Reply #26: Her ears aren't that big.

[wickerwoman]

Certainly not to the extent that a better haircut wouldn't conceal them.

I don't have a problem with cleft palate surgery, or surgery for kids with huge strawberry marks on their faces, etc. But this girl's left ear is perfectly normal and the right could have been corrected a lot less extremely or could easily have been covered with longer, better-styled hair. It's not really any more "disfiguring" than her freckles or a little gap-toothedness. Would you support skin-bleaching and braces for seven year olds?

If it makes her more confident, that's great, but what will the long-term impacts be when she's still growing? And doesn't it place/teach a pretty high standard of appearance for a kid? Isn't there also a risk that she'll grow up even more insecure about her remaining "imperfections". Thin hair? Better buy extensions. Big nose? Time for a nose job. Where does it stop?

I'd rather tell kids that our differences and imperfections give us character. A dentist once suggested that my parents file down my pointy canine teeth and I refused to let them (OK, mostly because I thought looking like a vampire was cool). Anyway, now I'm so glad they didn't. The teeth wore down eventually anyway (just as this girl would very likely have grown into her ears), so it would have been a complete waste of money, and I'm glad that I still look like *me* and not Madison Avenue's idea of what I should look like.