TOTALLY GEEKED!

I shaved my legs at 11. I had really dark hair on my legs. It looked awful

Oh FFS.
Let the kid shave for crying out loud.
How can a parent be so stupid?
This has got to be a fake letter.

11 sounds young? That's when I started and other girls in my class. The only ones who didn't weren't allowed too. Which I didn't understand even then. One girl was cutting her armpit hair with scissors in 6th grade because she wasn't allowed to start shaving until she was 13.

Nobody Just Nobody wrote:

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How do these people manage to exist in the real world?

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 By writing into advice columns about every little thing.

 

Why is this an issue? It's just shaving. Let the kid shave. Good grief.

While I say let the girl shave of she wants to, I'm wondering, am I the only one that curious about the question of "is there a boy's interest behind this desire of hers for shaved legs?"

Yeah, it's a girl thing. When one girl shaves they all start wanting to. Not many boys this age care or even notice a girls legs.

"Yeah, it's a girl thing. When one girl shaves they all start wanting to. Not many boys this age care or even notice a girls legs." - Nobody Just Nobody

As adults, I agree that we know boys of that age aren't worried about whether she shaves her legs or not, but what about girls her age, do THEY know that? I know when I was in my pre-teen years there were lots of things I thought I knew that turned out to be wrong.

I was one of the first to start shaving my legs and what boys thought about didn't enter into my mind. I didn't like how furry my legs were. It didn't matter to me that it was blond and couldn't be seen.

Eleven is when they start middle school - which is not really a fun time. Let her shave her legs. Geesh.

Dear Stupid Questions,

My daughter was 8 when she asked to start shaving her legs. As her 9 YO birthday gift I gave her a beautiful pink razor. When people learn of this, they flame me for making that decision without first checking with an advice columnist. Are they being rude or are they correct? Did I commit a social faux pas?

Signed,
I have a life.

Ilumine wrote:

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I was a swimmer. I started "shaving" when I was about 8. HOWEVER, I did not shave, but used Nair....the 1980's Nair. Cuts and pools don't mix, especially if I had a meet.

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 I was a swimmer too.  I can still remember when I had a Senior Lifesaver Red Cross test, and got my period.  I borrowed and used my mother's tampax (I was 14).  She got very upset with me because "virgins shouldn't use them", and "the instructors will understand when a girl must skip a class due to menstruation"

I think my mother was a throw back to the 19th century....

Lawyerlady wrote:

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JPT wrote:

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Ilumine wrote:

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I was a swimmer. I started "shaving" when I was about 8. HOWEVER, I did not shave, but used Nair....the 1980's Nair. Cuts and pools don't mix, especially if I had a meet.

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 I was a swimmer too.  I can still remember when I had a Senior Lifesaver Red Cross test, and got my period.  I borrowed and used my mother's tampax (I was 14).  She got very upset with me because "virgins shouldn't use them", and "the instructors will understand when a girl must skip a class due to menstruation"

I think my mother was a throw back to the 19th century....

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 Oh, man.  I would have been so tempted to tell mom "Don't worry, mom, I'm not a virgin".  But my mother is a bit different than most others.  (And yes, I was a virgin at 14).

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 I can still remember my mother's horror at our moving to So. Cal when I was that age (I took that test just weeks before we moved, when we lived in NJ) because girls there (California) were promiscuous.  I guess she didn't know that two girls in my 8th grade class had babies....

I was a virgin until I was 18.  And even then, my one an only is the same man I am married to (40 years).  I guess I could have countered that as long as there was a tampon up there, not much room for anything else

Man, the teenage years would have been so much more fun if we had the wisdom, sarcasm and confidence we have now.

I know what to do_sometimes wrote:

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Lawyerlady wrote:

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Man, the teenage years would have been so much more fun if we had the wisdom, sarcasm and confidence we have now.

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 I know!

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 Some of us did...and spent a LOT of time in trouble! Lol

 

DD shaved her legs in kindergarten.  Because that's just how hairy she was. She wanted to, and so I did it for her. About once a month I would shave her legs while she was in the tub. She had crazy hairy monkey legs - like Robin Williams' arms. It didn't occur to me to ask anyone if I should/could. I made a parenting decision all on my own. Gasp.