1st lesson on the price of beauty...

I took my 3 year old daughter to get her ears pierced today...
She's been asking for earrings for the last few months... And if you know kids, clip ons just don't work for a girl her age.
I tried to prepare her psychologically for the pain so that she doesn't get shocked when she feels it, but I also didn't want to scare her...
People were telling me to pierce her ears when she was first born, to avoid this situation, but I refused. One, because i think newborn girls with earrings look like boys with earrings... I just don't like the look, to me it's kind of tacky... Two, and most importantly, because I thought it's too early for her to be in any real pain... I mean what's the hurry?
She chose pink studs, and we put her on a chair in front of a huge mirror (which I later found out was key.)
When the lady did her right ear, she jumped from the shock and started crying :(
Part of me felt guilty, I thought: is this really necessary? Why would I want to put a hole in my daughters perfect ears? But then again I remembered how much she wanted this... and how she constantly tries to wear my earrings at home, and gets very frustrated when she can't...
So I concealed my feelings, and just tried to calm her down, telling her to look in the mirror to see her new earring...
Now that she felt the pain I was worried that she's not gonna let the lady come near her again to do the left ear...
To my surprise, the female in her took over!
She was staring at herself in the mirror, and almost smiling cause she's loving her new pink earring, but also crying her eyes out...
Crying but not moving, and not trying to leave...
The lady went to the left ear, and at first Sara put her hand out, signaling to the lady to stay away... I stepped in: "Sara, we have to do the other ear now, look how pretty this one is, you will have another one on this ear too..." So she started crying more, but accepted! She let the lady put that gun to her ear again!
The lady was telling me that Sara was brave, and that most girls her age end up leaving with one earring cause they can't handle the pain...

On one hand I was proud of my brave girl :)
On the other hand I was wondering how much of it is bravery, and how much is vanity... Cause after all, it is the vanity gene that is pretty strong in my family, not the bravery gene :)

As we were leaving, I was carrying her, wiping her tears, kissing her, and telling her how pretty she looked... And I thought to myself: This is just the beginning...