> Did anybody else have parents unsympathetic to button phobia?

Oh yes. My mother made a lot of our clothes and I can remember her
making me wear a coat with horrible brown buttons on it. Of course I
had to wear it and saying I didn't like the buttons had no effect.
One day I wore it to a party and on the way home was amazed to find
that the buttons had been replaced by nice cloth covered ones. Joy!
I was very young, probably no more than 6 or 7 and still believed in
miracles. Unfortunately, it turned out that I had put on another
little girl's coat by mistake and it was soon swapped back for the
horrid one.

On the other hand, I have been an unsympathetic parent myself. My
daughter is button phobic and I have tried to make her wear buttons.
When my children were young a lot of their clothes were hand-me-
downs from their cousins and they had to wear what they were given.
Also I suppose I had the idea that if I had to come to terms with
touching/using buttons, my daughter should too. That didn't work out
though - maybe she is more stubborn than me :-)

> Desensitizing works on fears, but I don't think that it works on
> repulsions, as there is no specific consequence to them. I don't
like
> buttons because they disgust me. I'm not afraid of anything
happening
> to me whilst I'm wearing them.

I think that hits the nail on the head, I feel exactly the same. I'm
not afraid of buttons, I just find them disgusting. I can pick them
up, sew them on etc if I have to but I really don't like it.

Barbara