Hawk?

My youngest son knows what he wants out of life. And right now he wants an Afro Mohawk. Yeah. You read that right. The dude wants to be Mr. T. Or, something. Except he's three and he has no idea who Mr. T is.

His hair was getting a little long and he hates when his hair is longer than half a centimeter because that means that I just might come after him with a comb and I might as well just send an angry pack of wolves to tear him to shreds before feasting on his flesh.

In other words, kid hates having his hair combed.

So, for several days in a row, he asked me to cut it.

And by cut it, he means shave it all off.

Usually.

He was very specific that he wanted me to use his daddy's neck shaving razor and not the actual hair clippers. Once we'd established that, he put his hands up as if to say, "Wait." Then he gave me step by step instructions.

"Cut it here," he said as he touched his hand to the side of his head. "And cut it here," he said as he touched the other side of his head. "But I want hair right here. Don't cut it here," he motioned along the top of his head as he explained it to me.

"YOU WANT A MOHAWK?" I squeaked, loudly.

"Yeah!" he grinned. "A mohawk!"

I honestly had no intention of leaving it. I mean, really. But I figured I'd shave the rest off first. He felt the top of his head, smiled from ear to ear (and you know how ridiculous his smile is and you know I simply can't withstand its magnetic pull), and ran to look in the mirror. "Thank you, Mommy!"

The problem is it isn't terribly straight. We explained to him that we would need to take the rest off before church. And before school. And, well, before anyone saw him like that. But we did tell him that he could have it all day today. And tomorrow.

It's one of those parenting moments where I'm torn. On the one hand, it's his head, the afro mohawk isn't hurting anyone, and it's what he wants to look like. Nothing about it is permanent. It's not like he's asking us to let him tattoo a mermaid on his arm or something. On the other hand, it...it makes him look like a member of the A-Team. Not that there is anything wrong with looking like Mr. T but Matthew is only three.

His head is turned in that last one. Even I, who have relatively little no experience with mohawks (afro or otherwise), wouldn't create a 'hawk that was that off center.

So, what say you? Am I a horrible parent for even letting him sport it for two days because I'm the adult and he's the child and as long as he's living under my roof he's wearing his hair the way I want him to? Or am I a horrible parent for considering shaving it off because I'm not letting him express himself in an age appropriate and perfectly safe way? Either way I'm sure I'm screwing him up for life and dooming him to hours on a couch with sessions that begin with, "My mother..."

I'll tell you one thing. When I was ten-years-old and dreaming about my future children, not once did I imagine a scenario where I was losing sleep over whether or not to let my kid sport an afro mohawk.