"Go ahead," I heard Mama say. "Tell Googie what you did." Call me psychic, but I could already tell that, most likely, this was not going to be something good.
"Go on," Mama coaxed. "Tell her about this." I sat in helpless silence, unable to guess what this might refer to. Nevertheless, I braced myself. My hunches about these things are usually right.
"Googie?" Sooby said in her angelic little voice.
"What is it?" I prompted. "What did you do?"
"I cut my hair mistake." (These are her exact words.)
By now my imagination had lurched into gear. I was picturing a near-bald little Sooby surrounded by a pile of severed blonde strands that I used to braid and put up in pigtails. After several seconds, I found my voice.
"Well," I said, "how does it look?"
"Fine," Sooby reassured. And off she bounded, leaving me to hear "the rest of the story" in Mama's best Paul Harvey fashion. It seems Sooby had happened upon a pair of scissors at her cousins' house and, well, you get the idea: snip, clip, snip some more, see the hair fall on the floor, etc. Not all that unusual a scenario when a three-year-old and a pair of scissors intersect. Of course, the next day involved an unscheduled visit to the styling salon for damage control. When Sooby realized she couldn't put her long hair back, she learned something about the law of cause and effect.
For the benefit of Mama, I thought about making a number of points in order to produce a more positive spin on the event:
- I bet the new hairstyle really looks cute on her. (She had already said it looked "weird.")
- It will be so much cooler for summer. (I didn't think she would fall for this.)
- Most three-year-olds don't even know how to use scissors. (Wrong thing to say. My bad.)
- A lot of little kids do this out of curiosity. (Shut up, Googie. You are not helping.)
- Maybe she has an aptitude for cosmetology. (At this rate, she may not live to see a career.)
- It will grow back. (Trite, obvious, and basically worthless.)
Oh goodness! I have Hannah brainwashed into believing that she will turn into a boy if she cuts her hair. That's not bad, is it? ;)
ReplyDeleteNope, Kari. Not bad at all. Keep your bluff in for as long as you can.
ReplyDeleteGreat strategy, Kari! My granddaughter cut chunks out of her long blonde hair when she was about Sooby's age. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because she looked adorable in the pixie cut that she was given, and we would have never had the nerve to try it otherwise. Now she's fourteen and has her long hair back.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of my oldest son who cut his little brothers hair. A triangle was cut out of the top of the childs head, basically. And then the cat walked by with a matching HC !
ReplyDeleteIt seems every little kid has to cut their hair at least once. kaye—the road goes ever ever on
ReplyDeleteAmara reached 8 without ever cutting her own hair -- her Mother was a different story. At about Sooby's age she cut off her bangs. She was adamant that she had done anything! I still tease her about that and have told Amara the story!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter keeps my grandsons' hair buzzed so closely to their heads that I don't think even I could get a hold of enough to snip. Maybe that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteCute story to share in the GRAND Social. Thank you!
What a cute story. I've had a couple of grandkids do this. Fortunately, both stopped fairly quickly and they were able to "shape" it fairly well.
ReplyDelete