Midweek Mommy Question - Saying Goodbye to the Teddy Bear

Or another plush lovey for that matter.

Kaden had a favorite Teddy Bear - Gunther.  (A German name because Gunther came from Germany.) On a trip after Kaden had just turned 6, Gunther got left behind.  Kaden wasn't particularly heart broken about it and that was the end of Gunther.

Blue's first teddy bear of great affection was Lucy.  Lucy was a white bear that Blue used to chew on and no matter how often I washed her she looked gray and disgusting.  It didn't take long before we announced that Lucy was gone but Charlie had come as her replacement. Blue, less than two years old at the time, accepted this.

Blue promptly began chewing on Charlie but, as a brown bear, he held up better.  We accepted that Charlie Bear had leprosy and that's been that.  But now Charlie Bear is blind in one eye.  As in, I'm pretty sure some day last week Blue chewed off and swallowed Charlie's eye.  I've told Blue that should Charlie lose his other eye, then we are saying goodbye to Charlie.  He's moving out.  Adios.

And because Blue knows that when I say something like that I absolutely mean it, I don't expect him to eat the other eye... But, this is Blue we're talking about.  He does what he wants, so if he really wanted to chew off that eye, consequences be damned. 

What if he have to get rid of Charlie soon?

Which got me thinking - have any of you retired a bear or a well-loved lovey? How'd that go?

Comments

[Jenny]

I'm a packrat, so I may not have the most useful answer to this question! But that's never stopped me before!! lol. My unfortunate lovey was a ian caterpillar, who i didn't really adopt until I was about 5. I still have him. I also still have the baby blanket I carried around when I was little; Abby plays with it now :) Abby has a little white kitty whom you remember. She will likely need repairs soon. My family has a tradition of mending and repairing loveys. My mom sewed up my caterpillar and re-painted his eyes a number of times. She also performed a "musicbox-ectomy" on my brother's bear Shane, after which she sewed a something like overalls on him. I won't be at all surprised if I have to sew clothes on Abby Kitty soon, as she's getting pretty thread bare. I'm not good at throwing out things, especially things with emotional attachment. Thinking about Blue, I would be hesitant to throwing out the teddy bear if he really loves it. As a compromise, you might make a special keeping place for Charlie so he's out of circulation but not in the trash. I don't know how attached Blue is to the bear, but I wouldn't want to force a detachment on him. Just me.

[Gran]

Have you seen Kevin's bear? I still have it in the entertainment center in the gold room. Kevin plucked it clean as he placed the fuzz between "thumb man" and "pointer man" as he sucked his thumb. I love the bear because Kevin loved it. I have Jaime's doll and Matt's talking Mickey Mouse on the same shelf.

[Kelly]

Well, I still have my childhood bear...he looks a bit like he was attacked by a dog ;) I loved him so much for so long, I just can't seem to throw him in the trash!

Ayden has now become attached to Monkey (pronounced Monk-me). It was the one gift at a work babyshower from a person that I didn't really know, so I have no idea where to find another one. That being said, I'm on a hunt for Monkey so that, as far as I'm concerned, he will never have to part from him ;)

Can't wait to see what Mallory ends up picking as her lovey :)