Maria Rushe tells us why she is taking the 'what-the-feck-ever' approach to the dummy situation.
Mammy was chancing her arm last night and going with the flow…or maybe making a HUGE mistake?
Mammy has been aware recently of some tuts and raised eyebrows recently about the fact that her almost-Threenager Beast-Baby still has not only ONE dodee, but THREE of them, attached to her “Dodee-cow”.
(The adorable cow head with four weird tags onto which the precious dodees are attached and adored.)
And despite Mammy’s usual “not-giving-a-singular-feck” attitude towards what others think of her parenting style and choices, Mammy has recently heard herself making excuses and explaining that they’ll be “going shortly”.
Why?
Fuck knows. Because let’s be honest, she won’t still be sucking at them and carrying them around when she’s 11, will she?
And really, they’re doing her NO harm whatsoever. They provide her with comfort. She rubs one on her cheek while the other one hangs out of her mouth like the fag (cigarette) of a 75 year old Popeye-type, and the third hangs as an emergency back-up at her belly.
I try not to give them to her during the day. And we’re down to “in the car” (if I want her to sleep) and “bedtime”. because Mammy likes to sleep…sue me.)
At playschool she doesn’t have them at all. In Granny’s, she doesn’t even ask. But when her lovely teacher tells me that she caught her over at the shelf they sit on, having a wee sneaky suck, I’m reminded that she is still a baby and if she gets comfort from the blasted thing when I’m not there, if only for a few seconds, what-the-feck-ever.
And so I HAD decided not to panic about taking them off her just yet. I HAD decided that she can hold on to them until she turns 3 anyway, and if they’re not gone before then, I’ll use some clever Modern-Mammy technique (lie) like Elf on the Shelf or the Dodee fairy and they WILL be gone by Christmas.
But then tonight, we left them in Granny’s. (Well, I THINK they’re in the car, but I’m sticking with my story…) And so rather than a heavy, dirty, taggy-toy with 3 dodees hanging off them, (one of which is split so she uses that one for her cheek), she has gone to bed with only ONE tiny, solitary, lonely, pathetic little doddee.
And so far so good.
So while yes, I am not worrying about it too much, I’m also doing what we Mummies do best… I am IMPROVISING and hoping and praying that maybe this might just work and that maybe I shall get rid of the dodees without any real forethought or planning or stress.
Because sometimes, (OK rarely, ) but still, sometimes, this parenting thing works without us trying too hard or stressing or planning and we get little #Mammywins handed to us…
Or we get too smug and optimistic and we eat our words…
What was/is the Dodee situation in your house?
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