I'm 20 and, Yes, I Still Sleep With a Stuffed Animal

When I was sixth months old, my dad came home with a little, stuffed bunny in pink gingham overalls. I don't remember (obviously), but that was it. I have literally slept with Miss Bunny, every night of my life. All these years later, she still shares a place in my bed, in my very first bedroom to myself in the first apartment I have ever rented. She's a little worse for wear these days, the little tag on her back is no longer legible at all. Even a deep clean wouldn't restore her to her former white and fluffy glory, not that I would wash her anyway- she'd never survive the washing machine.

Twenty years later and her faded pink bow and compacted fluff still bring me comfort at the end of every day. I know how lame of me this is, seriously. I am way too old to be sleeping with my childhood comfort object. I tried to stop this past summer. I said to myself 'Ok Liv, you're too old for this. Miss Bunny needs to go on a shelf and you need to sleep like an adult". Five completely sleepless nights later, she was back in bed with me.

I sleep well. I am super lame but for a million other reasons, the least of which being that I sleep with a stuffed animal. So I think we need to just make it an acceptable and normal thing. Most of my friends sleep with some kind of stuffed animal, if not the one that they've had for their entire life. So here's my confession on a large platform, so that another 20-year-old somewhere can stop hiding their teddy bear when friends come to her apartment. Don't be embarrassed! Do whatever is going to give you a good night's sleep and quell some of your stress- growing up be damned!

I just think that there are enough things to be stressed and embarrassed about that something as simple as a stuffed animal should fall off of that list. Being an adult and sleeping with a teddy bear or a blankie or Miss Bunny is okay! Sleeping with no top sheet is okay! Sleeping in any way that is going to let you decompress from the shit that is trying to be an adult is fine! Unless you are a grown man and still sleep on a futon- you know who you are and we need to talk.

So anyway, sweet dreams.