<p>Looking for unusual ideas? Who needs that laptop or even that European backpacking trip?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17932515/wid/11915773?GT1=9951[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17932515/wid/11915773?GT1=9951</a></p>
<p>D cups! Why even spend the $$ on college. Just go straight to spring break & the Girls Gone Wild video appearance.</p>
<p><groan> And I thought that D#1, who graduates from college next week, was a little loony when she asked for a horse for graduation (I think we’re settling on a new bike).
Anyone else remember when a nose job was the de rigeuer sweet sixteen present?</groan></p>
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<p>Pics??? 10 char</p>
<p>These girls are NUTS!!! Sorry . Didn’t mean to yell. But this topic gets on my last nerve, partly because it hits close to home. When I went off to college at 18, I thought I was finished growing. I was wrong. During one of my breaks freshman year, I had to…um… acquire some new undergarments. In the intervening years , due to age and childbirth. I’ve visited the store again. Is any woman out there the same size she was at 18?? I didn’t think so. I am flabbergasted that supposedly sensible parents would support such surgery. If DD asked for such a thing, our laughter would break every window in the house. When I picked myself off the floor I would remind her how people have always told me how beautiful she is, and I would give her all the reasons why surgery would be a bad idea, including possible problems with breastfeeding later on. I feel so sorry for any young girl who thinks that big breasts will make her happy. Did Anna Nicole Smith look happy to YOU?? I know she is an exteme example. I simply cannot imagine a young woman who would choose breast augmentation over a cool trip or a new wardrobe. DD would burn up the wires to amazon.com buying books and music. I try not to stand in judgement. But it saddens me that we have let society brainwash our daughters this way. Bottom line: I believe an 18 year-old is simply too young to do this surgery for purely cosmetic reasons.
Getting off soapbox to clean house for Mother’s Day. Bye Y’all.</p>
<p>Totally agree with msreadalot. This stuff sends me over the edge. What better message to give to our teens as a graduation “gift” - the message that yeah, they’re right, they’re really not quite good enough and need cosmetic enhancement. Surely, there are situations where such is truly called for. But not many. Feeding into teen insecurities, which most often they can and should outgrow… gag me with a spoon.</p>
<p>^^^Agree with the above. I know a local girl who is getting implants for graduation—cannot even begin to look at the parents in the same way. </p>
<p>My d. at 15 asked if she could have a reduction for graduation (has been a 34DD since middle school). We told her that she needed to live as she was (barring a physical problem from the large endowment) until she was old enough to make that decision (an adult and on her own).</p>
<p>ugh. Very sad.</p>
<p>The one “cosmetic” surgery I might support would be laser eye surgery. Even that might be better later on.</p>
<p>Whoa, I feel like a bad parent. Not breast surgery, but I was thinking about LASIK as college grad present for my D. I had it at 37 and it changed my life, I thought it would be a good gift. However, I do know people who had their kids “Lasiked” at age 18, I did not think it was appropriate for her to make that decision at that point, especially since her eyes are pretty bad, and her surgery may be more complicated than mine was. :o</p>
<p>ASAP and I cross-posted.</p>
<p>To me, LASIK is not in the same league. You could call it cosmetic, as it eliminates the need for glasses. But so do contact lenses. To me, it’s a correction of a medical problem - one of three options (glasses, contacts, LASIK). One person’s opinion.</p>
<p>I put implants in the same category as tattoos and freaky piercings – deliberate and unneccessary self-mutilations that basically ruin a woman’s looks. The natural look is almost always better.</p>
<p>Lasik is not in the same category because it helps the person return to the natural look that has been lost.</p>
<p>And isn’t D-cups getting a little carried away? She won’t be 18 forever. Eventually gravity is going to take over. She’s going to be practically playing soccer with those things when she is old.</p>
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There are a couple others that I would consider in cases where the person’s looks visibly deviate from a healthy “norm” (i.e. partial facial paralysis), assuming the student thoughtfully considered the pros and cons to the procedure. For other cosmetic surgeries, which I am not automatically against, I think it’s the individual’s job to come up with the cash, in part to make sure the person really wants the procedure.</p>
<p>Cangel, I thought eye correction surgery wasn’t recommended until the person is in his or her 20s due to the problem of continuing deteriorating vision?</p>
<p>I have a male cousin whose parents worked in medicine and interior design. More than our family, they understood the connections among visual appearance, self-esteem and financial opportunity. The dad hated his own receding chin and allowed his S to have that reshaped before college. At the time, I didn’t understand them but today I think I do.</p>
<p>Corranged, I believe that LASIK is done on persons over 18, but don’t quote me on that. I remember when I had my surgery done, the patient waiting at the Surgicenter with me was the daughter of someone I knew slightly - I’m fairly sure she was between 18 and 21 at the time, based on when she graduated from high school. Of course that was 12 years ago, the indications may have changed.
