My son has a blanket that his grandma made for him. It’s his catnip, his long drink of water after a hard toddler day, his Miller Time. Just show him the blankie, and he goes nuts. He grabs it, buries his little face in it, and starts rolling all over the floor with it. All is right with the world when he’s got his blankie. Oh yeah.
My daughter has a similar blankie, made by the same grandma. Hers is pink, his is blue, so there’s no mistaking which one belongs to which kid. She doesn’t jones quite as hard for hers as my son does for his, but she loves it just the same. Always has to know the precise location of the blankie at any given moment. Gotta have it when we travel, and at bedtime.
So, what do your kids use to get them through the day?
All three of my daughters had baby blankets with satin-like edges, which they rubbed between their fingers while falling asleep. My youngest daughter, who graduated from high school Thursday night, still has hers. It is a pastel green and has no “rubbies” left on it, and is in sad shape. But she still loves it, and I’m sure it will be going off to college with her.
Bonzo has a koala bear and a panda bear that at age 14 (145 strapping pounds of muscles, mustache, and resonant baritone voice) he is too grown-up to admit he still needs. But just watch what happens when I try to take them away, pointing out that they’re both falling apart–“Hey, he’s not missing his arms, he’s disabled, and if you put him in the closet, you’ll be discriminating against him!” And he goes and gets them both out of the closet and puts them back on his bed, tenderly.
La Principessa sleeps with a rotating collection of pillows, teddies, stuffed animals, Beanie Babies, dolls, library books, CD headphones, and a nice mix of clean and dirty clothes. I’m not entirely sure which item would qualify as a “lovie”, but she seems to need all of it in there with her to be happy at bedtime.
Does anyone report having problems on laundry days, while the blanket is being washed? My oldest daughter used to stand by the washer and dryer and cry while her blanket was being laundered.
Other mothers I know solved this problem by starting out with a large blanket and cutting it into two or three pieces (hemming the edges) or by buying one or more identical blankets. All the blankets have to stay in circulation, or they won’t smell right or be worn in the right places.
I did, once. I had thrown my son’s blankie in the washer, and come time for his nap, it wasn’t dry. He would not sleep. Just sobbed. So, I let him get up, and when the blankie was dry, I gave it to him, and he passed right out.
So now, when I need to wash it, I make sure I do it between nap time and bed time. That’s okay with him. Although he likes his blankie when it’s all grungy, he likes it fresh out of the dryer too, fluffy and clean.
I had a blankie when I was a little kid. I started with a white nubbly one with a texture like cottage cheese, which we accidentally left behind in Halifax. So I got another one, softer flannel with blue and pink stripes. I’m unsure as to what happened to it.
But the uber-soft fuzzy of my childhood would have to be Charity Bear, this medium-sized polar teddy bear I won in a class raffle in grade 1. I slept with that bear, using him as a pillow, until I was like 14 or 15. I still have him; he’s living out an honourable retirement overlooking my room from my bookcase.
And sometimes, when the world is going just a little bit more awfully than I can stand, I take him down and squeeze him a little bit until I feel better.
My son has his Moosie. It’s a stuffed moose about the size of yer average stuffed animal- like…4" high? He’s got mange, a badly burned nose and a SEVERE cervical fracture to C-2 and C-3 that is apparently causing his neck to flop over with little or no muscular support. My son’s 11…and needs his Moosey still.
Daughter has Baby and Blankie. Baby is holding up remarkably well, it’s a baby Minnie Mouse. I just keep re-doing the immense eyeballs with a Sharpie. Her blankie, however, is an atrocity of threadbareliness. I told her that at some point, I’d take it and have it pressed and framed, and give it to her on her Prom Night in front of her paramour. Her response is, " okay dad, you’re freaking me out". She’s 9.
I have my life-sized Adrienne Barbeau doll, replete with long flowing dark locks of hair.
Lots of baby blankets. Help me when I am sick or just too cold(keeping my feet and legs warm). I also have Dino, my stuffed dinasour. Do you remember the movie The Land Before Time? I have the stuffed Littlefoot, just with a different name. Still sleep with him.
I think I had a few stuffed animals as a small child, no blanket. I do like stuffies, and all, I made a whole thread about them- I even own a strangely sized bear, a normal one, and a lion…w/ assorted beanies. I don’t know if there was anything I HAD to have, and if so I don’t still have it. I do have this pillow I had from age eleven…and I like sitting on it and sleeping with it.
