Always be yourself... unless you suck.

One thing I hate to see is kids . . . big ones not toddlers . . . with a pacifier corked into their mouth. There comes a time when a kid is just to old to be sucking on a rubber teat.

I’m not against binkies, per se.  I think that they are an acceptable means for a child to comfort themselves. 

In fact, I think it’s better than allowing a child to suck their thumb.  Why?  Because thumbsucking is a harder habit to break . . . a pacifier you can take away . . . a thumb you can’t.

Anyhoo, my son was an avid nook sucker.  He had scads of the things.   I have to admit it was awfully cute when he would spin it around in his mouth.

When he would fall asleep at night, his pacifier would inevitably flip out of his mouth and end up falling into the space between the bed and the wall.  Where, eventually, there would be a whole big pile of them.    I would periodically retrieve and wash them.

So the day came when I thought it was appropriate to wean him off his pacifiers.  This was his second birthday. 

I sat him down and told him that he was a big boy now and that he was getting to old to be needing a pacifier.  I told him that when he lost the last pacifier that there wouldn’t be any more. 

One by one the nooks would make their way to the space between the wall and his bed from where I would retrieve them and discard them. 

The day finally came when the last pacifier met it’s demise.

My boy asked for one and I reminded him that we had made an agreement and he resigned himself to being binky free.  And he managed just fine.