Comment: Haircut Angst

I’m glad that my kids like the slow-moving, well-acted BBC version of The Chronicles of Narnia. At times its low-end special effects really grate, but honestly, it’s a good set of DVDs. A long, long set, which I don’t think anyone in family has fully watched, even cumulatively. Some friends of ours gave it to us and after playing The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe umpteen times about two years ago, we shelved it for awhile.

But lately it’s enjoying a renaissance. Now that both of my kids can follow a plot, they are pretty into it. It’s got heroics, a witch, magic, and it’s all about real (actors) kids, so it’s relatable. Beats the hell out of some Violent Monster Truck Cracktastic Cotton Candy Hour.

But as usual, I digress.

What’s on my mind is the fact that today my kids got haircuts, and what I thought was an overly wispy number on my son was actually a good haircut.

Which I ruined.

A little bit.

I tried to trim my son’s bangs and now it looks like he had an uneven bowl put on his head and I trimmed his hair with blunt kiddie scissors.

It really upset me, and I wasn’t sure why, since it didn’t upset my son. (And I certainly didn’t let him know I was upset.) But here’s what I am realizing: I’m upset because I care about what other kids might say to him. You know, the sarcastic, “nice haircut, kid” stuff that that older kids might do. I don’t think the Kindergarteners will do it, they’re still sweet, but you know, it just brings up the whole thing of not being able to protect our kids from the slings and arrows of outrageous gnarliness anda ll that. I can almost feel my guts ripping out when I think of anyone being mean to my children. And I fear the fact that my kids may be mean themselves.

We can’t always be there for our kids. We have to have the faith and trust (and hope) that they will manage in the big bad world without us. We have to teach them that they are valuable and special and that everyone else is, too. Then if someone says something snarky about a bad haircut, it won’t matter. Or at least not that much.

Am I a little extra sensitive today? Chalk it up to a combination of hormones, it being almost November, impending Daylight Savings Revocation, exhaustion and low-level stress. Oh, and my birthday is in two weeks. That always throws me for a loop.

But I stick with my premise that we have to prepare our kids for life, but then get out of the way.

And that is the hardest thing any of us will ever do.