Does your child have a "lovey" beyond the normally accepted age?

[jewellsmommy]

My ds, who is now 9, used to have a knitted blankie he carried everywhere. At 4 I made a rule that he couldn't bring it to Sunday School, and his interest in it waned shortly after. My dd, who is about to be 8 still has a blanket she loves. It's literally in tatters. Seriously not sure it will survive another washing. She doesn't take it in public, and she hides it when her friends come over, but we haven't been able to put it away permanently. Is my kid the only one?

 

Dd will be 12 next month and still has a baby blanket (her night-night). It doesn't leave the house anymore. She doesn't hide it from anyone. She doesn't seem to care that people know she has a blankey. I, unfortunately, am so used to its presence that I don't notice when she has it downstairs. I have been trying to enforce an 'upstairs only' rule for it. Otherwise, she will have that thing with her during school work or when she is just sitting around.

[candicane]

I'm 22 years old and I still have my Barney from when I was little sitting on my nightstand. When I make my bed, he goes on it too. I have nowhere to put him currently, but I'm hoping to pass him down to my child when I have one.

 

I also still have a dress and sweater from when I was little, as well as almost all of my baby blankets stored away.

[Catwoman]

I love this thread. :)

 

I gave it 5 stars because it's such a sweet and happy topic. :001_wub:

[Joker]

My almost 12 year old still has her favorite stuffed animal with her at bedtime and carries it around with her when we're out and about. Sometimes her big sis will say something about others thinking it's weird, but youngest just replies that she doesn't need those people in her life if they are that way. I kind of wish I could be like her.

[nd293]

Ds7 still has his blankie. He sleeps with it and it is much loved and dragged around when it's just us at home, but I try to remind him to leave it on his bed when he has friends over! That said his friends are from homeschool or Montessori and I can't imagine any of them would be really cruel about this little 'quirk'.

[Farrar]

My 9 yo just got a new lovey.  Maybe a first lovey as he's never really had one long term before.  But this one has been his constant bedtime companion since acquisition.  It quite surprised me.  It's a stuffed giraffe that fits in the crook of his neck when he sleeps.

 

I had my loveys with me at college.  And then, just before I went out to Seattle between junior and senior year of college to live with this guy for the summer, they were lost.  I remember being in tears and my mother being like, well, Farrar, you are about to go shack up with some guy, do you really need you childhood teddy bears for this?  I still feel pangs of sadness over it occasionally though.

 

 

[Sisyphus]

One of my childhood friends has a stuffed bunny (not that you could tell that is what it is anymore) sewn to a throw pillow. When I first met her in 6th grade, it was a well worn, but recognizable rabbit.by college, it got sewed to the pillow. I visited her last year (we are well north of 40) and it's on her bed still.

 

She and I are well adjusted, public schooled (lol!) women with jobs and families...and she has a lovey still on her bed.

 

So unless your kid is (cough cough) 46, I'd say he is not yet at the acceptable age!

[Ravin]

My dd is 21. She still sleeps with her teddy bear named Kicks. She left her blankie behind when I took them away at about 10. I replaced it with a full blanket on her bed. She likes blankie because of the satin edge. I got the same thing in a larger version for her bed. She STILL has to have that style blanket to sleep well. She rubs the satin edge between her fingers and toes as she goes to sleep. The bear, it goes along whenever she knows she will be sleeping overnight. It is quite flat.

 

Wow! I used to do this same thing with my satin-edged blankie. It disappeared when left in the back yard when I was in 2nd grade. I always thought one of the kids from the apartments across the alley from our house stole it. It was yellow (that I remember that is remarkable--I have a stunningly poor memory for details about color).

My mother knitted me an afghan for my 16th birthday. She gave it to me a little early so I could take it when I went away to school that year (Sept. birthday). It has since been literally round the world with me, and lives on my bed when seasonally appropriate. I've left it behind on a few short vacations, but anywhere that's home, I've had that afghan.

 

Neither of my children has had a lovey. I was their "must have to sleep" when small (still am for DS most of the time).

[kentuckymom]

Have any of you read the picture book OWEN by Kevin Henkes? My 3 year old (who does not have a particular lovey but loves to tote around a doll or animal) is currently obsessed with it. It features a little mouse whose parents do not want him to bring Fuzzy, his beloved blanket, to school with him. They try many methods to get him to give it up, but everything fails until his mother decides to turn Fuzzy into a stack of handkerchiefs, and then he always carries at least one with him. It's a cute story with a cute and appropriate resolution, I think.

[Starr]

Monkey! At 9 he wasn't bothering to hide him, he's part of the family.

[MrsJewelsRae]

My dd 10 sleep with the same teddy bear every night in the crook of her arm since she was 2-3 when her daddy brought it home for her from a trip. :) She doesn't tote it around but it does get packed for overnights and vacations. :) His head has been sewn back on twice! My ds 5 sleeps with a Curious George stuffy and brings him to the dentist and doctor with him for security, everybody thinks it's adorable- myself included. ;)