The Magical Summer After 1st Grade

As a mother of two children, I have become convinced that the summer between 1st and 2nd grade is a magical one; at least, it was for my kids.

Grace preparing to attempt waterskiing. She didn’t make it up for very long, but I was so proud of her for trying!

When my daughter, now 11 was much younger, she was afraid of water. You’d never know it now, but it’s true. She didn’t want to go near water without a life jacket. She didn’t want to be pulled on a tube, she barely wanted to ride in a boat. I tried swimming lessons with her several times, but she was always too scared, even with me in the water with her. Somehow, that summer after 1st grade, something changed. She finally gained a bit of confidence, and decided she could swim. After that, there was was no keeping her away from a pool! That summer, she even tried waterskiing, and riding on a tube behind a boat. She held on for dear life, but loved it. Now, if she’s on a tube, she’ll even jump off, just for fun.

My son, now 7, is following the same suit. This past summer, he has finally decided it’s fun to ride on the jet ski (and even go fast). He is starting to swim without a lifejacket (though we’re still working on his skills). He’s finally deciding swimming is fun, and is trying more and more. He’s also ridden in a tube this summer, and enjoyed it.

Another area both of my kids grew tremendously the summer between 1st and 2nd grade was in riding their bikes. I remember thinking that Grace would never take those training wheels off! Finally, when she was 7, we did, and she was riding like a pro in no time. Riding her bike around our cul-de-sac became her favorite past time (besides dancing).

Finally, at age 7, Michael has the confidence to ride without training wheels.

Michael is, once again, following his sister’s path. I think he’s been ready to have his training wheels off for a couple of years. He did not agree. We tried once, he did ok, but wanted the training wheels back on. As much as he loved riding his bike, when I didn’t put them on, and he quit riding, I decided it was worth putting them back on for a while. Last summer, with all the moving, wedding, vacations, etc, he barely had a chance to ride his bike. This past weekend, we took his bike down, took the training wheels off, and within minutes, he was riding down the street on his own. In the past couple of days, all he wants to do is ride his bike! Even when he wiped out and had blood dripping down his leg, he didn’t even cry.

Our next step for my little guy is tying his shoes… most shoes are velcro these days, so there hasn’t been a need. Its time he learn to tie. If it’s anything like other things we’ve tried this summer, he will get it in no time!

I’m not sure what it is about the summer between 1st and 2nd grade, but it has proved to be a summer of huge growth for both of my kids.

Road Trip with 5 Kids

Taking a road trip with 5 kids sounds crazy, right? Well, it wasn’t as bad as you might think!

People kept asking me if we were renting an RV or had a huge van to haul “all those kids.” Nope, just our Traverse, and a pull behind, pop-up camper. The Traverse comfortably seats all 7 of us. There’s not a ton of room behind the back seat, but we made it work. Each of us packed one backpack of clothes. Enough for 2-3 days. We stayed at a KOA just outside Custer, SD. They had laundry facilities, so I did laundry a couple times while we were there. No big deal!

Our vehicle also has a DVD player. We don’t have enough headphones for everyone, so we just put the volume to the back while they were watching movies, and we adults could chat up front. We had a very fair (and random) system for which order they got to watch movies in. Jason would pick a random letter of the alphabet, and we went around the car until one of the kids guessed right. Then, that kid didn’t get to pick in the next round. Each child got to choose one movie over the course of the trip.

Most of the children also had a Kindle, Kindle Fire, ipod, or phone with games with them. There was no shortage of electronics along, but we did limit the times they could use them. For example, on our two driving days, they had to put everything away after about 9 pm. When we went through the Badlands, and Custer State Park, they also had to have their electronics put away. We even “bribed” them to look for animals. If they saw an elk, we would pay them $50, a bear would earn $25. We were pretty sure we wouldn’t see either of these animals, but at least they were looking for them! We saw a lot of deer (whitetails and mule deer), burros, buffalo, a few mountain goats… details on all the cool stuff we saw and did will be in another blog post.

We also played a few “road trip games” along the way. The main one was the alphabet game. South Dakota is FULL of billboards along the way, making this a fun game for everyone. The rules were that you had to start at the beginning of the alphabet, and go in order. You could use multiple words on a sign, but couldn’t use one someone else used. The words on the signs had to START with the letter. Words for the game could be on any sign, but could not be found on a vehicle. It never failed that someone would be stuck on a letter, and then we would see it on a semi. When you have multiple people on the same letter, this game gets fairly competitive.

