Earlier this year, I tried to talk my son into getting a mohawk. I’d always wanted to try one and figured I could hide behind the excuse of “I was doing it with my son.”
My son thought it was a terrible idea. He’s way cuter than me and he wasn’t about to mess up his burgeoning sex appeal so his father could live out a childhood fantasy. So my mohawk dreams went down in flames.
Turns out that not everyone takes so light-hearted an approach as I to children’s hair-styles. The child with the mohawk in the picture above got suspended from school for his rather tame version. I consider this an outrage.
Whereas my son proved infinitely smarter than his father on the issue, this child actually wanted one. His parents supported his decision right through several warnings from the school. Now his mother says that rather than forcing her child to cut his hair, she’ll send him to another school. I applaud her.
Kids get precious little space to express themselves between homework, tests, and the gauntlet of extra-curricular activities. I’m glad to see this mother demanding some of that space for her child, instead of enforcing a ridiculous conformity.
I like to think that I’d do the same. If my son ends up looking a little different, I’m okay with that. I figure if the worst I have to deal with is bad hair or the random tattoo, then I got through parenthood pretty well.
March 1st, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I love that the boy was all “Dude, please” when you tried to make him into your own Mini Mr. T. Now if he starts checking out those stupid Zubaz weightlifters’ pants and pairing them with mock turtlenecks in his teens, you gotta play the Dad card. For his sake.
If you ever have any more sweet little darlings in the future, Chrisco, and the words “It’s a GIRL!” come into play, hit up all us galpals for a crash course in “You Will Always Be Late To School No Matter How Early Y’all Get Started And It Will Be On Account Of The Black Hole Excuse Known As ‘But I Gotta Do My HAIR!!!’” This is immediately followed by our advanced course, entitled “When Two Girls Share The Same Box Of Hair Stuff: Survival Tips For Innocent Bystanders.”