As for the cave babies, come on- they weren’t wussies. They had to be tough. They probably slept with bear claws or something.
My littlest sister didn’t like soft things. If you made her touch a stuffed animal or she accidentally put her little hand in one she would get the “ew gross” look on her face and cry. She likes hard things though. Action figures.
I’m a soft lovie person though. Very big into stuffed animals. I also had a security blanket. (Still do, I just don’t sleep with it. If I get really stressed I might bury my face in it and smell it for a bit, but its falling apart so much I just keep it in a box.)
My older two had blankies. She also used a pacifier for a while, and he also sucked his thumb. My youngest never had a blankie or sucked a thumb/paci, but she is having the darnedest time giving up her bottle. (I weaned her from the breast at 26 months. At 34 months she still wants a bottle first thing in the morning and before bed.)
My third, though, is strangely self sufficient. She weaned herself at 15 months. She never used a bottle. She never used a pacifier or sucked her thumb. She has no blankie.
All three of my kids have their blankets. In our house, they are called “mahs.” This came about when my oldest son (who couldn’t have been much more than a year old) was playing with my wife. She (playfully) grabbed his blanket and said “My blankie…” He grabbed it back. She did it again. Eventually the blanket became known as a “mah.” We’ve gone through several already for each kid.
My wife, OTOH, still sleeps with the bear she’s had since she was about nine (about twenty years ago). It’s in horrible condition, has no more stuffing and has several large holes in it’s head. Yet, every night, that bear is beside her. My middle son (5 years old) commented “Mommy’s bear is dead!”
This is one of those threads to point out I wasn’t a normal little kid, right? No blankies, I didn’t sleep with a doll or toy, or suck my thumb, or use a binky after I was a few months old, never had an imaginary friend, didn’t feel the urge to name my dolls, I think my parents said I never crawled, either…
I do sleep with a stuffed animal now, however. Newborn baby Simba. The name’s redundant though, don’t you think? My mom thinks it’s “cute” but the darn thing is the best thing I’ve found that lets me sleep on my side with my arms in the right position so I don’t wake up with pain between my shoulder blades. How sentimental am I?
I had blankies throughout my childhood, and still have fragments of them today. I didn’t like soft blankies, though – I liked scratchy ones. So my grandmother would take new blankies and use her sewing machine to put lots and lots of stiches all of them, and big scratchy seams around the edges. It was heaven to rub the scratchy bits against my finger tips and upper lip. Still addicted to the sensation today. Months after I first met and fell in love with my husband I discovered he had the same habit (i.e. rubbing scratchy things against his finger tips). We initially hid it from each other because we were afraid the other wouldn’t understand! His preferred fabric is clothing labels. He clips the labels off old clothes and folds them together to make little points. He has a box full of labels, and will choose one appropriate to his mood. When he’s home (i.e. not away at sea) we often sit together in the evenings, watching tv and rubbing bits of fabric. (And thank goodness we both have the habit – we agree that anyone who didn’t wouldn’t understand our obsession!)
My son’s blankie is a very soft long underwear type of blanket. It used to have satin edges but they have long since worn off. At his advanced age of 6, he no longer requires it to sleep everynight, but I have a sneaky suspicion he must KNOW where it is at all times before he’s truely comfortable. My daughter started getting attached to a towel when she was a wee baby, but I thought that was kind of pathetic, so I bought her 3 blankets. She choose the scratchiest one. At age 18 months or so, she started stuffing it into the toilet. So, I washed it often. With bleach. By the time she was two, it had disintergrated into a sad looking ball of string. It looked like a dog toy as it was literally a bunch of coarse strings that I had to tie it into a knot in the middle and one on both ends to keep it together. We could track her in the park by following the bits of string. I convinced her that another blankie would be a good idea. Her favorite blankie now is a 3 little pigs "lap blanket, though my Lion King lap throw will work in a pinch on laundry day. I still have the knot o’ blankie for when she’s older
ToddlerNym has her pacifiers. Yes, that was plural, she usually has two on her. She’ll stash others around the house so she can always have another. Breaking her of this habit is becoming a nightmare, I fear I’m just going to have to chuck them and suffer for a few days. Or bribe her.
ToddlerNym’s best buddy has him mom’s pajama top.
I had a doll that I used to drag around by the hair. It eventually lost all the hair on top so my mother had the head replaced. I never touched it again.
