everyone meet gage berger.
he is six years old.
he was getting bullied because of the size of his ears.
well to hell with faked sicknesses and endless amounts of therapy!
his parents did the next best thing…
A six-year-old Utah boy underwent cosmetic surgery after bullies at his school teased him on the size of his ears. Gage Berger, a child in first grade, was often called “elf ears” by classmates—according to Berger’s parents Tim and Kallie. Out of fear that being bullied at such a young age would hurt Berger’s mental health in the long-term, his parents decided surgery was the best solution.
But while most of us had to deal with bullies the “old fashioned way” (fight back or simply ignore it), Berger’s parents feel like the operation was worth it to avoid life-long issues.
Speaking to The New York Daily News, plastic surgeon Dr. Tracy Pfeifer notes that it’s “not unusual for a child to have ear surgery at a relatively young age.” Steven J. Pearlman, MD, a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, said that the surgery was reasonable decision, pointing out that when children are bullied, “it’s harder to make friends so they become socially stunted. They are also perceived as less intelligent by peers and even adults.”
However, Child and Family Psychologist Dr. Karen Caraballo, finds the choice concerning. While she understands that bullying can have long-term psychological effects, there should be other steps taken before having a child go under the knife. These include ignoring the bullies, finding other activities for the child outside of school, and simply promoting a positive body image.
It’s understandable that Berger’s parents would want to help ease their child’s schoolyard suffering, but this may be a touch too far.
here is gage now:
and video:
aaaaah to be rich and white.
well i will admit that he looks better.
happier too.
at that age,
you still are growing into your looks.
we all can’t run to a plastic surgeon to look like this:
you know ^that suddenly makes life all better.
i dunno tho.
i was bullied as a cub.
i was really quiet,
shy,
and hated how i looked.
that made me a target.
i told my parents,
they came down to my school,
and i was bullied even more!
now my bullies are all dead beats and jail birds.
i learned how to be strong by learning how to ignore.
it was hell going to school,
but i got through it.
now i’m amazing,
outspoken,
and people respect me.
even tho i have my moments,
we all still suffer from our own insecurities.
that’s life.
i feel the parents of this cub are wrong.
at the same time tho,
did it put a band-aid on his bullying?
what if someone doesn’t like his small lips?
his beady eyes?
the shape of his head?
…What next?
almost all of the time,
the things people bullied us for,
are the same things people love us for.
they do say your flaws are what make you beautiful.
…right?
article taken: yahoo news
He looked solo cute with the ears.
This was such an unnecessary surgery. Instead of teaching him he’s enough as he is, they taught their child that if bullies/society finds you aesthetically unpleasing that you have conform. Mind you this is a six year old child. If he got surgery, it would be a decision he would have had to made in his adult life. What if he goes to school and the bullying continues because he’s looked at as a punk for submitting to bullying? Plus, bully’s will find anything to fuck with you about. If its not his new ears, it most definitely be something else. I can only imagine what procedure’s he’ll get once he hits puberty and his looks really start to get awkward.
Well the bullying has stopped,he loves going to school and he is happy.
His ears were not large, they just protruded out farther than normal, which gave him the “elf” appearance that he was bullied about.
I think that this parents did the right thing to get his ears fixed, because his ears were extremely large. It’s hard for a parent to see their kid hurting. I’m not trying to be mean but his ears didn’t look normal. I feel that his parents still should teach him that you can’t fix all your issues with plastic surgery.
These parents know their child.This is not their only child.Only they know how this bullying has affected his self esteem.Only they know if it has caused depression or thoughts of suicide.There are dozens of cases of kids as young as 6 who have committed suicide.As a parent I would do whatever it takes to save my child’s life.Until I have walked in their shoes with a child who is pain than I won’t judge their decision.
Nah, his parents should not have allowed the surgery, growing up, the vast majority of children will be bullied for whatever reason, if it is not one thing it is another. Trust and believe me when I say this, his bullies will be determined to find another reason to bully the kid.
Let’s be honest, that wasn’t just large ears, they were humongous, like dumbo. It’s so easy to say “teach him to ignore the bullies”, yeah but he’s 6, he definitely cannot ignore them, no child can ignore mean comments at that age. Sometimes they say “be strong”, and yes sometimes it works but sometimes it doesn’t, and the child’s self confidence is irremediably damaged. would i have had his ears done if i was his father? Nope. But i get why they did that and i don’t judge them, each parent does his best to make their children live the easiest possible. And don’t speak about loving yourself blah blah blah, children get their teeth fixed all the time to have that perfect smile, why not the ears?
Hey, J, I like you a lot and visit your site daily. Sincerely not trying to argue with you. 🙂
I guess we are disagreeing about his ears being medically termed as ‘deformed.’ They are. Please Google ‘deformed ears.’ Not only are they deformed, but they are indicative of further health issues.
Rest assured he won’t get teased for small lips.
^ lurker i like you as well.
you always leave great comments and drop some low key dirt in the process lol
i am going to do some research on this.
i could just be ignorant on the issue.
also no arguing as the foxhole is the place for good debate.
im going to sniff around and see what I learn about this.
One last thing. I had a friend in high school that was born with a lazy eye. There was an issue with a nerve connecting to one of her eyes. The other worked fine. This caused her left eye to move a lot slower and not operate congruently. Her parents were low income and couldn’t afford the corrective surgery at the time. She didn’t have corrective surgery until after middle school. By this time, her self-esteem was shot. Haven’t spoken to her since college, but she was still deeply insecure.
