When To Leave The 'Lovey' At Home?

[cheerfuldom]

I feel the same way, but feel like I'm being mean for feeling like this. I have one little one that uses burp cloths. I like those because they are little and don't drap every where like a blanket, but it becomes lost very easily. Parents have 3 to 5 dozen of them. I typically have a few here that were lost at some point and parents pack an extra in the bag. I hate pacifiers because I loose them easily. And I really can't stand anything that needs to travel back and forth. For the most part I see kids that don't need them anymore, but at drop off or pick up the parents are shoving the loveys in there hand like they might die. They see a sad face or a little cry and they are "Oh you must need your __________." I think I get more annoyed at the parents than the kids on this subject.

I absolutely agree that many, many times, the lovey is a crutch for the parents and the parents are more dependent on it than the kids. I have cold-turkey weaned a number of kids off loveys/pacifiers and never had even a single issue outside of one child that took maybe a week to get over it....even she wasnt crying, just looking for it occasionally. It just turns into a big pain for me to keep track of items or worse, have parents call late at night wanting you to find something so they can come get it. I try to simplify my job if at all possible. The kids really dont care about these things so why should I? Cuts down on a lot of fights. It may appear that I am being mean but I think it is important for kids to learn how to exist without a cup/lovey/blanket in their hand and a paci in their mouth at all times. I had one girl totally weaned from all this at 2 years old, then her mom decided to be a SAHM and at almost four years old, this little girl has all the stuff back, including the paci!