The Pacifier Princess
My daughter upon her arrival home from the hospital, fell in love with her pacifier. They have been inseparable ever since.
My son, however, never liked it. He would swoosh it around in his mouth a little and spit it out.
Is it a boob? Is it a bottle? Does milk come out of it in any way? No?
Then he didn’t want it.
Fast forward almost four years. R still has a pacifier.
Her reserve has dwindled and now she only owns two and those have seen their last day.
Now that their fourth (FOURTH!?!)birthday is coming up this weekend I decided drastic measures have to be taken. She has got to get rid of them.
I have tried to get her to give them to her new baby cousin last year but she wasn’t going for that.
Although she doesn’t use it very much at all, it still needs to go. I am not a fan of paying thousands of dollars for braces. Call me crazy.
I thought of a plan and called R into the room yesterday morning.
“now, that you are going to be four it means you are a really big girl now and sometimes we have things when we are small that we don’t need anymore when we get older.” “Like your pacifier” I told her.
“”Ok” she agreed.
“Good, I am glad we agree. Now, the pacifier princess is going to come when you are sleeping and take that pacifier from your bed and leave you a gift for being such a good girl.”
Then I waited for the uncontrollable crying and fit throwing.
It didn’t come.
“Ok!” she said “what kind of gift will I get?” “I am sure it will be a good one” I told her.
We talked about it again later and still no water works. Maybe my baby really is a big girl and realizes she doesn’t need her soothers like she used to.
I will have to let you know how it goes after the “pacifier princess” comes to our house.
I sure hope she leaves a terrific gift because that pacifier was worth its weight in diamonds!
pacifiers, nuks, giving up a pacifier, soothers, babies, infants, toddlers, parenting
January 15th, 2007 at 10:40 am
That’s a good idea, the Pacifier Princess. We took the advice of our care-giver and started weaning at 6 mos. He still has his lovies so I couldn’t imagine how hard it would be now because he’s not giving them up anytime soon.
January 17th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I was watching The View recently and Rosie O’Donnell (whom I personally can’t stand) was talking about the same thing. They have the “Paci Fairy” at their house.
January 17th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
That is funny, I had never heard of it, I thought I made it up!
it worked last night the pacifier princess came and took the pacifier and brought R a cute gift that she loves almost as much as her pacifier.
January 24th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
I think that is a great idea. I’m trying to figure out how to get my 18-month-old to give his up. He normally only uses it at bedtime now but I have a feeling it is going to be a big struggle. I’m not sure he will understand the pacifier princess or fairy concept at this age though.
October 16th, 2007 at 9:41 am
[...] The Giving Tree by Erinn My daughter took to her pacifier almost immediately after birth. L, my son, hated it and never took to it. R, though, loved it. it helped her sleep, with teething and to sooth herself when she needed it. Three years later and she still had her pacifier habit. How were we going to get it away from her we wondered. Although she only used it at bedtime at this point, she was very reluctant to give it up and we had a tough problem on our hands. You can read about how we finally got it away from her here. [...]