When to say bye-bye to ballies and barrettes

Growing up, I knew exactly when I would be wearing my hair out and free from ballies and barrettes. It was always on Easter Sunday, the church Christmas program or for a special occasion like a wedding. I really can’t recall the age when my mom stopped putting the colorful round or square ballies and flowery barrettes in my hair.

But I think my first hair style after ballys was the mushroom hair do. So now many, many years later and I am combing my nine year old daughter’s hair. She tells me she wants to wear her hair out to school. Yes, she has wore her hair out before for church and special occasions. But not to school and for the whole day. See, she wants it out and straight. If that were to happen by the end of the day it would be a bushy bob. Some of her friends are now wearing their hair out in big girl hair styles. In the picture to the left is my 9 year old daughter Erica. Both her and Willow are the same age. I could not see my daughter with a shaved head at this age.

At what age do you let your little girl say goodbye to ballies and barrettes and say hello to the big girl hair styles? For Jada and Will Smith they let their nine year old daughter Willow shave her hair for a Rihanna look-a-like hair style. Her hairstyle received a little attention during their appearance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

So what about you? What age is the right age to let the ballies go and let the big girl hair do stay? Plus, who should have the final call when it comes to the cut and style?

When teachers are the bad guys

Everyday we send our kids to school, trusting they will be protected and cared for by their teachers. But what happens when teachers don't protect? A friend of mine recently had to schedule a conference with her sons' preschool teacher and principal after the teacher removed the child's Superman tee-shirt in class. The reason; teacher said my friends son, kept acting out pretending to be Superman.

We can all think of hundreds of ways the teacher could of disciplined the student but instead the she removed his shirt because he was disrupting class. This story reminds me of a story last month out of Milwaukee. A little girl in the first grade was playing with her beaded-braids and her teacher became frustrated and cut the little girls' hair!

What do we do when teachers turn out to be the bad guys? Teachers are human, they get angry and frustrated like the rest of us. Should we hold them up to a different standard because they are teachers? In Milwaukee the teacher was fined and the little girl sent to a different class.

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