A cut above the rest

Posted by Patrick Corkum on March 24, 2010

PJ was 3 at the time. He was so scared to let me cut his hair. Now, I had been cutting my own hair with electric clippers for many years by then (saving hundreds of dollars). It’s a pretty easy haircut, I cut everything the same length and just buzz most of it off. It’s not like you can mess it up and if something went wrong, I would just shave it all off. So, in an effort to rid my son of the fear of getting his hair cut, I made a proposition to him: you cut my hair with the clippers and then I will cut yours. See, I figured if he did this, he would realize that it is not dangerous and that he would come out unscathed, especially if I came out unscathed. So, this is what what did, I got rid of my shirt (hair can be hard to get out of clothes), I sat on a midget sized chair and let my 3 year old cut my hair. It worked too, when he was done, he sat down and I cut his hair. Now, did he do a great job? NO! He missed most of the hair and it was as messed up as it could be. But almost every time either of us have gotten a haircut over the past 4 years, the other one has cut it. He considers it something that is “special” between the two of us. So, last night, he cut my hair again and I shaved my head afterwards (he is getting much better though). I asked him if he was still going to cut my hair when he was 10 and he replied, “I’m going to cut it when I’m 20.” Now, I hope that doesn’t happen, but in the meantime, I found a really cool way to connect with my son that few others have and I am going to enjoy every second of it. Try connecting with your kids in clever ways, it is the kind of thing that they will never forget.

(Like the sunburn on my neck?)