Those of you that know me, probably know I don't care much about hair one way or the other. I actually forgot to brush my hair this morning after my shower and didn't notice until I got to church. That said, when I got home and saw Chloe's hair and how forlorn she was, I wanted to cry with her. She kept saying that she wanted her hair to grow back.....I didn't have the heart to tell her it would take a year or so! :(

I like to tell Chloe and Abbey that it's not safe to disobey, and this is a good example of that, I guess. Perhaps it will be a good lesson to her on the consequences of doing something you're not supposed to do - this will be a long term reminder when everybody comments on her new hair cut. I've found myself pondering the long term effects of our own decisions. You never know when something you do without a lot of thought might have long term consequences......the first cigarette that leads to years of addiction, the first brush with pornography, etc. Chloe's 4, so it's a little understandable that she might cut her own hair and not realize the long term impact - I've made some much worse decisions at a later age.

For the record, Chloe is continuing a Thompson tradition that I started when I was a little older than she was, of giving yourself a bad haircut.

Well gentle readers - how about leaving some comments about crazy things your kids have done....that would be worth reading, I imagine! We'll take the best ones and make a post out of them.