TinyStepper
Curly-haired girl pressing a star sticker onto a table full of colourful shapes

Bottle Goodbye Drawing

Sit down together and draw a goodbye picture for the bottle — what it looked like, what it gave you, where it's going. A symbolic farewell that helps the toddler let go.

Activity details

2y–3y10 minslowindoorCrayonsPaper

Instructions

Get ready
  • Sit at the table with your child, paper, and crayons.
  • Say: 'We're going to draw a goodbye picture for your bottle.'
  1. Sit at the table with your child, paper, and crayons.
  2. Say: 'We're going to draw a goodbye picture for your bottle.'
  3. Hand them a crayon. 'You draw the bottle. I'll help.'
  4. While they draw, talk warmly about the bottle's job. 'Bottle helped you when you were tiny.'
  5. When the drawing is done, ask: 'Where shall the bottle go now?'
  6. Decide together — recycling, gifted to a younger toddler, kept on a high shelf as a memento.
  7. Sign the drawing together with both your names.
  8. Stick the drawing on the fridge for the first week as a memorial.

Parent tip

Set out crayons and paper before inviting your toddler in so the first minute feels smooth.

Proud child holding up a painted sheet covered in bright handprints and splatters

What success looks like

Messy hands and a child who doesn’t want to stop. The artwork doesn’t need to look like anything — the process is the point.

Pull out paper and crayons and draw a goodbye picture of the bottle together. Your toddler draws the bottle (or the closest scribble version they can manage), then together you talk about all the times the bottle was useful and decide where the bottle is going next — to the recycling, to a smaller toddler, to the loft. The drawing becomes a small ceremony that gives your child closure on a real loss. Toddlers who get to grieve the bottle properly resist the wean less than toddlers whose bottle just disappears.

Why it helps

AAP HealthyChildren guidance acknowledges that toddlers can experience genuine grief over giving up the bottle because of the comfort and routine wrapped around it — and that forcing the transition without honouring this attachment often produces a power struggle. A goodbye drawing gives the toddler a developmentally appropriate ritual for processing loss, which closes the chapter rather than leaving the bottle as a missing thing they keep asking about. Acknowledging the loss is what allows the child to move past it.

Variations

  • Take a photo of the actual bottle next to the drawing for keepsake.
  • Read a picture book about growing up alongside the drawing session for extra emotional context.
  • Repeat the drawing later if your child asks about the bottle weeks afterwards — closure can take a few rounds.

Safety tips

  • Keep the drawing tone warm and celebratory of the bottle's role, not dismissive.
  • Don't promise to give the bottle to a 'real' newborn unless you actually will.
  • Avoid the goodbye drawing on a day your child is already upset; pick a settled morning.

Want to try another?

Daylight Monster Drawing

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