We go through many stages in life, and with each birthday, there is something that marks a coming of age. For my daughter, it was getting her ears pierced.

Now, I realize that doesn’t sound like a big deal to most folks. I see many girls, and boys for that matter, running around with holes in their lobes. But it has been sort of a rite of passage from the little girl who plays with dolls and acts silly most of the time into a preteen who is starting to consider how she looks.

It used to be that getting your ears pierced, if you were a girl, was a big deal. Rogue preteens and teenagers would defy their parents and use alcohol, sewing needles and a cork to do their first piercing.

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Now, however, parents are whisking them away to a mall or store to make holes in their lobes quickly and easily. No more needles, no more corks.

Many parents now get babies’ ears pierced. Why? Do they believe it’s less traumatic and as they grow up they won’t remember what happened?

The change to me, however, is somewhat difficult. Kathryn is still a little girl. She swears she will still be a daddy’s girl even when she’s old like me, and I will hold her to it. Still, it’s not the fact that she now has two more holes in her head. It is the fact that she is growing up and soon will be doing teen things. Then, there will soon come a time when a boy will ask her out. I can wait on that.

I marvel at how quickly I’ve reached this point in my life. When I was a teen aching to reach 18 so I could vote and drink (not necessarily in that order), my mom used to say that the older you get the faster time passes. At 16, the days seem to drag on; 18 was always out of reach. At 44, I’d like to apply the brakes a little.

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There hasn’t been any word on who won the $97 million Powerball. The winning ticket was sold in Metairie. I have relatives in the New Orleans area and I was hoping that I would find some long lost cousin who I could befriend, or at least send a few bills to.

Sometimes, my children and I will play the lottery game in which we would fantasize about what we would do with all of the money if we would win. That has changed over the years, too. When they were 6 or 7, it was easy to say that Daddy would get a new, big truck and I’d fill the back of the truck with toys for them.

Now, their toys have gotten more expensive and they can think of more stuff to buy. And they are learning the value of money. I used to be able to say, “If we win the lottery, I’ll give you both $1,000 each.” The children’s eyes would get big and the gasp at the imagery wealth before them.

If I would say that now, I would surely get bellyaching that $1,000 is so little compared to $97 million. So, with that in mind, I pledge here in writing that should I win $97 million or more, I’ll give them each $2,000, but they still have to do their chores.

JEFF ZERINGUE is managing editor of The Daily Iberian.