We also attempted to find out how many states’ license plates we could see. This was a fail on our part, because we started it on the way home, after stopping at Wall Drug. By this point, we were all tired, and everyone was vegging out. I was dozing in and out of sleep for most of the ride between SD, and MN.

A couple of other things that made road tripping with 5 kids bearable, we rotated seats every day. Some of our kids did better sitting next to each other than others. Rotating seating made it easier for everyone. We also had a headphones only rule. Anyone using an electronic device (ipod, kindle fire, etc) had to use headphones. Sometimes they shared their earbuds with the person next to them so they could both hear the show they were watching. Other times, it allowed them to “veg” without annoying everyone else in the car.

I admit, I was nervous about spending so many hours in the car with 5 kids ages 7-14, but it wasn’t bad at all… heck, we might even do it again some time!

Parenting a Drama Queen

It can be both frustrating and embarrassing when your child is a “drama queen.” You never quite know how to respond to their tears. You find yourself wondering, “Is she REALLY hurt, or just being dramatic?” You find yourself getting looks from other parents around you as you try to figure it out. You feel like they are all asking themselves what is wrong with you, and why you aren’t comforting your child.

My daughter, at 11 years old, is one of those children who can clearly be classified as a Drama Queen. She pulls a muscle in dance class, and you’d swear she broke her leg. She gets a scratch, and you’d think she had a limb cut off. She feels things VERY strongly! I usually try to take her “injuries” with a grain of salt. It’s against my very nature to not throw my arms around her and want to comfort her when she’s crying because she’s hurting. That said, I also know that if I do, she will likely continue in her downward spiral of tears and drama. I feel like I’m being cold-hearted by trying to get her to “suck it up.” I want her to toughen up, at least a little bit. I want her to be able to control those strong emotions, which usually end up with her screaming at me, whether I am trying to comfort her, help her calm herself down, or telling her to get over it (though I usually try to find better words than that).

Yesterday was a perfect example of this. Grace was taking Master Classes at Nationals for dance. After about 4 hours of pretty intense dance classes, I peeked in, and saw Grace texting (which I later found out, was her texting me to say her ear hurt). I asked how she was doing, and she gave me a thumbs down. She came out, and started crying that her ear hurt. I thought she was just tired and overwhelmed. I gave her a hug and tried to encourage her to go back in for just one more hour. She had a total melt down, but after being distracted by running to the bathroom, she decided to go back into the class. 45 minutes later, one of the teachers brought her out. Still crying that her ear hurt.

At the moment I saw her coming out with the teacher, I knew she wasn’t just tired and overwhelmed. That guilty feeling of reading her tears the wrong way started creeping up. As we drove home, Grace was screaming and pulling at her ears. I remembered a Minute Clinic on the way, and we made it 15 minutes before close. Yup, she had an ear infection, all right! During the night, her ear drum ruptured. I’m a little surprised it took that long (as she usually goes from it starting to hurt to bursting in a matter of a couple hours).

I don’t want to coddle my daughter, but I don’t want to ignore her pain. I really feel lost when she’s in her fits of crying, because I never know just how bad it really is. I’d love to hear how other parents handle these situations with their “drama queens.”

Sleepover Fun?

My daughter is turning 11 years old. She wanted to have a sleepover birthday party. Her original list included 5 girls. I said OK. Then, she suddenly had 6 on her list. By the time she made out her invitations, the list had grown to 8. One girl couldn’t sleep over, so she asked if she could invite someone else instead. I said no, 7 girls was enough (besides, the other girl was still coming and wasn’t leaving until 10).

Why I didn’t consult with my mom before the craziness of this event, I don’t know. Not two hours in to the party, one girl was crying, because after trying to take charge for a couple hours, another girl told her off. After that, they all gathered around the crying girl, said sorry, and carried on. Things were fine after that. They did makeovers, put on fake nails, somehow roped me into painted said nails…

My 6 year old couldn’t leave the girls alone. One of them kept yelling at him to leave them alone, while 2 of the girls thought he was cute (in that little kid sort of way), and kept wanting him to play with them. A couple of the girls played in a different room, while most of the girls were wrapped up in their nails. There were 3 obvious different groups here, and it was interesting how different they all were.

The volume 8 girls can create rivaled that of a football stadium. They were giggling, squealing, shrieking, and occasionally, all out screaming. There were spats (especially between 2 of the girls). There were tears. Mostly, there was lots of laughing, singing, and trying to talk over each other. I have no idea how my husband survived! I know my ears were ringing, and my patience for the drama ran thin by the end of the night.

