Inventions of the Devil

Oh! I'm not showing off cos I know how to do it!

I'll probably get shot down for this one but I think dummies/pacifiers are an invention of the devil. Most babies don't 'need' dummies - it's taught behaviour which frequently causes problems later.

A dentist relative was a great fan of dummies. He said he regularly saw 6 and 7 year olds pushing out their permanent teeth due to thumb sucking etc and sore thumbs. But you never see children of this age with dummies.
So i took a lead from him.

Yes Jess, I was a thumb sucker until I was about 7 and had the teeth to prove it and calluses on my thumb for years! Lots of dentistry later I had straight teeth. All my grandchildren have had dummies - much to my initial horror - but they have all given them up by the age of 2. I suggested to Daughter No 1 only an hour ago that the latest would do well to have a dummy as he's feeding every hour, but she says she doesn't want to go down that road even though her 17 month old has one and leaves it in his cot for night time/sleeps only. If I had my time again i think I may well consider using a dummie but I know what Cressida is getting at - I can't bear to see children in the street/shops with a gob-stopper and talking at the same time and probably eating a doughnut as well - there are times and places.....

DDs one and two wouldn't suck their thumbs or take a dummy. DD3 sucked her thumb from three and a half months. She stopped when the orthodontist told her she must. She'll need a brace. It's 'cool' to have a brace nowadays. Quite apart from all that how do you stop a baby from sucking its thumb if it spits a dummy out? A dummy or a thumb is easier on the nerves than crying. DD3 was never any trouble to put to bed after she started sucking her thumb. Other apes babies suck their thumbs too.

Other ape babies

I think babies love to suck. It helps them to keep calm in this bewildering world, with all the sensory input, from inside and outside their bodies.
Many of them would like to clamp onto mamma's breast and stay there. But if mother has other things to do, or if milk is very copious, this is not a viable option... Enter the dummy fairy with her magic gadget.
I used to know an older woman who referred to them as "dummy tits" when my DS1 was a baby in Wales.
I remember my cousin when she was 2 saying "Peacock" quite distinctly with a dummy in. She's a qualified solicitor and is doing a PHd in Engl Lit now, so didn't do her any harm. In fact she was terribly ill when she was 3 and a dummy was a bit of consolation.
But I do agree they are not an attractive fashion accessory for the well dressed 3 year old. On the other hand, does this really matter?
Maybe, to be contentious, we think it looks "common" - which is not something you hear people say these days, but they still think it!

Dust ...without it we wouldn't have to spend so much time cleaning!!

Marriage.

Ouch!

Sorry Joan just read another thread, things must be tough, best wishes.

My posting was spur of the moment - but what's posted stays posted, doesn't it?

My son has just bought a house: he and his fiancee are moving in early next month. They can't face the whole traumatic thing of getting married, especially as her ethnic group expect a huge affair - they just want to be together. At one time I would have thought living together was awful, but I'm very happy for them, and as far as I'm concerned she is my DIL.

I'll miss him though - he has lived next-door-but-one for the last 5 years. He really accepts me as I am and is always there for me if I need anything, like a lift into town. He never thinks I'm a silly old so and so. He never criticises me or suggests I should act my age. He's told me I have always been a great Mum. What more could you want to hear? He's one of those positive people it is nice to have near.

Oh, another thing that is an invention of the devil - my hearing aid. I hate the damn thing, it hurts my ear, makes things loud that don't need to be loud, and I can hear most things most of the time, anyway. In a row with my husband, who mumbles through his beard, I chucked it across the room and stalked off to bed. The next day it was back on my desk, but next time there's a row about it I swear I'll crush the thing with the meat mallet....

Men!!

Oh Joan ...come and join the party ...celebrate what a wonderful son you have! hick!! ..sorry about that!

Sorry I missed the party - perhaps I'd better go in there and clear up after you lot. Or not.......very poor at that sort of stuff. Mind you, I bet there's lots of loose change on the floor and down the back of the seats.

When's the next one? Oh, and I'm coming on my own, with my own wine glass, for a nice drop or two of red. Cheers!

Decaffeinated anything - friend round about teatime - would you like a cup of tea - only if you've got decaffeinated [oh right] - no sorry. Would you like a glass of wine - yes please! Of course, my sort of woman but decaff should be a banned substance.

Right now - Skype. I'm on version 2.0.0.6 and it won't work. I went back to that version after the newest version became a nightmare. My BIL reckons 2.8.0.866 is the best version and he's sending me a link, but for now i can be heard but not seen, and I can neither see nor hear the person at the other end. All that works is chatting by text.

Trouble is, I'm techno-lazy, which is why I have an apple computer. I don't like bothering with technical stuff. This is probably because when i went back to work in 1987 I was given a computer work station - not a PC - a terminal linked to something like a mainframe but smaller. ANY problem at all, and the IT people fixed it. Never even had to do a backup.

It is the only area in my life where I was spoiled!! And now I have to grow up and do fiddly computer stuff myself.

The devil invented technology - summat we love, but which causes grief. Very faustian really........

Grrrrrrrrrrrr