Kicking the Habit

I think, when it's time to transition your child from one phase of his babyhood to the next, not only does the baby need to be ready, but the mommy needs to be ready, too. For instance, potty training. Even if the kid shows all the signs and seems ready, if Mommy's not ready, it ain't gonna happen.

That's how I was with Micah's binkie. My two oldest never really liked binkies, but boy, oh, boy, did Micah ever love his. I couldn't get him to go to bed without it. It calmed him down when he was in one of his inevitable mood swings (the kid is a toughie). I knew, when his front teeth were looking a little bucked, that it was probably time to let the binkie go, but I, as a busy, sick, pregnant mom, just was not ready to give that up. I did succeed in making binkies only a bedtime and naptime deal, but I wasn't ready to cut them out completely.

I was talking to my mom about it maybe a week ago. My sister, Beads, was an enormous binkie fan. I remember sitting on our couch, finishing a book, and crying, because the book was so sad. (I'm a sensitive girl.) Beads came up to me (she was two or so at the time), saw me crying, and took her binkie out of her mouth, offering it to me. So dang cute.

Mom knew she had to break Beads of the binkie, but just couldn't get herself to do it. She would throw the binkies away, and then find herself, later, frantically digging through the garbage, disinfecting the binkies, and continuing with Beads' binkie habit. Ma told me that she finally had to cut off the sucky part of each binkie before throwing them into the garbage. That way, she couldn't dig them out to use them. And she didn't want to go spend money on more binkies.

I told Ben about what Mom did all those years ago, and he said, "Well, let's do it!"

"I don't know if I'm ready, Ben. Plus, if we ruin all of these binkies, what will we do for the baby that's coming later this year?" Yes, I am too cheap to go buy a bunch more.

"How about if I hide the binkies from you? That way, we won't throw them away, but we can break Micah of the habit."

"Wellll, okay..."

Ben was lazy. He put them on a shelf that I sometimes walk by. I totally used one the next day for Micah's nap. I'm like a drug junkie, I swear. Ben discovered the binkies that evening and chastized me, and then really hid them well. I haven't been able to find them since.

It's been several days now, and we're actually doing okay!! It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I've had to kind of replace binkies at night and bedtime with a sippy cup full of water, and that seems to have done the trick. So someday I'll have to break him of the sippy cup. But at least I'm out of binkie land. Until the next little person comes into our life.