Curious Kids with Scissors…

Ben and I walked into the house tonight after attending the first meeting of our new small group, and Rachel, our babysitter, told us that Madi had been very naughty. Well, the first thought that came to my mind was that she had thrown a tantrum or hit her or something, but no, it was a much more…interesting…story.

While she was putting Parker to bed, Madi stayed downstairs to color. When Rachel came down, she found Madi with a new “haircut”. Yep, she decided that cutting paper was too boring, and put her trusty green handled scissors to work, hacking off a chunk of hair on either side of her face. She told Rachel that her hair was “too long” and that it was “down to her feet”, so she wanted to make it shorter. Then, she wanted to put the hair in an empty Country Crock container that we had in the craft area – to hide it, maybe?

We were in shock, obviously, and Rachel tried to reassure us that maybe it could be layered to fix the problem. But once we opened the Country Crock container to see how much hair was actually inside, we realized she was just trying to soften the blow. It was an overflowing handful of hair, and Madi really doesn’t have that much to begin with.

So after Rachel left, we went upstairs to check it out for ourselves, and when Ben told Madi that something looked different with her hair, she proceeded to tell us that she cut her hair and put it in the Country Crock container. At least she was honest, right? When we asked her why she did it, she said it was because it was too long. At least she kept her story straight, huh? I asked her why she didn’t wait to tell us that it was too long, and she said that we weren’t there, so obviously she had to take matters into her own hands. When we told her that she won’t be able to have ponies or braids? She retorted, “we can put in barrettes, can’t we?” Smart kid…too smart.

Then she sat up and we saw the real damage…

We’re going to have to get the rest cut off…right about chin length. There is too much gone, and leaving it will just give her a mullet. I guess I should be glad that she didn’t cut it off close to her head, because that would have been a whole different story. So, we will have to give Miss Gina a call in the morning, and hopefully get her in to fix it.

You hear stories about kids who cut their hair, but you never think about it being your kid. Now we can add our story to the “collective groan” of all parents out there with curious children with scissors…and take some lovely pictures of the whole process to embarrass her with future boyfriends.

What else can you do?