As it approached 10:00, I had them start a movie in attempts to wind down. They had wanted to watch the Big Time Rush movie which I had DVR’d for them. This only seemed to rev them up more. At some point, they started calming down. Probably around 10:30, when we made the two teenage boys (who sleep downstairs where all the girls were) go to bed. At 11:30, I went down to check on them, they were pretty calm. I reminded them that they should start trying to fall asleep. I went down again at 12, 2 girls were up, a couple were right on the edge of sleep and awake, but I figured they’d be out in no time. At 12:30, I went to check on them, 3 girls were up and chatting. One of them was my daughter – the one who barely made it for New Year’s Eve. By 1:00, I had to get a little more stern. I told them to finish up their episode of Dance Moms, and turn off the TV. I needed to get some sleep too. By this time 4 girls were awake. They were, apparently, trying to keep each other all up. At 1:30, I gave up and went to bed.

The next day, there were 7 tired and mildly crabby girls up by 8:00 a.m. (that WAS taking into account the spring ahead time change). I felt half-dead. All the coffee I drank didn’t even kind of help. As soon as the last girl left, I went straight down for a nap. Shortly after, so did my 2 kids. Grace woke up from her nap still crabby, but dance class helped that some. Yep, I’m a mean mom, I made her go to dance after a sleep over.

When we talked about it later, Grace said to me, “Mom, I don’t think I’ll ever have that many girls over for a sleep over again!” Even she was overwhelmed by the noise and the drama between 2 of the girls. She had a lot of fun, but it was a bit much for her. I’m glad she learned her lesson. In case I ever think I will let her have a large sleep over again, point me back to this post.

Happy Dance Saturday!

Today was Grace’s first dance competition. In honor of this big day, all my “10 Things That Made Me Smile” list are going to be dance-related.

1. Seeing Grace all decked out in her costume, hair and make-up. So cute!!

2. Watching Grace’s nerves/excitement for today finally play out on the stage!

3. Grace made a leg lift that she previously couldn’t do without holding on to something. “Mom – I even held it the entire time!!”

4. Watching the girls ramp up for their second dance of the day! So much more adrenaline after the first one was done!

5. Seeing the excitement on her face when they were called for the costume award!

6. As 100 or so girls (and a few boys) were seated on the stage waiting for the awards ceremony to start, they played Justin Bieber. Immediately, Grace (and almost immediately, 2 other girls in her class) jumped up and started dancing. I couldn’t help but laugh! She definitely takes after her Mama!! BTW – shortly after, the rest of the stage had girls standing up dancing, and one little boy covering his ears!

7. Michael came to the competition to watch his sister. There was a trio of boys doing a hip hop/breaker routine, he was in awe! I’d so love for him to do that too – boys’ got some skillz!!

8. Last night, when I went to check if she was sleeping, Grace was laying there with tears in her eyes. She said she couldn’t sleep. I asked her if she was nervous, she said she was afraid she would screw up. I told her if she did, she did. “Believe me, I screwed up my fair share of times at competitions too. It just happens!” I told her as long as she was having fun, that’s all that matters. She soon fell asleep. This only made me smile, because I remember the nights before competitions, having the same worries when I was younger!

9. I was so proud of Grace’s grace today. Even though they didn’t place, she didn’t let her disappointment show! She was so excited to get a pin for ranking gold for “Pink Panther” and high gold for “Baby I’m a Star”!

10. My good friend Jill came back to hip hop this week! So glad she’s back!!!

Days Like Today

Today started VERY early! Around 4 a.m. or so, Michael came upstairs and crawled into my bed… He used to sleep in my bed every night, but it’s been a while. It’s been kind of nice having my bed to myself, but I admit, I do miss cuddling with my little boy! Now that he’s not wearing pull ups any more, I made him go potty first, then I welcomed him in for some snuggle time! Luckily, he fell back asleep, so Mommy could too.

I woke up a bit early. Michael did too, and was very chatty! He and I sat and chit-chatted a bit, then he was ready to get up and get ready for school. We went down and woke Grace up. She got right out of bed, and got dressed right away! I thought for sure I must be dreaming, but no, it was real.

The awesomeness of the morning continued when Grace took her medicine without having a fit (she’s on an antibiotic for an ear infection, and she HATES it). Both kids were actually bundled up and ready to walk out the door when it was time to leave for the bus stop.

