Elementary Kids Get Handsy With Breast Implants
Makenzie on 7 Apr 2011 at 12:00am
Kids at Shady Grove Elementary have gotten some hands-on experience that most won't gain without a visit to their neighborhood plastic surgeon.
For a recent career day, a plastic surgeon parent brought in breast implants and let the kids handle them as part of the presentation.
When word spread to other parents, there was outrage.
Jacquie Kelley’s 10-year-old daughter attends Shady Grove, though she wasn’t present for career day. “I think they're a little young to be having this discussion and with everything going on with body issues and...bullying and stuff like that you don't need to add that to the mix," she said to NBC12.
Others weren’t so appalled. "I think if he was talking about it in the medical sense and trying to explain to him that sometimes this happens to people then I'm comfortable with that," said Marie Bradt, whose 10-year-old son felt the implants.
We see a lot of questions on RealSelf about the appropriate age for cosmetic procedures, and the general consensus (for aesthetic procedures) seems to be that a person should be emotionally stable, mature enough to understand the pros and cons, and the body part in question needs to be fully developed.
Most 9 to 12-year-olds do not fit into these categories, so should they even be exposed to the option of body alteration before they grow into their own?
What do you think? Would you have consented to this at your child's school?
See what RealSelf plastic surgeons would have done with their children.
More on kids and cosmetic surgery:
Having said that, I WOULD allow my child to feel a breast implant and discuss it in terms of medical procedures. Implants are not just for augmentation: ask any breast cancer survivor.
Children are naturally curious, and it doesn't hurt to remove the mystery and answer questions.