My paci story

This isn't the Suzie mentioned below, but you get the idea.

Since I asked all of you to post your paci stories, I thought I would post mine.

My mom tells me that when I was Abby's age I was extremely attached to my paci. My parents, much like Jason and me, knew that something had to be done because a kid can't go to a job interview with a pacifier in her mouth, so they decided to get rid of it once and for all.

Now, most families have a dog or a cat for a pet, but at my house, we had a goat named Suzie. Suzie was your average goat; there wasn't anything particularly special about her. She stayed tethered at the back of our yard and kept the kudzu from taking over everything. I think that may be the only reason my dad got her.

Most of you will probably stop at this point and chuckle at what a back-woods, hick childhood I had, but it was perfectly normal to us. As a matter of fact, I still don't think that having had a goat for a pet is anything out of the ordinary.

What does this have to do with my paci, you're wondering. Well, when I was three (maybe closer to four because I remember this vividly), my parents made me feed my paci to Suzie. I remember standing at the back fence of our yard and throwing the paci to her. I'm not sure how my parents convinced me that this was the right thing to do, but I did it anyway.

I also remember that night after the deed was done, crying and crying and crying. I must have been that night that I started to suck my thumb - a habit that is far worse than having a paci. It might have been the trauma having to throw away my paci that caused me to suck my thumb for so, so long (until I was in high school). I've heard it said that thumb-suckers are great self-soothers and that they tend to be better adjusted, but I think that it just an excuse to make us feel better about ourselves.

All in all, I'm glad that we don't have a Suzie and that Abby hasn't started sucking her thumb.

Do you remember something like this from your childhood?