I have restricted usage of pacifiers to bed and nap time for my kids. From the moment they wake up, the pacifiers would be taken away from them. In a way, it has/had been good, because my kids would associate pacifier with sleep and once the pacifiers are popped into their mouth, they are conditioned to fall asleep on their own.
However with Laetitia turning 3, I really want her to lose her pacifiers. She had 3, a yellow, a transparent and a transparent with some red - all old and smelly!
6 months to Laetitia's 3rd birthday, I started telling her about the story of "The Pacifier Fairy", it was inspired by one of Laetitia's storybook on the tooth fairy. I took the story and tweaked it to make it mine.
I told her that when she turns 3, the Pacifier Fairy would come and visit her because she would be old enough to 'donate' her pacifiers. The Pacifier Fairy is a fairy who gathers pacifiers from older children and give to little babies who need them more.
There is even a ritual to send her pacifiers off to the fairy. Laetitia would have to string her pacifiers up and choose a sacred tree which she would hang the pacifiers on the tree. Then when no one is looking, the Pacifier Fairy would come and retrieve them, but she would not leave Laetitia empty-handed. In the place of her old pacifiers, the fairy would hang a surprise present for her good work done.
I repeated the story for time to time for the next 6 months and finally it was Laetitia's birthday. Instead of hating to part with her pacifiers, she was motivated to 'donate' them away.
We followed through the ritual according to the story and had the pacifiers stringed up and hung over a tree chosen specially by Laetitia, herself.
That night, Laetitia collapsed into her bed after a evening of partying, I took the opportunity to 'play' fairy. I drew her a card and wrote her a "Thank you" message and then placed the card and a charm beside her bed.
The next morning, Laetitia woke up and saw the card, as she has not learn to read, I read the card out aloud to her. I told her the fairy had came to visit her last night after collecting her pacifiers, and the fairy had left this "bling bling" present and a card to thank her for the pacifiers. Laetitia totally bought the story and seemed very pleased with herself.
Even though the next few nights were pretty rough, Laetitia was tossing and struggling to sleep without sucking something in her mouth, she didn't ask to have Leonitus's pacifier, and not even once did she mentioned she wanted her pacifier back.
Perhaps, we would meet the Pacifier Fairy again in another two years, that's if Leonitus still has his pacifiers before his 3rd birthday.
So how did you lose your child's favorite little sucky?
2 comments:
I am going to try this on Emily. She only has 1 tutu n I usually just change a new one whenever the old ones shows signs of wear n tear. At first I thought she'll not like a new tutu, n give-up sucking the new one n then it'll be the end of tutu for her n me. But no lor, she seems even happier having a new tutu, change brands doesn't affect her too. I did let her suck on torn tutu tooz, thinking she will Find it different n give up. But no lor! She sucks it just like before! Btw I also restrict tutu usage during nap n bedtime only. Still she is stuck to it, machim like bf n gf like that. Shall start the tutu fairy on her soon, btw can I have the scripts ;)
Here is the "script":
Once a upon a time, there was a Pacifier Fairy who would visit little boys and girls who are old enough to give up their pacifiers for the little babies.
Leo, the lion (can be any character she is familiar with) is turning 3 tomorrow (can be any age). Leo's mother brought him a long piece of ribbon and told him that he is all grown up now, so he doesn't need his pacifier anymore. Leo was to string his pacifier with the ribbon and follow his mother.
They came to an old tree, Leo's mother says this is a special moment for Leo, when Leo hangs the pacifier on the tree, he will be officially a big boy and there will be a surprise waiting for him.
As Leo hung up his pacifier, there was a shooting star that flashed through the night sky. Leo's mother pointed to it and told Leo that it was the Pacifier Fairy that had visited.
Sure enough, in place of Leo's old pacifier, there was a glittering silver badge that says "Thank you, Leo."
Leo wore his badge proudly, he knew he had done a good deed and he is a big boy who doesn't suck on pacifier from now on. The End.
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