Paying3 makes a good point, I’m not pushing plastic surgery, especially breast Baugment for an 18 year old! but there are certainly many young people who aren’t “deformed” by any stretch of the imagination, but whose self esteem would be enhanced by alterations to a nose, a chin or ears. Until you walk a mile in their shoes…</p>
<p>“I believe an 18 year-old is simply too young to do this surgery for purely cosmetic reasons.”</p>
<p>I disagree. I had a nose job at 16 and it was the best thing I could have done for myself and my self esteem. Even though I was well adjusted I can honestly say I became a different and much more outgoing person post-rhinoplasty. </p>
<p>I’m not sure a boob job is quite the same thing but I never had a problem in that department. I did know a girl who was, at best, an AA cup who wanted implants more than anything. I lost touch with her after high school and don’t know if she ever got them or not, but I know it negatively effected her life in some ways.</p>
<p>I wasn’t talking about plastic surgery in general. the original post was specifically about breast augmentation, which I still maintain is a silly thing for an 18 year-old to do. Lasik can certainly be justified, as long as the person is old enough to understand the possible side effects and has it done in the office of a reputable and skillfull opthalmalogist and not at some cheapie clinic.
I also have no problem with nose jobs, as long as people have reasonable expectations and don’t go all Michael Jackson in the pursuit of some freakish idea of perfection. Some plastic surgeries can fix quirks of mature that make a kid’s life miserable. My own in-laws, otherwise very conservative people, cheerfully paid to “fix” my husband’s ears when he was young. The kids on the playground were making his life miserable with “Dumbo” remarks. And I have veneers on my own front teeth, partly to repair damage caused by medication I took as a child. So I do understand the value of some plastic surgery. My problem is with young girls, who may not understand all the ramifications, carving up their perfectly good bodies just to meet somebody else’s idea of “sexy”. Somebody needs to explain to these girls that physical attractiveness comes mostly from attitude, not silicone.</p>
<p>I’m certainly not in favor of boob jobs for teens, but precisely where is the line b/w cosmetic surgery for self-esteem and procedures to look “sexy?” Other than some procedures being more invasive, what’s the difference. Almost anything that improves one’s appearance will arguably increase self-esteem. I</p>
<p>I’m sure moving from an AA to a B cup would increase many a teen girl’s self-esteem - - just as a nose job or fixing the ears might. Or, as my own D has requested (which I have denied), laser surgery to remove stretch marks on her back.</p>
<p>If physical attractiveness comes mostly from attitude, then why carve up your nose or pin back your ears or get the chin implant? Isn’t the boob job just an extension of the glam culture? </p>
<p>I recently watched a morning show segment regarding “ethinic” cosmetic surgery - - black women getting their noses done, Asian women getting their eyes done (I’m not kidding) and young in their 20s getting botox to prevent aging. After the various video clips, one young woman remarked that she felt pressure to look perfect, but she concluded that b/c of all the products/procedures available these days, perfectin was possible, so why not “go for it”? (Yikes!!)</p>
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Many people try to improve their self-esteem through cosmetic surgery and fail. It really depends on the individual. Some people go about this in a healthy way, and some people don’t. That’s why this is such dangerous territory.</p>
<p>The “depends on the indiv” standard is too fluid for me. If “it depends,” then at least in theory, some 18 yr olds (on the virge of adulthood) must be capable of making a healthy decision about breast augmentation. I believe there were similar arguments and outrage when adolescents started getting nose jobs.</p>
<p>The breast augmentation is just the latest sympton. And even the less-invasive procedures are unhealthy (young girls getting contacts, not to correct their vision, but just to change their eye color to something lighter or unnaturally “exotic”), b/c the pressure for women to look “better” for longer is inherently unhealthy.</p>
<p>(Tellingly, a black friend w/ short, coarse hair refers to her monthly tirp for a perm, extensions and dye job as “going to get a self-hate.” And don’t get me started on that awful Special K commericial where the mom diets an takes back a pair of “too small” jeans from her teen daughter.)</p>