Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I Broke My Son's Heart Tonight

The binkies are finally gone.  Yes, my 3 this July, walking, talking boy still slept with his beloved binkies.  Today he happily traded them in at the toy store for this cool piano.  Needless to say, the piano is of little comfort at bedtime.  He told me to take it back & get his binkies.

This is by far the hardest bit of parenting I've done thus far.  Harder than letting him cry it out at 8 months.  Harder than taking the bottle away.  Harder than dropping him off at his mother's day out program while he wailed for yet another kiss.  He cried & cried like his little heart was breaking & I feel like the worst mother alive.

6 comments:

lara said...

oh no. i feel that we will be heading the same way. grant uses his "ice" (i have not idea where he got that from) to fall asleep. not sure how we are going to resolve it...best, lara

alp2295 said...

Stick with it! : ) You'll be glad you did, and this will soon be a distant memory (It will also soon be replaced with another "hardest thing I've done as a parent" - something to look forward to, right!?)

John Hendrix said...

I'm proud of you! (and jack!)

Cool piano.

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine told me how her already 3 year old son gave his binky up willingly when it was time, making her such a proud mom, until later that evening when she found him bawling hysterically, digging through the trash trying to find it. I think binky withdrawal is a very common occurrence!

Rebecca said...

Hey John & Andrea,
Rebecca Stevenson here, of CC fame...I just discovered your blog today and was catching up on your super cute son!! He is very adorable! I sympathize with you about the binky thing, although with my kids, it's a thumb...and you can't take a thumb away. darn. My son, Isaac, is almost 4 and still sucks his thumb to go to sleep. The doctor said it would mess up his speech, but he is doing fine. My daughter Elizabeth (who is 2) is much worse about the thumb. She sucks it like there's no tomorrow. There have been times I actually could not pry her thumb out of her mouth!!! I have to say, her teeth are a little messed up and her speech is not as good as Isaac's was at her age. I'm not sure if it's the thumb or the fact that I had a 17 month old when she was born so I basically couldn't give her enough attention.... hmmm... :) She'll be fine I'm sure. Anyway, I have rambled. I really hope your cute little family is doing just great!!! You can look at my blog to see my little munchkins...

www.stevenson4.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

This brings back some memories. We had a similar binkie experience. My eldest daughter (who is now 12), used the binkie to go to sleep. Prior to some birthday or other major event (I'd have to double-check with my wife), we told her that on that event, she would have to give up the binkie.

As the day approached, or perhaps ON the day, at bedtime she was looking sad and we asked her what the problem was. She stated, "I just realized that after today, I'm NEVER going to see my binkie again!"

Just the way she said that made it sound like she wasn't going to see her parents again! It totally broke our hearts. To this day, it is still the hardest thing as a parent we have done.