I usually don’t pay much attention to the teen moms from MTV’s Teen Mom. But then two of my favorite blogger buddies, Emily from YourMomGoesToCollege and Gloria from TeenMomNYC, posted about Teen Mom star Farrah Abraham, who recently wrote about trying to wax her three-year-old’s unibrow.
In a blog post, Farrah wrote:
So here I am faced with a standout historical moment in motherhood when I can confirm to myself that my little, adorable,most cuddle-able cutie, baby girl has a Unibrow
, I felt bad for her, and I started asking friends…. is this hair just going to fall out… is it just hormones at this age?, well the hair didn’t go away and others started saying it was here to stay.
So she decides to wax it and that doesn’t go so well—the wax ends up in the towel and Farrah decides to try another tactic:
Sophia feel a sleep, I got my tweezers and Pluck-pluck-pluck……soph was now saying ouch or anything and still was asleep, I got most of it off and then finally she woke up..I went to sleep.
She ends her blog post with:
Ah I feel like a good mom:) other moms tell me your ideas!
Okay, I’ve got questions.
- Just how bad IS this unibrow? As someone whose eyebrows will grow out of control overnight, I can sympathize. But what was the tipping point that made Farrah say, “This is going to be a problem for my three-year-old and I must do something about it”?
- Did she run this by anyone else first? I know she asked around about the unibrow but did anyone else say, “Hey, maybe you shouldn’t do that, it could hurt your daughter”?
Personally, I don’t think I would have done anything to the eyebrows but that’s because I know it can hurt and really, I think kids look cute when they’re full of their little “imperfections.” A mouth with a couple missing teeth, a band-aid covering a boo-boo, hair sticking straight up—all of those things make kids look “real” to me.
Of course, like a few commenters who defended Farrah pointed out, the pageant moms do all of that plus worse. I’ve seen them giving their kids spray tans, fake nails and more. In the larger scheme of things, plucking your toddlers stray hairs might not seem that bad. (Is that where society is now? Scary.)
But what REALLY grabbed my attention about all this is the fact that ABC News covered it. Like it’s an actual story. I wrote about it ’cause Teen Mom kind of falls under things “The Young Mommy Life” could possibly comment on. But ABC News? Really?
I feel bad for Farrah, really. Of course, like me, she chose to put her life out there for public consumption (and gets paid a hefty sum to do it) but when I make parenting mistakes, it’s not plastered over the news channels and I don’t have millions calling me a bad parent.
I feel bad for Farrah for several reasons and not in a condescending way. I can relate to her worrying about her daughter’s facial hair because Leilani has some too. Ultimately I feel like she is passing her insecurities down to her daughter WAY to early.
As a mother of two daughters, both of whom have unibrows as do I, I think three years old is too young to do anything to her eye brows. Especially plucking and waxing them. My oldest daughter is 9 years old and YES i do shave her unibrow w/ an eyebrow razor. Only the part where the two eyebrows connect. I have NOT done anything to my 3 year old daughters eyebrows. I only do my 9 year olds because she asked me to about a year ago. Part of it may be because of my insecurities about it as I was teased and made fun of it when I was young. If my youngest asks I will probably do hers too but hers is Not as noticeable or as thick as mine or her older sisters. BUT I would not wax or pluck either of their eyebrows.
My biggest problem is that she is teaching her daughter so very young that her beauty is most important. We live in such a superficial world, and I absolutely hate it. A three year old should be carefree and innocent. It bothers me that she, as a mother, is putting the worry of eyebrows into her little girls mind. WHO CARES IF SHE HAS A UNIBROW?! My son has a unibrow. He is four. He is weirdly hairy all over. We should be teaching our daughter’s to LOVE THEMSELVES, their bodies, their facial hair, and not care about what anybody else thinks.
But that is just my opinion!
Wow, I’m just surprised that she tried to wax a 3yo eyebrows. Looking at my 3yo, I would think that the skin is way too sensitive for things like this. However, I do believe that it is up the comfort level of the parents.
Personally, if my child was in that situation, NOPE I would not wax my daughter’s eyebrows, I am not comfortable with me making that decision.
In a simple word: NO.
In an explanation: girls have so much to worry about already, and she’s adding to it. Her daughter is 3. It’s her job to fend of the crazies from her daughter, not make THEM comfortable with her appearance. That’s seriously pushing the boundaries.
I don’t watch this show at all, never have, but I always see internet articles posted about the girls.. and even magazine covers.. usually criticizing them for something. It’s almost like the media wants to constantly remind people that young mothers are incompetent. It’s unfair.
Let me just add that I do not think it was a good idea for her to wax/pluck her childs unibrow. Nevermind blog about it. She was practically begging for the scrutiny on this one.
I completely agree with you. On all points.