I hate

I went all the way to 16mm and was able to wear a double flared plug with no blowouts, its easy and healthy if you just take your time.
I also took my time because if I ever wanted to take them out I knew they would relax down to a small size, and now they are down to around 5mm I think, not gonna get any smaller though.

Yeah, mine are down to 10mm which I'm pretty stoked about tbh. I think if I'd waited a few years it'd be much worse.

Too many kids are impatient these days!

They are impatient - I see kids getting their ears scalpeled from almost nothing to 10mm straight away, totally scary. But it's so much quicker going down the electrical tape route, esp once you factor in the unnecessary healing time. I can only imagine it's a fascination with unnecessary trips to the body mod shop.