When our children turn three instead of giving them some
super awesome gift that they are going to love, we choose to give them the gift
of torture instead. On their third birthday, they are forced to give up their
binkies. Now I know a lot of people kick the binky habit earlier but I let it
slide. Once they turn one it becomes only a nighttime thing and they are able
to keep it at night until they turn three. We talk it up a lot before how they will be
big kids when they are three and no longer need binkies since binkies are for
babies.
When Isabelle turned three it was not an easy transition.
She cried and cried the first night until she realized she could just steal
Henry’s binkies from his crib. Of course, she wouldn’t just steal one of them
but she would take them all from him. Starting at basically the age that they
can move, I always surround the baby with binkies so that at any turn he/she could
get one which increases my ability to have a full night’s sleep! Of course that doesn’t help their addiction
since they all started sleeping with binkies in their mouth and in each hand! So
back to poor Henry who was behind bars and unable to defend himself from his binky
stealing sister, he would obviously start crying. So for a few weeks, we played
this “game” although she eventually smartened up and waited for Henry to fall
asleep before she turned into a thief. Eventually though the thrill of it was
lost and she would fall asleep on her own without performing her nightly burglar
routine.
I thought that Henry would have a harder time with giving
them up since he seems like more of a baby at this age than Isabelle did. She
was always somewhat “advanced” for her age and if she had a hard time with it I
was afraid it would be a complete nightmare with Henry. Plus, he’s still in a crib
so he couldn’t get out to steal Daniel’s binks! So yesterday was Henry’s third birthday so we
had been prepping him for the big binky free night and I was prepping myself
for lots of tears. I brought him up to his crib, tucked him in, and reminded
him that he was big now and didn’t need his binkies. I saw a tiny little lip
quiver and I thought, “Oh no, here it comes!!!” but I offered him a few new
birthday cars to bring to bed instead and he was fine. Yup, HE WAS FINE. He did
not cry at all. He happily went to bed. He slept the whole night without waking
up. When he did wake up in the morning, he acted completely normal. It was as
if the binkies never even existed. I still can’t even believe it. It was
AMAZING.
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| This big kid is binky free! |
