Yes, indeed, this is the latest pic of my 16-year-old daughter, Shelby. She admits in her Deviant Art journal that she had some apprehension about doing it, and although I can't say as I really blame her, well, it's not like there's not precedent for it in her life. I mean, how big a difference is there between the #2 that I always use on the back and sides of my own head when I I get my hair cut and this? And in all honesty, if she's gonna do this, better she should do it when she's young, and can pull it off, than trying to do it at my age, and be viewed as almost comical. People have also said, "I was raised better than this, my parents would have NEVER let me do it!" How well-raised, what example, really, are any of us? The fact is there is no real "Parenting Instruction Manual," we're ALL essentially the product of trial and error on the part of our parents. If you live in a household where a divorce occurred somewhere along the way, you're saddled with the baggage that came from all that; the custody disputes, the accusations (sometimes sadly and painfully real,) of non-payment of child support, infidelity, the list goes on and on. Even in households that didn't go through a divorce, strife is part of being a family. You don't always like what your brother and sister have done, you think they got what you didn't, they were the favorites, and could do no wrong, whatever. Unless you were really well-off, and essentially got raised by a nanny or something, which means your parents are distant and cold to you. All of it is crap. If you've been a parent, unless you're the most heartless,  intentionally cruel individual God ever put on this earth, when it comes to your children, you don't pick favorites, you recognize differences. My concern in the case of my daughter is that it may be a severe hindrance when it comes to her job opportunities, which she's going to have to be thinking about at some point, but she's committed to being an artist, this may just be the look the employers she's interested in are looking for. Hair as self-expression. And all in all, much as I wouldn't do it myself, she's still beautiful, and still my child. I was a little miffed at her mother for being in on this whole project, but if it wasn't going well, and mom stepped in to help, well, that's the best response you can hope for, I guess. Few things are more scarring, at least temporarily, than a bad 'do. And I recognize, as well, that my child does a great many things purely for shock value. It's part of the Shelby territory. Other than that, I myself am probably just as responsible for who she and her sister both are as anyone else. My objective in raising them both is that they would be able to "run with the boys," and not be run over by them. What my children do proves that they're living up to my standards, not those of my ex, who seemed more interested in self-sabotage, low standards and a relative lack of creativity. Do you want the best for your children? Remember Proverbs 22:6;


Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.


I don't expect instantaneous results, I expected rebellion. I did it myself. I paid a heavy price for it, which, to a certain extent I will be paying for a long time to come. But I do see a payoff, I do see a light at the end of the tunnel, and for once, I think it is not that of an oncoming train. I've had far too many Wile. E. Coyote moments.