Say "adios" to the binky! Today was Carly's first dentist appointment, during which we learned that Carly has beautiful teeth. Also during the visit, as prompted by the "what can we do for you today" portion of the patient intake form that I carefully completed, the dentist mentioned to Carly that she should stop using her binky. Carly nodded in agreement, perhaps encouraged by the glistening coin that the dentist gave her to retrieve a prize from the prize machine, and we left the office happy as clams.
The rest of the day went something like this: We arrived home. Carly ran to tell Greg the good news that it was time to throw away the binkies (I should note here that she rejected the idea of mailing them to needy children, so we really need to get on the wagon as far as attending mass more regularly). She ran upstairs, retrieved the 4 binkies from her binky bucket and threw them in the trash can. We left and went to an activity-filled playgroup. Upon returning home at naptime, she promptly headed upstairs, grabbed Ga, and had a total all-systems failure binky meltdown. We quickly went through the 5 stages of grieving (again, that Death & Dying class from Marian comes in handy!):
Denial - "I am not a big girl, I am a baby!!!"
Anger - "I will not take my nap. No nononononononononononononono mommy!"
Bargaining - "You stay here mommy, I'm going to get my binkies out of the trash." "Pleeeeaaaaase mommy, I neeeeeeeeeed my binky!"
Depression - hysterical sobbing
Acceptance - "Okay, I'm happy mommy, you can leave." This was a fake-out, since she never went to sleep and continued the previous 4 steps for about an hour and a half.
I was prepared for a similar experience this evening, so I armed myself with two very, very useful tools.
1.
(This was for me, not Carly.)
2.
Some may say this was an unfair scare tactic. Dr. Dentist might not approve of me using her brochure about tooth decay to falsely convince my toddler that binkies will rot her teeth and make them fall out. They are both right, but sometimes you just have to do what works. I had my little talk with Carly and you can be damned sure that that picture had her asleep without the binky in less than 5 minutes.
Ta da!
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