Binky Free and Under Control - A Travel Story

The other day and Xander and I were looking at old photos. He saw a picture of himself with his binky and smiled, cocked his head and said lovingly ... "Binky!" How can my five year old still look back at his binky (a.k.a pacifier) abandoned two years ago with so many fond memories and joy?

Whenever one of my girlfriends have their first babies I caution them from starting the binky habit. It is a terribly difficult habit to kick, and the binky will be front and center in all of their baby pictures going forward. At first the grandparents will think its cute ... but even they will start to make comments somewhere around the second birthday. "Can't he take that thing out of his mouth!"

Not everyone will have the luck of planning a 23 day trip around the third birthday, but if you do this is how to kick the binky habit forever.

Three is a magic number in binky habit breaking. The first step in using travel is to pack the entire collection of binkies with you (when you return home there can be no binkies left in the house). The second step is that slowly you will inevitably lose each binky in the collection. The third step is to keep your three-year old convinced that this is a finite collection, and when all binkies are lost they cannot be replaced.

You must hold steadfast. Strategically extracting binkies from naptime and in the middle of the night are part of the master plan. The great thing about binkies and three year old's is that they do suffer a serious amount of attrition. Also the manufacturers do assist you in not making binkies for the preschooler ... make sure your three year old knows this too.

Where is our last binky? Sitting on top of a refrigerator in Moscow. My aunt snuck that one away, pocketed it, and cleverly left it behind.

May your preschool years be binky free and under control.