Opinion

I guess I missed what the problem is. It's only hair. It has nothing else to do but grow back. If they like it - so be it. I see the danger in playing with scissors which to me seems like a bigger issue than their hair may not be that attractive at the time being.

when I was 5, my best friend desided to play barbershop...I got to be the one who got their hair cut... I looked like a little boy when I got my hair straightened out by a babrber (a real one) my bestfriends mom saw the hair and thought we had been cutting barbie hair (I had white blond hair) and was shocked when my mom called to see what had happened to my hair :)

Give them a nice haircut and don't let them choose it.

I did the same exact thing as your daughters and I was 5 yrs old. My mom left it the way I had cut it and I was so embarrassed when I had to go to school looking like that. One side of my hair was long and one side was shorter. I will tell you that I never cut my own hair again. So if it was me I would go for the embarrassment because it worked on me.

Well, if you are going to have a lot of holiday pictures in the next month, you may want to cut it short so they will not look silly for posterity, or maybe in 10 years you can look back on the photos and laugh about it.

I believe that children should learn to deal with problems and the consequences. My advice is to do not cut thier hair because it is a easy way out for them and they will not learn from it. Let them live with the decision they made and they will remember what they did and will not do it again or alteast know they have to live with the consequences. I have a 10 year old boy and I make him live with his choices to teach him a lesson. Good luck with your decision and hope this helps.

I agree with Rebecca on this one. What better way to remember with pictures. My daughter did this twice at 3. I left it for about 2 months. After all the comments about cutting her beautiful curls from strangers I think she got the point. She also couldn't wear the cute little pony tails anymore and that upset her. After about 2 months we had it cut to match the holes and had to have subsequent cuts to patch along the way. It is finally growing out so she can have pony tails again. She doesn't want to cut to ever cut it again...

I only have boys with short hair, so I have no experience in this. Just by reading, though, I would think that either consequence would be acceptable and get the point across.

Of course, if you never told them to not cut their hair they weren't really doing anything "wrong" so to speak. I'd probably ask them what they wanted to do. It is their hair. You are allowed to do what you want with their hair, so they may assume they can do the same. But like I said, I have no experience with this.

Hi Brenda,

My mom and dad can feel your pain. When I was 4 I had beautiful curling locks down to my waist. That is until I got hold of my mom's sewing scissors while she was outside hanging the laundry. I still rememeber cutting it lock by lock and putting it in the trashcan one at a time. I thought I had done a fine job until the neighbor, an elderly man, asked my mom who the little boy was with her. It devastated me!

My mom had to take me to a beautician to have it fixed enough that it would grow out and look decent. My dad sat and cried...he was (and still is) very attached to long hair. By kindergarten, my hair had finally grown out to a Dorthy Hammel cut.

From that, I learned my lesson very well and never picked up a pair of scissors to cut my hair again. I've never been able to get my hair that long again...what was I thinking?

I think if they love their long hair, then you should cut it off. If they love it so much they shouldn't have cut it in the first place. That is just my opinion. Good luck with that one.

When my friend with 2 daughters did this I just about died and thought her the worst mother in the world. Then when my son started pulling this stuff, I figured out why she did this and started doing it to. Now, this only works with typically developing children-children with sensory issues, add/adhd/autism/aspergers or whatever are not going to get this message the way we need them to, so if your child falls into one of those catagories, talk with your therapists about what works best.

When precious starts throwing a fit, calmly tell your loving child that you cannot understand him when he is screaming and carrying on, that you know he wants to talk with you, and when he can, to come get you. Then walk away and ignore him and the behavior (as long as he is not throwing and breaking stuff, coming at you with a knife etc!). Do this everywhere it is safe, the grocery store (if you are in a safe one where you know the staff and they won't call child protective services on you!) everywhere. I explained in advance to my son that when he gets upset and doesn't talk with me I can't understand him when he is screaming. If he gets upset and cannot talk with me, he needs some alone time and when he is ready to talk with me and listen to me I am all his...otherwise, I will walk away so he can have some alone time. So, first time he pitched a fit after that talk was in a grocery store, and so I walked away, and walked away and walked away as he followed me having his fit. He finally got the message, stopped the fit, and told me what he wanted and accepted when he was told he couldn't have what he wanted. This was not foolproof, but it worked alot until he got his skills in speech and self control up and working. Now, we also told him that if he needed to pitch a fit or make ugly noises or faces etc, he could do that in the bathroom (that way if this behavior started in the grocerystore, he would have somewhere to go to get it out of his system and get control again. Telling him he can do it in the bedroom doesn't work when you are at school, a movie, or the store!). This gave him an alternative, and a face saving method of regaining control. When told he had a choice of going to the bathroom to get this out of his system or behaving and talking so I could understand him, he usually chose the latter. Good luck!

Geez this one just happened to me. My daughter (age 4) has hair almost to her waist, and she decided to cut the sides (only) about 4 inches shorter. It kinda blends together, so it wasn't that big of a deal (we can put her hair in ponytails). If your daughters cut their hair in a weird place (like the crown of their head) and it's really noticable, I'd probably get new haircuts. That's just me though. And keep them away from the scissors!

I agree with your style of parenting (i.e. letting children deal with their own problems), as long as they are intellectually old enough to understand why you are leaving them to deal with the particular problem. I wouldn't want my daughter to feel like I intentionally allowed her to feel embarassed for any reason. I am her protector and helper. I think the picture idea from another mom is a better idea.

I think this is a very normal act from a small child. Let them know that mommy's trim their hair or take them to have it cut but that they are too small to cut their own hair. Trim it or have someone else fix it. Put a pretty bow in it and be thankful it was easily fixable. Also, keep the scissors put away!

My kids did this and I left it for a while and then had it cut.

This happened to me when both of my girls were little. My oldest one did the worst job on her hair, but at age three, she was not very vain about her looks. I was the one that was most embarrassed. All that I did was trim it up so that it looked at least a little better than it did. It took a very looong time for it to get back into shape, but with the aid of barrettes, clips and hair gel, it worked out alright. I think that a little bit of embarrassment does help them to learn not to do it again, but you still want to try to get them to look as decent as possible.

the same thing happened to my 2 girls when they were about the same age and i took thier picture, they both look at that picture now that they are grown and laugh about it, and by the way they never did it again.

Not a big deal. I don't know any child that hasn't cut their own hair. I think it must be a right of passage or something!

I wouldn't do anything about it. Maybe tell them that they have interesting haircuts but mommy would rather they didn't play with the scissors again.

Don't sweat the small stuff!