So, the morning seemed to be going pretty darn great! I still thought it was too good to be true… then came the icing on the cake. Just as the kids were about to leave, Michael came up to me, gave me a kiss, and said, “Mom, you’re the best!”

Well… today is my day off, it started as close to perfect as it could!!! I think it would be hard to bring today down – and no, that’s NOT a challenge! I’m looking forward to a GREAT day!!

Do Girls WANT to be a Data Diva?

A few days ago, Datachick, Karen Lopez (blog|twitter) wrote about Computer Engineer Barbie and a game on Mattel’s website called “Data Diva.” Having a 9 year old daughter, I thought I’d have her check it out. It sounded like something she might be into (seeing as how she is obsessed with the virtual world games like Webkinz). Jason Strate (@StrateSQL) offered the suggestion that I blog about it. Great idea!! Here’s what we found out.

The intro to the game says “You can be a computer engineer. Help Barbie program a robot puppy to do cute tricks.” I was hopeful that there might be some beginner programming skills she could learn through the game. We clicked the “next” button to start the game. The first page asked for a code to unlock stuff. I”m guessing the code comes with the Computer Engineer Barbie. Maybe the game gets cooler or more interesting if you have the codes?

From that page, we clicked on “play.” We were brought to a page with a cute puppy and instructions on how to play. The heading was, “Computer Engineers use a special language called ‘code’ to make programs work.” Underneath, there was a grid of 1s and 0s. I thought maybe it was going to somehow teach my daughter binary (in which case, I should play too, so I can understand my fiancée and my brother when they type binary messages to each other). Instead, the game ended up being more like a game of Bejeweled, or Cash Cow (not sure the real name of that game). You just move columns and rows to line up 3 or more of a certain color box that can have either 0′s or 1′s. When you do, the puppy on the screen moves in different ways. After only one game (you are given a time limit), Grace was bored with it. She exited the game, and saw that there is a Wedding Stylist game. She was much more interested in playing that!

A while back, I wrote about other programs out there to teach children about programming. While some of them, such as the Alice Program may not have had great graphics, at least it taught real programming! Nice try, Mattel… Maybe a younger girl would like “Data Diva”, but I didn’t feel like it quite lived up to the promise it showed.

On a side note, I have to give props to Mattel for their efforts in giving Barbie traditionally male roles such as a computer engineer. They want to inspire girls with their multi-tasking Barbies with the hottest technical gadgets such as a laptop and iphone. Even grown up girls get excited by the find of Barbie in their own profession. I know WAY back in the day when I worked at Pizza Hut, I was thrilled to find Pizza Hut Employee Barbie. A friend of mine, Jes Borland (twitter|blog), a DBA, pretty much counted down the days until her computer engineer Barbie showed up!! They know what they’re doing over there.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Looking back over this past year, I wonder if I accomplished anything meaningful… I guess that depends on what you consider meaningful. Rather than dwell on that detail, I’ll share the nutshell version of my year, and reflect on how it has affected my future goals.

Professionally:
Starting in January, I started a new class at my employer. I had a mixed age group of 3 and 4 year olds. I built some great bonds with a group of children I had known since they were 1 year olds. Having a group of only 9 children, I was able to really work with them on things such as writing their names, cutting, etc. I was able to structure the class in exactly the way I wanted to, and for the most part, things went quite smoothly. As in ANY job, there were some challenges. I’m not going to expand on them, other than to say that challenges push me to be a better teacher. I hope to be the kind of person that can be a role model of how to take challenges, and do what I can to make things better.

The mixed age class was only meant to be from January to June. Over the summer, I floated between toddler classrooms. I loved it, and in September, took over as the teacher of the 2 1/2 – 3 year olds. I think I made a lot of positive changes in that classroom. While their constant affection makes working with the 2-3 year olds a lot of fun, it can also be a challenging age to work with. As a group, they have very little impulse control, short attention spans, and don’t always know how to communicate what they need. My job as their teacher is to push their attention spans, give them new things to explore, and teach them ways to interact appropriately with their peers.

My career path is going to be changing quite a bit over the next year. I am going to be backing away from the lead role in a classroom, and go back to a supportive role. I will continue to model high standards for both children and peers. I am focusing on finishing my classes to renew my Teaching License (I won’t QUITE make the December 31st deadline I gave myself, but I am getting very close). After the summer wedding, I’m not sure where my residence will be, but I DO hope to have a teaching job in MN. I used to teach in the School Readiness Preschool program in a school district there. I hope to acquire the same position (or an ECFE job). I feel strongly that I still belong in Early Childhood Education.

