Dear Livia,
I cut your thumb today while clipping your nails. Sorry! Your father, if he reads this, will grit his teeth and say, “Just let it go. She’s not permanently harmed.” I know that. I’m not really upset. It’s a tiny cut and babies seem to have short memories for pain. I’m just using this incident as a jumping-off point for dispensing some motherly advice.
When your brother was your age, I didn’t clip his nails specifically because I was afraid of cutting him. I used to attempt to file them instead, a time-consuming process made difficult by the thinness of baby nails. No matter how often I filed them, he would scratch his face, sometimes quite badly. Many of his early baby pictures are marred by the red marks on his face.
For you, I confronted my fear and clipped your nails as often as necessary. Until today, we had no problems. With your shortened nails, you haven’t been able to do as much damage to your face, even when your mitts were off.
But now the worst has happened. I drew blood. You screamed. Then I gave you a bottle and you went straight to sleep. So it turned out that the worst wasn’t that bad.
I and many of the women I know suffer from rather silly, life-restricting fears. I don’t want you to follow in our footsteps. A healthy dose of caution is good for you, but never let fear keep you from doing the things that you need or want to do.
Love,
Mom