The Bishop family of Festus, Missouri, may be smiling now, but a few months ago the mood was much more somber when Courtney, Jake and their 3-year-old daughter Hazel said goodbye to a very important member of the family: Hazel’s beloved pacifier. .
“It’s not good for her teeth and her jaws and all that, so we’d been trying to wean her off it for a while,” Jake, 35, said.
Hazel’s beloved pacifier, affectionately known as “Paci,” had been with her for years. Jake knew that saying goodbye could come with tears and tantrums, so he looked for creative ways to ease the transition. He considered options such as cutting off the end of the pacifier, soaking it in vinegar or planting it in a pot.
Instead, Jake chose to give Paci a funeral.
Of course, before the internet, parents used to just remove the thing and deal with the outburst. But today, for better or worse, young parents like Jake prefer not to go to war over a binky. They are “pacy-fists”, if you will.
“You need them to go through tough times to really grow as a person but you don’t need to make extra tough times for them,” Jake said. “They’re going to have tons of those coming up.”
Parents enjoy making milestones, but these milestones are often bittersweet because every turning point is a point of no return.
“She’s moving on to the next stage of her life,” Jake said of Hazel, their first child. “We just have to hold on to those moments and those memories, because it goes by fast.”
Hazel hasn’t asked for Paci again since. Although, shortly after the ceremony, Jake dug it up and reburied it in a keepsake box, making Dad the one who just can’t let go.