If I have a child born with sever acne, I am going to take him to the dermatologist. I’m not going to let go and let God. If I have a child born a with benign tumor on her cheek, I’m not going to leave it there to build her character. I’ll have it removed.
Off topic: Are you going to make a post about Iyanla Vanzant’s 3 part series on D.L. pastors? It’s been interesting. Something about her screams: “I sacrifice chickens and practice voodoo.”
^again all deformities.
he is 6 years old and is still growing into something that was a cosmetic procedure.
if the ears caused him not to hear properly,
then they would be considered a deformity.
this was simply an act of vanity to lazy parents who didn’t want to teach their child how to overcome adversity.
nothing more or less.
ill check out that iyanla!
as soon as I find some links,
ill make sure to watch!
thanks lurker for the comments and the tips!
Sorry. I agree with the parents. The kid was born with a deformity and the parents corrected it. This is not the same as Kylie Jenner being born with thin lips and flat ass.
I was born with 12 fingers. This runs on my dad’s side of the family. The doctors removed my extra fingers after I was born. My hands now look normal. I am grateful for this. I have a nephew that was born with a misshapen head. He had to wear a helmet to correct it. He looks normal now and never had an opportunity to be teased about it.
God forbid one of your readers be born with a cleft lip or a hump back. Don’t fix it. It will build their character, right?
^12 fingers = deformity
misshaped head = deformity
hump back = deformity
large ears… is not the same as any of those things.
beyoncé has said she was taunted by her classmates over her large ears.
judging from recent pictures,
matty matt and miss tina never looked into surgery.
now what happens when he gets teased for his small lips?
is that a deformity as well?
All of the things you have mentioned; 12 fingers, misshapen head, cleft lip, and hump back are things I wouldn’t have an issue having surgery for, at all, don’t get me wrong. Now, if his ears are a medical issue, than we can start from there, but based off of what I was reading above, it sounded a lot more cosmetic, than medical. Again, he’s 6 years old, how do we know he won’t grow into them? If it’s clear that he won’t (which you will never know for sure until he actually does grow into them) then maybe its not a bad idea to have the surgery.
Believe me, I know what it’s like to be bullied for deformities, I have a rare skin condition that was much more severe as a child. It covered my whole body. I’ve been to dermatologists after dermatologists just to be told there is no cure and barely any treatment. After doing my own research Ive found a way to safely treat my skin to the point where it appears “normal”. Its not like I don’t know what I am talking about, I’ve been there I’ve been teased, treated like a freak, had to deal with major self-esteem issues etc. If there was a surgery to get rid of it, I would have taken it already, but here’s the thing, there’s no growing out of it for me, like there’s no growing out of 12 fingers, it makes sense to get such a corrective surgery if one was available. My concerns were focused around an uncertain situation about a child’s growth development in which he could probably wait at LEAST a few more years, let the child’s body breathe first.
There are certain things that are more imminent (12 fingers, cleft lip, skin disorders etc) that require medical intervention, and others are more on a “wait and see” basis (unusually large or small ears, limbs etc) The underlying theme of this story is not “medical correction” but its “oh my god, i dont want my child to be bullied for having big ears” If its something that needs tending to, tend to it, im not saying to leave something IMMINENT alone for the sake of character building alone. NOT what I’m saying.
Not trying to be argumentative, but I needed to clear that up. There is a very important distinction there that I don’t want to have misconstrued.
This is truly a sad moment in our time this just speaks volumes to how far our society has degenerated down the drain its really fucked up when you can’t be your natural self even as child I feel really bad for this young man who at an early age was forced to mutilate himself just to fit in and get likes to make other insecure people feel comfortable with him its truly disgusting.
Yikes. He looks crazy now. He woulda loved those ears in 15 years when girls will want to grab them and lick on them. That’s the thing, you eventually embrace the insecurities and there’s somebody who finds them sexy.
^yup.
sadly with those ears,
im sure he heard every single one those insults.
He looks weirder AFTER the surgery than before it. The tapered the ears too close to his head.
Lol, its not like a 6 year old boy is going to grow into his looks or anything, you know, since we all stop growing at 6 so might as well rush and get the surgery now since he’s done growing! (<<<sarcasm)
Here's an opportunity to teach the young child about self-esteem, and learning how to cope with negativity, and they promote the easy (not so easy) way out. They just confirmed that the boy had a reason to have a complex as opposed to teaching him the valuable lesson about LEARNING to love and accept yourself, and that we all have differences etc. My generation and our parents generation are seriously full of pathetic people. A lot of people shouldn't have kids, there is just too much stupidity out here. Don't even get me started on the implications of this surgery for this little boy and his self-esteem going forward. Smh.
Whatever lol, its not my child.
^love this d!
I don’t know, this one makes you think.. I think this is one of those decisions that really comes down to what the parents want to do. They could toughen up their child through this or they can just do the surgery before their son has permission to do it himself.
For me, I think that’s crazy as hell. Mainly because I don’t have that kind of budget. I feel like that’s something their child should decide himself at a later age, seems like they did this out of the blue and right after the problem started.
I thought the ears were cute. But yeah, I don’t really think the surgery will be beneficial in the long term.
But he’s happy, so I guess all is good for now…
^”for now”.
that’s the problem.