The Diddy Fairy

I don't like lying to my child. I really don't. However, sometimes it does make things flipping easier.

[Also, Lib, if you're reading this when you're older and feel appalled and sickened to know that your Mother, Father and Grandmother were all culpable in weaving a web of outlandish lies in order to rid you of your dummy. Then I'm sorry. Please don't hate me]

On Friday the 'Diddy (Lib's name for her dummy) Fairy' paid a visit to us.

I happen to know she looks exactly like his.

She came because weaning Lib off her dummy was long over-due and I had been a) making excuses for her, and b) was tired and s**t scared of the tears and emotional blackmail (and my daughter is getting very good at emotional blackmail) that would occur when she realised it was gone. We finally decided to bite the bullet though when firstly Lib started wanting not one dummy, but TWO....at all times, and also alarm bells were ringing when she went to eat something and 'took' her diddy out when there wasn't even one in her mouth! It was like some sort of weird mime. That's how much of a habit it had become. My daughter is strong though, and so smart, that I suspected that she would adapt pretty quickly after a couple of days of tears.

It worked like a CHARM. Hardly any tears at all! Here's how we did it.

1. We sowed the seeds early. We started mentioning the' fairy' more than a week before we intended to do it, and explained what was going to happen. (We basically told Lib that she was too old for the 'diddies' now and that the fairy was going to come to make them new and give them to the little babies who don't have one).

2. In the mean time we tried to wean her off slowly. For example, cutting out the dummy in the day time and only having it for naps. The first time she managed this, the fairy left her a small present one night to say well done for trying so hard.

3. Every night we asked her if she was ready to leave her dummies out for the fairy, but she said she no and got sad. To be honest, I was just going to keep going like this until she agreed, but realised that that would be a loooonnnng time because she had started to want them even more, and wouldn't let them out of her sight! It was like she was coveting them because she knew she didn't have long left.

4. A good few days before the big day, I told her that I had spoken to the fairy and that she was going to come on Friday because she really needed the dummies now, because there were some babies without them. This made Lib a bit sad, because she didn't want them to go. Which in turn made me feel sad, and mean! However, once I had emphasised that she was much older now, and didn't need them as much as the teeny babies, she was fine. [It was funny though because after this conversation it felt like something clicked and she thought, 'yes I am a big girl' and all of a sudden she wanted to start using her potty too!! Another story...]

5. So the night before came...and I snipped her diddies when she was asleep so they felt strange. This made me feel really mean, and Si was dubious. Especially when she came through to our room in the wee hours upset because her 'diddies had broken'. Ooof...that was hard. However, I think it was this that made Friday much easier because once Lib had realised they had 'broken' she was ok with them being sent off.

6. Lib left them out for the fairy on Friday, which was swapped for a present, and she was so excited she wasn't bothered they had gone. If there were any little moans and cries in the days afterwards, we just reminded her that they had broken and the fairy had taken them for the babies.

It's now Monday, and she's had two nights of going off to sleep with no moaning or tears (the bit I was worried about!), and over all she's been sleeping better.

I'm am so. flipping. relieved!!