If you haven’t already read my suggestions for preventing a desperate search for a replacement love, I think you’ll find my ideas to be helpful.

But we received a comment on that post recently that is too good to leave buried back among the old posts.

Teresa writes:

I wanted to add a few other things we do to help make sure we don’t lose our kids’ most special loveys.

First, usually we don’t take them out of house. If we do, they wear a “name tag necklace” that we make out of thin elastic (like the kind that ties a pair of shoes together in the store), with a small square of paper that is then “laminated” with clear packing tape, so that the tape goes around the elastic, and sticks to the piece of paper on both sides. The paper has the doll’s name, and my cell phone # (written before taping, to keep it from smearing).

We never take the most special doll into stores, or on vacation. We talk about “who’s going to go with us?”, and the kids each choose a less favorite toy. We play it up as a special trip for a toy that doesn’t get as much fun time, sort of looking at it from the toy’s perspective, like the “Toy Story” movie does. And we talk about how we don’t want to risk losing the favorite, too.

Originally posted Tuesday – 02/20/10