Blogging:
I have always enjoyed writing. Several years back, I was in Spiritual Journaling group at my church. I have always felt more comfortable putting my thoughts and feelings in writing… Blogging has appealed to me since I first heard about it. I never really thought it was something I could do. I didn’t think people would be interested in what I have to say. In the past year, I have been encouraged to blog. People have not only read what I have written, but they have also given me positive feedback. I submitted some of my blog posts to a couple of article engines ezine.com. Three of them were selected to be published. One of my published articles ended up earning me a free class through the Professional Learning Board. In the next year, I plan to continue blogging. I hope to have more articles published as well.

Socially:

This past year, I made a point to spend time with some of my dearest friends that I hadn’t seen much since I moved to WI. I plan to spend more time with people important in my life over the next year.

I also went to several SQL Saturday events with my fiancé. We had the opportunity to travel together to Chicago, Nashville, and Iowa City. At those events, I met a bunch of really cool people! Some of those people, I “talk” to almost daily on Twitter or facebook. Just for the record, a year or so ago, I told Jason I had NO interest in having a Twitter account. Now, I use it as much, if not more, than facebook! I look forward to attending more of these events in the future. I really enjoy the networking as much as exploring the different cities we go to. We have discovered that everywhere we have gone has really cool places to see, it’s up to us to find them. I don’t see myself being able to go to too many this year, as there is a lot going on. I do know I will be exploring Seattle for the first time in October, and then taking my first cruise (on our honeymoon).

Personally:

Just before Thanksgiving, I got engaged to Jason Strate (blog|twitter). We have known each other for a long time (that story will be another blog post). We plan on getting married July 16th, combining our families to become the “Modern Day Brady Bunch.”

Leading up to the wedding and the months following are going to bring a lot of changes to our family. We will be moving (thought we’re not quite sure where yet). We will also be adjusting to life as a family of 7 instead of a family of 3. Schools will change, my job will change… a lot is unknown. Having so many unknowns is a bit scary, but in a good way. I am hoping it doesn’t fly by so fast, that I don’t have time to enjoy it all!

In my previous post, I talked about my goals to exercise more, spend more time with my kids, and less time on my computer. I also plan on making more efforts to be productive every day. In general, I want to be more focused, more in the present, and just enjoy life in 2011.

Christmas Cheer

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year! Baking Christmas Cookies, twinkling light displays, decorations everywhere, wearing my Santa Hat and fun Christmas socks, the sounds of Go Fish, Garth Brooks, the Nutcracker, or an awesome CD I got from Bath & Body Works (when I worked there about 15 years ago). I am one of those annoying people that walks around humming Christmas songs from Thanksgiving through New Years. I love Christmas shopping, in fact, the craziness at the mall actually energizes me! Yep, the Grinch, he hates me!

My Christmas Traditions
Growing up, my Christmas celebration was always on Christmas Eve. My whole family would gather at my Grandma and Grandpa’s house, eat some food, hear my Grandpa read the Christmas Story from the book of Luke, and then have the madness which is about 15 kids ripping open presents as fast as they can. Once gifts were open, the sugar rush kicked in, and children would literally run in circles around my grandparents house until the parents had had enough, and took us all home. Ah… the memories!!!

In the spring of 1997, my Grandma passed away. I was worried our Christmas traditions might change. Thanksgiving did, but Christmas stayed the same. This was a good thing, since our family really only saw each other once or twice a year. That same year, I started going to my future in-laws house for Christmas. Luckily, his family celebrated on Christmas Day. Around that same time, I had reconnected with my dad, so I went back and forth from the boyfriend’s to my dad, back to the bf’s other family. For a few years, Christmas was CRAZY! By 2002, I was no longer going to my Dad’s house, which took a lot of pressure off travel-wise….

Fast forward to 2009. I was newly divorced. I was also sick as could be with a BAD case of bronchitis! A snow storm was dumping on us. The last thing I wanted to do was drive the 2 hours to MN, all I wanted to do was sleep! I let the kids go early with their dad… It was eerie. For the first time in 32 years, I was not with my family on Christmas. The next day, I was still quite sick. This really awesome friend was also on his own for Christmas, so he came to take care of me. That was when Jason became my boyfriend. Here we are a year later, engaged to be married in July!

