My mom made my sister and I quit when I was 8 and she was 6, pretty old to still be sucking our thumbs. She did it successfully with the promise of stickers at the end. They weren’t even very nice stickers. Not furry or bubbly or the scratch N sniff kind. I don’t even remember what they looked like. But sticker-collecting was big in those days and any opportunity to add to our albums was very welcome. So we both quit, pretty much cold turkey.
This confession would’ve been really hard to get out of me if not for the fact that I met 3 cousins (not mine) in their twenties on my recent snowboarding trip who openly sucked their thumbs at the dinner table. The first time I spotted one of them doing it, I thought I was mistaken. The girl, we’ll call her Sally, used her other hand to cup the one in use to disguise the deed. But when I saw that familiar shiny wet thumb, bent slightly backwards come out of her mouth, I knew I wasn’t seeing things.
It happened again and again. First her, then the others. While this was going on, I looked around at their mothers. There was no reaction. I looked at my friends, they didn’t seem to notice. I didn’t understand. I wanted to jump up and scream and point but I couldn’t (too old for that). So I waited until later to tell my friends. To my dismay, they didn’t seem to think it was as freaky as I did. All I got was a shrug or two and maybe some giggles.
How come nobody else thinks sucking your thumb openly in front of strangers in your twenties is completely… I can’t even think of a word for it. I can only liken it to biting my toenails at the dinner table. Surely someone would at least offer a frown then?
I guess they haven’t figured out another more developmentally appropriate way to self-soothe! 20s is a tad… late. Do they have other anxiety-related issues?
hehe ever the psychologist! they didn’t seem to be anxious except in getting their say at the dinner table. grr…
I used to suck my thumb too – kindered souls!!
my parents tried everything, they taped up my thumb (I unravelled it in the middle of the night), they painted it with this horrid bitter tasting thing (I licked it all off), they tied a mitten around my hand (I sucked the other thumb – which REALLY doesn’t cut it)…
and then one day when I was 5, my dad said “bo, can you please stop sucking your thumb” and I said “ok, daddy.” and I stopped sucking! from that very day!!!!
they should just have asked me to do it from the outset lah!
hahaha! 5 is very young. i still needed my thumb.
awww… they should stop soon tho. my friend had a kid who wouldnt stop, and then her thumb sort of, well.. fell apart. then they had to bandage it up and stuff. not pretty
i don’t think they’ll be stopping any time soon at this rate! hehe. How in the world could a thumb fall apart? this sounds like urban legend!
Yeah I stopped when I was 7 but the damage was done. I had to get braces to straighten my front teeth!