Am I enabling my son's addictions?

This picture captures Rebecca COMPLETELY!

Food all over her face and having a ball.

My Cuties!

Mr. Hayden Potter

Isn't he an adorable boy!

Easter! She LOVES candy!

These pictures have nothing to do with my writing, but I still wanted to share.

So, Hayden is a funny boy. He is totally addicted to the binky - let me rephrase that, he is totally addicted to Rebecca's binky. We tried to be good parents by weaning him off the binky but it was too late. Rebecca was born a week after he got off the binky, and with all that temptation around he didn't last long. For the last 18 months he's been secretly pulling Rebecca's binky out of her mouth and sucking it. A lot of times we'll find him hiding in a corner getting his fix. It actually is quite funny and a little scary to see the look on his face as he's getting a little bit of the binky. He is an addict. So, another little habit of his that we've noticed since Rebecca was born is that he'll sit next to her as he's drinking from his sippy cup and stroke her head or play with her hair. He also does that when he steals her binky, at least until we catch him, then we take it away. Thinking about it now, he probably started doing it to soothe her and comfort her after he stole her binky, and now it just comes second nature to him.

Well, last week while Rebecca was taking a nap and Hayden was playing trains with cartoons playing quietly I decided to abandon all housekeeping (not that this is anything too unusual) and enjoy a good book. I got comfortable on the couch and started to read and before long Hayden was sitting behind me playing with my hair. Having my hair played with is like heaven to me! It doesn't get much better than that. I was totally enjoying this when I turned slightly and saw that Hayden had found a binky of Rebecca's and was sucking on it while playing with my hair. So here came the big inner debate. Would I be the responsible parent that takes the binky from her 3 year old, since we have been working on it for 1/2 his life, and save ourselves from hefty bills from the orthodontist in the future, or do I turn a blind eye and totally enjoy this moment. I guess my addiction is as bad as Hayden's because to an addict you don't want to think about the future. I did the irrisponsible thing of turning the blind eye. He got to suck on that binky for a whole 45 minutes, knowing if he drew attention to himself the binky would be gone. I loved it.

I do think he's started to catch on to my addiction though. He's come up to me a couple times since then with something suspicous hiding in his hand, and asks if I want him to play with my hair. I can't resist. It is a win/win situation for both of us.