When I was a kid, I took ballet from the time I was 2 to the time I was 11 or so. Why did I stop? Because my teacher said it was time for me to go en pointe. It was, I was more than ready. What kept me from taking that step? My mother forbade me to. She was so afraid I’d break an ankle that she denied me the opportunity to pursue something that I loved.
Flash forward 23 or so years, and my daughter wants to get her ears pierced, but she’s scared it’ll hurt. (NB: We took her to a piercing salon and had it done with a needle, not one of those horrible guns that do mean and awful things to you.) I tell her that pain is fleeting. It comes, it goes, and it should never stand in the way of something you truly want. She gets her ears pierced, and not only doesn’t mind the pain, kinda likes it and wants more more more metal. Now, thank you.
The worst thing that can happen to your child is not that she might break an ankle or shed a tear at the piercing needle or get her heart broken or fall off the monkey bars while hanging upside down and break her arm.
No, the worst thing that can happen to your child is…nothing at all.
What’s enpointe?