A seven year old girl underwent plastic surgery in order to avoid bullying. Apparently she was being teased because her ears stuck out, and her parents wanted to protect her from it.
To be honest -- my first reaction was to judge the parents harshly. We've all been teased while growing up; our children get teased too. The thing to do is to learn to stand up to it. An oft-reiterated message in my home is that you don't become what others call you -- you have to understand and internalize that fact and therefore deal with teasing accordingly. Also -- the more you react to a bully's words, the more pleasure he or she will derive out of saying them.
Then, as I thought about it some more -- I realized how lucky I am. I live in India where it *is* still possible to live without being completely depressed about one's "look" -- particularly at the age of seven. Most seven-year-olds I've seen don't really have strong opinions of what they (or others) should look like.
This little girl, on the other hand, lives in the US -- the land where the way you look matters above all else to most people. Body image is paramount and while cosmetic companies are making a killing already, cosmetic surgeons have decided to cash in too.
Having said that -- isn't it scary? Seven is hardly the age for a child to be worried about the way she looks. What's even scarier is *other* seven year olds with such strong opinions about what is or isn't the "right" look.
If we push children to believe that there is a "perfect" look, how much of their lives will they spend hating their natural look and striving for something that is an illusion?
Every child is beautiful and we ought to be able to let our children believe it as well...
To be honest -- my first reaction was to judge the parents harshly. We've all been teased while growing up; our children get teased too. The thing to do is to learn to stand up to it. An oft-reiterated message in my home is that you don't become what others call you -- you have to understand and internalize that fact and therefore deal with teasing accordingly. Also -- the more you react to a bully's words, the more pleasure he or she will derive out of saying them.
Then, as I thought about it some more -- I realized how lucky I am. I live in India where it *is* still possible to live without being completely depressed about one's "look" -- particularly at the age of seven. Most seven-year-olds I've seen don't really have strong opinions of what they (or others) should look like.
This little girl, on the other hand, lives in the US -- the land where the way you look matters above all else to most people. Body image is paramount and while cosmetic companies are making a killing already, cosmetic surgeons have decided to cash in too.
Having said that -- isn't it scary? Seven is hardly the age for a child to be worried about the way she looks. What's even scarier is *other* seven year olds with such strong opinions about what is or isn't the "right" look.
If we push children to believe that there is a "perfect" look, how much of their lives will they spend hating their natural look and striving for something that is an illusion?
Every child is beautiful and we ought to be able to let our children believe it as well...
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