Banishment of the Binky: Day Four

A fellow binky lover

Last week, I saw a disturbing image online. And no, I'm not talking about the Japan quake and Pacific tsunami (although my heart goes out to the victims and I encourage anyone who is able to donate to disaster relief efforts). What I'm referring to in this post is a photo of nearly-five-year-old Suri Cruise with a pacifier in her mouth.

The nibble loves his bink, as we call it in our house. Shortly before he turned one, I thought I would gradually wean him from it by hiding it during the day. I also thought that he would ultimately leave it behind himself when he was ready. As he will be 15 months this week, and has not left it behind on his own (and has also figured out all of my hiding spots so he can stand there and point and say "bi" until I give in), I apparently was wrong on both counts.

After returning home with the hubby from a lovely evening of Morimito signature hour and the Flower Show, we saw that my dad had put the nibble to sleep without his binky. After I got over the initial shock of him sleeping soundly without bink, an image of binked Suri flashed into my mind and I decided that now was as good a time as ever to go cold turkey.

After giving me his typical morning 100-watt smile on Friday, he immediately asked for his bink. As soon as I lifted him out of the crib, he laid down on his belly to check if it had escaped under the crib. So I lovingly explained to him how the binky fairy had come last night to take his bink for a little tiny baby who really needed it. And since he was such a big boy now, he no longer needed it. I told him that I knew it would be hard, but I was so proud of him for being such a big boy and he could pick out a new toy when we went to the Toys"R"Us to get his cousin's birthday gift.

It's funny saying all that to a one-year-old. Who really knows how much of that he can actually comprehend and how much sounds like Charlie Brown teacher's gibberish? But he seemed pacified (no pun intended) with my answer, so we went about our day. All was going swimmingly and he hadn't even mentioned the bink until ... total meltdown in the Toys"R"Us. He had already devoured all of his diaper bag snacks and was yelling and pointing to the pocket in which I have our on-the-road binky. None of the 8 million different sorts of talking Elmos available would stop these tears. It took all of my willpower not to take out the binky and put a quick end to my first humiliating experience as that mom. You know, the one with the screaming-at-the-top-of-his-lungs kid who is oh-so-unsuccessfully trying to quiet him with sweet words and kisses. The one to whom I'm sure I've given a dirty look before I became a parent myself. Yes, that one.

And of course the lady in front of me at the checkout is trying to use six different coupons and they need to get a manager involved. I'm hardly justified in giving her a dirty look since I typically am doing the same thing. And if the hubby's there, we can get in separate lines and each use six different coupons. Anyway, the screaming and pointing continues until we get in the car and he falls asleep even before we've exited the parking lot. Guess all that screaming can really tire a little nibble out.

Fast forward four days and we're doing okay. It's still the first thing he asks for in the morning (and checks once again under the bed). Sure, there are times that I'm dying to get it out of hibernation and pop it in. It takes him longer to fall asleep and he suddenly doesn't need/want/can be persuaded to take a nap until much later in the afternoon. And a client asked if we had a third person on the line during a call (that I had scheduled for his typical naptime). But all-in-all, I don't believe it's been that terrible for any of us. And I can rest assured that my five-year-old nibble will be too busy flashing his pearly whites at the ladies to worry about his bink.