My family is of Irish background and I hardly ever get to see a lot of them. A cousin from Dublin is down with her two kids. One is a little boy who is almost six. We went to a fancy resturant and we are sitting at the table and he started to whine a little bit. My cousin then went into her bag and gives her son a pacifier which he sucked on on and off for the duration of the meal!

My half sister who travels the world quite frequently and who was also at the dinner, told me this is common in Europe, that kids there take pacifiers for a lot longer than children here.
Is this true?

What do you guys think, anyway? Is this a cultural difference? Pacifiers that old? (Please don't mention ravers, its not the same situation.) Wherever one lives, I would think it would be really bad for the childs teeth. It looked so strange- this big kid with a pacifier hanging out of his mouth. It was like a scene from a Steve Martin movie.

I can't speak for the whole of Europe, or even the whole of the UK, but I've never seen a kid beyond the age of about three who still takes a dummy.

Six years old? I mean, that kid will be at school. It doesn't seem right to still rely on a dummy at that point, at least to me. Maybe they simply use it for social situations like going out for dinner, etc? I can understand that. But idk. Thinking about it, that's the sort of age where most parents of a thumb-sucking child would want to try to steer them away from that behaviour, so it seems bizarre that any parent would let them suck on a dummy at that age as if it is quite normal.

I'm no parent, though. But rest assured you're not alone. It would certainly raise an eyebrow with me too.

Maybe she just wanted the kid to shut up so she could enjoy her meal?

It does seem a bit strange though. And terribly bad for the child's teeth.

I think he was whining because he wanted it. My half sister had warned me in advance that he still used one and not to be weirded out when I saw him using it, so I think hes using it all the time, not just as a reward/tool for cooperation.

Uh-oh. I'm starting to suspect the But It's Cool in Europe explanation was an excuse.

pacis in general are weird. at six?? there is something disturbing going on there.

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