So here is a little sneak peak into how I parent my children through transitions: I over analyze and research some thing until I have read everything in the first three pages of the Internet on it. Then I drag my feet a little, because change is HARD, amIright?
Then one day, out of the blue, I decide “Ah, what the hell.” And we do it. Right now.
The toddler is 19 months old today. Up until yesterday, she still used a “binkie” at bedtime and naps. I kept thinking it was about time to transition out of using it. She wasn’t really all that dependent on it anyway–in the car she would fall asleep without it, and she only ever had it at the beginning of the night. The rest of the night it was buried in the corner of the crib.
So was it really that big of a deal for her to have it? Probably not. Except I worried that the longer we used it, the harder it would be to let it go when the time came. And with new baby arriving in 7 weeks, did I really want to have to keep track of who had what binkie? No.
And also there is the matter of dear, sweet, wonderful husband. Husband does not love conflict, and binkie was a peacekeeping tool for him. It had recently come to my attention that he might have been more dependent on it than she was. Despite my repeated reminders that “binkies are for bedtime only,” one keeps appearing in her mouth at odd times, like in the stroller in the middle of the day. Or on her way to brush her teeth.
So two nights ago before bed, I decided, as usual, “Ah, what the hell.” And we laid her down with no binkie.
She did lecture us from her crib for a little while. That roller coaster of toddler emotions is a hard train to ride, let me tell you. When you’re on it, you’ll do almost anything to stop the train and get off. But, in reality, it was a relatively painless ride. She never did the dreaded “sad” cry. Just her babble-version of letting us know that she was questioning our competence as parents for forgetting something so obvious.
Three times we had to go in and distract her from her harassment with some snuggles. And then she fell asleep.
The next day, she napped and went to bed with no binkie and no complaints at all.
Huh. That was easy.
Hopefully all our upcoming “ah, what the hell” moments go as smoothly as this one.