Clare has been a binky-kid since about birth.  I blame us, since we obviously introduced it to her.  But it’s served us well and has been a source of comfort for her in times of stress.  Last summer, about the time she turned 2, we started working pretty hard to make sure that “binky is for sleeping.”  I hate the look of toddlers running around with binkies in their mouths.  It stayed in her bed pretty much all the time, except when she conned us into keeping it out (see picture below) or when we were traveling on long car or airplane trips.  I’ve periodically raised the issue that one day she won’t have a binky, and we’ve even watched the “Bye-Bye Binky” Sesame Street episode about a dozen times, but Clare had firmly declared that she loves her binky and won’t give it up.  Ever.  Thank you very much.

Unfortunately for Clare, her dentist has other recommendations and it’s my job as a parent to ensure that her health and safety come before her happiness.  It’s a crappy part of the parent-job sometimes and I’ve been dreading the day when I have to take away the binky.  Fortunately for me, sort of, things came to a head this last week and we actually lost Clare’s binky one day.  We looked for it all over the house, texted Adam to see if he knew where it as, and ultimately had to break the news to Clare that the binky was gone.

It was a sad night, and there was some wailing and mourning, but I held her in the chair, rubbed her back, sang my lullaby repertoire, and she went to sleep that night for the first time without her beloved binky.  At one point during the binky-mourning she looked up at me with tears running down her little face and said “did you take it because binky’s are for babies?”  I assured her that I hadn’t taken her binky and after that she seemed to relax.  Since then she’s asked for the binky a few times, but no more tears.  She still has her beloved blanky and teddy bear, so it’s not like we’ve thrown her out into the cold, cruel world without any comfort.

So, good-bye old Binky-friend.  You’ve seen Clare through some hard times but now she’s ready to move on.  Thank you for all of your support.

*So we actually did find the binky, but it wasn’t until Clare was starting to wind down and go to sleep so J and I made the executive decision to stay with the program.  Someday Clare will read this and find out that, yes, Mom and Dad lied to her about the binky.  Sorry kiddo.  We’ll deal with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy in another post.