LOL, this is definitely not a problem in my opinion for a mother to have the child's ears pierced at a young age. For christ's sake, at least she's not one of those "if your ears are pierced your a slut and going to hell" mothers! also i'd like to add the benefits of having the ears pierced early: decreased likelihood of an allergic reaction to the metal; decreased chances of scar tissue in the holes; decreased likelihood of the holes closing up later in life. Ok, now for the second part, what on earth would make you consider this "sickening" ? Babies get shots all the damned time! I'm sure that those shots are a tad more painful than having the soft cartilage of the ear pierced.
Any age is fine, depending on the parents' discretion. I've seen babies with their ears pierced before. I got mine pierced when I was then. I manually pierced a second hole in my left ear without infection of any sort. I got lucky, I suppose.
i asked my mum if i could have it done when i was five and let me have them done, i had my belly button peirced at 13. alot of people said that that was wrong and i needed to be 14.