Choosing your battles

Zoe is my fourteen year old daughter. She does wild things with her hair. It's been black, pink, purple, silver, blue, green, platinum, and everything in between. She's naturally a blonde, I think. At least she was the last time that I saw her hair it's natural color. I think she was ten. Traditional wisdom would tell you that if you let your child do wild things you are asking for trouble, but I don't feel that way. I want my children to know that each decision I make for them is based on what I feel they have shown me I can expect from them, and from real consideration on the long standing effects that these decisions could have on their lives. Hair grows (or can be stripped out and re-colored for a mere $150) Facial piercings and tattoos are another thing.For the most part Zoe gets positive reinforcement on her color choices, but a lot of people ask me if I really think I should let her do that, or how I feel about it. I feel great! It's who she is. She is vivacious and jubilant, and probably hot pink by nature. Besides, I get to have a real live doll working at my store, and you can't go wrong with that.