The bummer thing about missing Christmas last year with my family, is that I didn’t know it was going to be a Christmas of “lasts.” This past year, my Uncle Steve passed away. I didn’t know it’d be my last chance to see him. My grandpa sold the house that he had lived in since my mom was a kid. Now, he and his wife live in a condo that is not big enough to hold everyone. No problem, my mom offered to have Christmas Eve at her house. Apparently, no one was planning on going except my brother’s family and I… I was REALLY bummed!! It just makes me appreciate the time I HAVE had with my family over the past year(s). As for my cousins and I, we are going to start our own traditions together (probably starting NEXT year).

Well, my Mom just called me, and now, we ARE getting together for Christmas Eve. It will be a small group, just us, my brother and his family, and maybe my Grandpa and his wife. I’m glad. Christmas just doesn’t seem the same without getting together with family.

Tomorrow, Jason, the kids and I will be waking up to presents from Santa, listening to Christmas music, and exchanging gifts. We will load up the vehicle with kids, the dog, and cookies. We will head over the river and through the woods, to Nana’s house we’ll go… it will be a wonderful day!

As for the Christmas Story, if my Grandpa doesn’t come, I will take over as the reader of the Story! After all, that is the real reason we celebrate after all!!

Put a Band-aid on it!

Any parent can tell you, if you put a band-aid on an “owie”, it suddenly feels much better. Band-aids aren’t magical, but to many children, they hold a secret power. The power to make all the hurt go away. Now, taking them off, is a whole different story! It’s a good things most kids will keep band-aids on until they either fall off in the tub, or get so much sand stuck in the adhesive, that they will no longer stick. The whole point of the little things is to keep the blood in, germs out. Nowhere in there was “pain relief”. Yet, to many kids, it seems to work that way.

Some parents feed into the band-aid obsession, buying cutsie printed band-aids or ones that look like tattoos. I have had many a child come into my classroom covered in band-aids, not because they were actually hurt, but because they wanted them. Different parents have different takes on the situation. The best thing I once heard a dad say was, “The way I see it, if something is hurting one of my children, whether physically or emotionally, and a band-aid, or a bunch of band-aids will help them feel better, then why not spend the few extra bucks to stock up?”

Many children have comfort items. To them, the comfort item acts as a band-aid. Something makes them sad, they go hug their blankie. They fell and got a bad scrape, they want their Bear-bear. They have to go to the Dr. to get a shot, their Foxy needs to come with to help them be brave…. It’s not that the item ACTUALLY makes them feel better, but it gives them a familiarity that is comforting.

What’s funny, is how hard it is to fool children. I have known many-a-parent that lost a child’s favorite comfort item, bought a replacement, washed it, and the child knows it wasn’t the same one! I have laughed out loud at the measures parents have taken to try to get it just as ratty, smelly, faded, etc. to try to fool their child.

The struggle both as a parent and as a teacher, is how far to let that attachment go. As a teacher, our goal is to help children learn to become independent. Sometimes, we are helping them become independent from their comfort item. One challenge comes with going outside. Some parents don’t mind their children having a favorite item (such as a blankie) out on the playground with them. As a teacher, we tend to say no. Not only does it get dirty, germs can get on the blanket that could then make the child sick. If the child gets sick, there’s potential for the whole class to get sick. That may seem a bit dramatic, but those are the kinds of things we need to think about! Parents and teachers need to work together with the best interest of the child in mind. Ground rules probably will need to be set early on in the relationship when it comes to special items from home.

There’s nothing wrong with a child having a comfort item. Like a band-aid, it can have magical powers to calm, soothe, dry tears, and make the world a better place. Not allowing a child to have their special item when they are upset will likely only make the situation worse. Cutting a child off of their “lovie” at a certain age depends on the family’s personal beliefs about such things. Usually a child will wean themselves off a “favorite” item on their own. In my experience, this usually happens as a child approaches Kindergarten. It is not uncommon though to still have one special comfort item “just at bedtime.” The most effective approach seems to be to let the child do it naturally on their own. If a parent chooses to cut the child off cold turkey, they need to be prepared to give extra love and support as their child transitions away from comforting themselves with their special blanket or stuffed animal.

Back to Band-aids, on a Totally Random note:
Band-aids have also become a metaphor for a quick fix (or a temporary fix) on things. “Let’s put a band-aid on it until we have more time to deal with it.” Band-aids are a way to buy time…. this may be a topic for another blog in the future… stalling tactics that businesses (or people in general use). Hmm…