The Great Paci Debate

There are many parts of child rearing that can spark debate among parents (and even opinionated non-parents), but one that seems to open the flood gates is the use of a pacifier.

As you know from this blog, Grayson uses a pacifier for sleeping and typically car rides, and has been quite addicted to it at times. As a child, I was a long-term thumb sucker and would prefer my child use a paci instead of going straight for the thumb which is more difficult to take away.

But now that he's one, it's getting to be time to break the pacifier habit. We've known this was coming for a while, but this week at school I found out that the toddler room will only give Grayson his paci for naptime over a three week transition period. After that, no more paci.

Once I heard that, I though about just putting all the work on the teachers' shoulders, but this weekend things took an interesting turn. Mike put Grayson down for bed last night and he didn't ask for his paci so Mike didn't offer it. Then, for his nap today he also went down without a paci.

I've scoured the house and hidden all the pacifiers I could find, so we'll see how long we can go. I find it hard to believe breaking this habit will be this easy, but if we can do it twice we might as well keep going. Wish us luck!