Bye Bye Binkie

Caleb gave up the binkie. Reluctantly, and really without much of a choice, but it's gone.

We've tried to get rid of the binkie before and I felt like we were traumatizing him. He just wasn't ready. When pre-school started in July we decided not to let him take the binkie with him. He would have to do naptime at school without it. And he did, every day without difficulty he took a nap with no binkie. At home was another story. The more I read into when it becomes a problem for tooth development and speech impairment I decided it was still ok as long as it was ONLY for bed (check) and as long as he wasn't trying to talk with it in his mouth. Ding! Problem. Just because the binkie went in the mouth at bedtime didn't mean he stopped talking. And no amount of effort on our part could get him to stop talking with it.

So I sabotaged it.

Friday afternoon while Caleb was at school I cut two tiny slits in the binkie rendering it useless for soothing sucking. At bedtime when he asked for it I gave it to him like nothing was wrong, like every other night. We started reading a story and he chewed on it funny. He stopped me from reading and said "can you wash this please?" So I did, and kept reading. He stopped me again, "Can you wash it again? It needs water." I did. Then he said "Maybe I can wash it?" Sure. I let him do that twice and we got back to reading. "Something is wrong with my beedy. Look. And it sounds funny." I gave it a once over like I had no idea what was going on, didn't make a big deal out of it. "I'm sure it's ok."

"No, mamma, it's ruined."

"Oh no, it must be broken. What should we do?"

"Nothing. Lets do nothing."

So he set it down next to him and I finished the story. Bed time took about 45 more minutes after the story but he never but the binkie back in his mouth. He just let it sit there next to him, as if that were comfort enough. In the morning when he asked for it I reminded him that it was broken. He said he was sad. I told him was sad, too.

"What should we do with a broken binkie?"

"Throw it away."

And he ran into the kitchen and threw it in the trash. I told him how proud I was of him for being such a big boy and did a little happy dance when he couldn't see. Saturday night he didn't want to go to bed and we both fell asleep on the couch. But he only asked for the binkie once and let it go when I reminded him that it was broken. We'll see how tonight goes. No turning back now, though. It was the only binkie he had, and it's in the trash.