Moms just LOVE it when you give them unsolicited parenting advice — right? Wrong. One grandmother on Reddit really needs to learn just how untrue this is. According to her daughter-in-law, grandma tried to convince the mom and her husband to shave their 2-year-old daughter's hair because it was "so ugly." Unsurprisingly, the parents didn't take her suggestion too well.
Even though she lives far away, the MIL still manages to make "dumb comments" about how the Original Poster (OP) raises her daughter.
In a post that has since been deleted, the mom shared that her MIL really stepped in it in a recent Skype call.
"You should shave (my daughter's name) head," the mom recalled. "Her hair is so ugly and doesn't suit her at all. Shave it all off and it'll grow back looking better."
The mom was stumped -- "who the h-ll shaves a 2-year-old bald?"
Sure, her daughter's hair is on the thin side, but "I think she got it from me because my hair is also fine," the OP wrote.
They often will use bobby pins and ribbons to gussy up her strands.
"How stupid do you need to be to even think about shaving a small child's hair for no reason?" the mom added.
The OP went off on her MIL after she dropped this "helpful" piece of advice.
"I said – [expletive], it's you who's ugly," she recalled. "How about putting some color into those grey hair of yours or even better, use your own advice and shave it off instead of trying to make a little girl looking like she just had chemotherapy or something."
Her husband also put his foot down.
"My husband also was like — mom, what kind of advice is that, of course, we're not gonna do that," she wrote.
Naturally, her MIL didn't apologize.
"She was just like 'Well, do what you want. I'm just saying how it would be better,'" she wrote. "Like, who the h-ll even asked for her opinion? Stupid, stupid, stupid."
Some people agreed -- this idea was horrifying.
"I don't even understand her logic," one commenter wrote. "Shaving your head doesn't give you a whole new hair type, it grows back 9/10 the exact same way. If this was a matter of being uneven I could MAYBE understand suggesting a trim or something (even then no one asked you but ANYTHING is more reasonable then getting rid of all of her hair!) Just plain crazy."
"I would have said, 'I don't remember asking for your opinion. Best keep those types of comments to yourself or else you won’t have the opportunity to comment to us again,'" someone else advised.
A third person had a warning: "Never leave your daughter alone with her. This one sounds dangerous."
Other people pointed out that it might be a cultural thing.
"My husband's grandma (South American) suggested doing that," someone wrote. "It's definitely cultural."
"I shaved both of my girls heads, each twice before they were two," someone else shared. "In my family, the girls were all shaved bald. It's believed to grow out thicker and nicer in Mexican culture, along with many others. Both of my girls have a nice [expletive] head of hair but idk if that's why lol."
Another commenter agreed. "Where I'm from is really normal to shave babies (especially girls) when somewhere between 6 months and 1 1/2 years old. The reason? They have curly or really straight hair and people just think it's not cute hair."
That commenter believes that cutting your kid's hair for that reason is "gross."
"Just because your baby doesn't have the hair you want it doesn't mean it's right to just shave them until their hair it's 'nice' enough for you," the person added. "That's selfish."
Ultimately, it's mom and dad who get to decide how and when their daughter's hair should be cut. And as long as they're are on the same page, that's all that matters.
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