How Old Is Too Old For a 'Paci'?
By GalTimer Michelle Strickland
I was at my final errand stop of the day when, all of a sudden, I heard a VERY unhappy child across the store, if I had to guess based on the cry, probably about 3 or 4 years old.
The child kept going on and on and on, so I tried to speed up my shopping. As I was heading to the checkout area, the child's sounds got closer and closer and ended up right behind me on checkout lane #5. Lucky Me. Not more than 30 seconds later did I notice the child was finally silent. What was the secret weapon to make everything okay? A pacifier. Seriously?
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So, I struck up a kind conversation with the mother (just to ease my curiosity of the child's age) and said, "Aw, someone's having a bad day". The mother softly giggled and said she is obsessed with Barbie and was unhappy she wouldn't buy her one... which makes sense. It's common for a child to be upset over what they can't have.
But, back to my curiosity. "Aw, how old is she"? To my surprise, the mother replied, "5 years old". I almost fell off my cart that I was leaning on! 5? And she has a pacifier in her mouth? I'm sorry, i'm not one to judge how a parent raises their child or compare my son's development to other children's and think he is better in any way, but my son is 2 years old and hasn't had a pacifier since 16 months.... and I thought I was behind with that, so just took it away cold turkey. I mean, this could be the girl's "safety blanket" and she just has to have it to feel better, but why a pacifier?
There are plenty of other things to give a child, especially a 5-year-old! I mean, does she still drink out of a bottle, too? I was very shocked. I have seen toddlers with pacifiers, sure, still a little surprised by that, but absolutely shocked that I was seeing a 5-year-old with one! Does this mother think it's the common thing to do for a child that age? IS IT common for a child to have one at this age?
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Maybe I'm way off base here with my feelings about this, but not only did it look odd, I don't see it being good for the child's teeth, either. Isn't 5/6 years old when they start getting their adult teeth? I feel bad for the child because she doesn't know any better. It's her mother who is in the know and I would be VERY disturbed to find out it was for her own selfish reasons. But, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and say that isn't the case. Whatever the reason being, it just was a bit odd to me.
How old do you think is too old for a pacifier?
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