8.20.2012

The Piggy War


{ one strand of Maggie's hair in an adorable curlicue }

Lately, Maggie and I have been at odds. We disagree about her hair. I have decided that I think teeny pigtails are the cutest things ever. Maggie has decided that she hates pigtails.

If I gather up even the smallest collection of her fine strawberry blondies, Maggie shakes her head and shoos me away with her hand and says, "dondondondondondon't." I try anyway. I turn on TV so she's distracted. I sit her in a Bumbo so she can't get away. I give her the comb so she has something to play with. None of it works. But when it does work, she still pulls her pigtails out as soon as she can.

The thing is, I want to be the kind of mother who lets her kids be themselves. Be free. Have fun. I want to say: Play in the mud! Splash all the puddles! Color with markers! Pick out your own clothes!

But I'm not good at being that kind of mother when it comes to hair. And faces. I want a clean face and cute hair. My fingers start itching when Max's hair gets a little long, mostly because I start to see all the uneven spots from his last haircut. Haircuts from Mom are free, but they are also terrible. At least in our house.

With Maggie, I either want her hair in pigtails every day, or I want to cut it in the back so she doesn't have a baby mullet. Is that so wrong? Sometimes I think a better mother would just let her child be, but then other times I think I think that just because that's what my mother would have done.

Oh, dilemmas!

8 comments:

  1. i say give it time... soon she'll be begging you to do her hair

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    1. You really think so? Like, before she's five? Because that would be so awesome!

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  2. I've been specifically told to never put those tiny pig tails on the TOP of Sydney's head, that they look like devil horns. I swore I wouldn't but now that she's getting more substantial hair, I'm tempted to give it a go... b/c I agree, little piggy tails on babies are adorable.

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    1. You could always give her a little whale spout, right? Or are those forbidden as well?

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  3. oh but those pig tails are the cutest! don't worry it passes, and it will be replaced by another disagreement. we're going through a "no kisses phase" that's just killing me. J bats me away every time I try to kiss him, and its slightly heartbreaking.

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    1. That sounds more than slightly heartbreaking; it sounds completely terrible! I remember when my nephew told his mother that he was too big to sit in her lap anymore, and how hard that was for her. I cringe when I think of my kids getting older and not wanting constant affection from their mama!

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  4. ahh her tiny pigtails are too cute! i say keep trying to get her to like them, i mean it's too cute not to! although a baby mullet sounds more hysterical than horrifying, so either way i think would be pretty adorable! :)

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  5. Do the pigtails! She'll get used to it. C took a little bit to warm up to it, but the hair on the top of her head was so long so early she was pretty used to the rubber bands by the time I could do little pigtail in the back. She definitely had cindy-lou who hair for months. I trimmed the back so that when it all grew out it would be even. But not much - I can do boy hair but girl hair is more intimidating. And I made a big deal about how good a girl she was...even if I basically had to pin her down to get them in. 20 mintues later she'd totally forgotten it was there.

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