Teeth

Teeth. Sigh. Is there anything more tedious than brushing them, flossing them, buffing them, glossing them? (Sorry, I got possessed by the spirit of Dr Seuss for a moment there…)

But ya gotta do it. I am the unproud bearer of yellow ones because I didn’t look after them as a teenager. I am missing a few due to decay and have fillings in others. So as I raise my boys, it’s important to me to have them eat right and look after their teeth.

But important to me and important to them are two different things. I don’t know whether I’ve talked about the difference between my 2 boys; I often sing the theme from the Odd Couple as they pass by.

Oldest Son is kinda like Felix, but with a surfer hair style and much better dress sense. And youngest son is of course Oscar the slob. Oh, he doesn’t mean to be, but neat hair, unstained clothes and having space to walk across the bedroom floor just aren’t priorities when there are so many other things to focus on, like daydreaming, daydreaming and his favorite passtime daydreaming.

So guess which one has trouble with his teeth? Yep: Oscar. Sigh. But sometimes the more you push, or manipluate or trick the kids with fancy psychology, the more they just resist. The tooth debate is in recess at the moment at my house (during which he’ll probably surprise me and get out the electric toothbrush to start buffing…)

Today I came across some helpful material on the Raising Children Network here in Oz. The first item I’ll link to is a video about eating habits and tooth care which features a nice cameo from Russell Crowe. (What a great voice!). The second is an article about School-age dental care. Both have links off to other topics in the series.

WARNING DAD JOKE: So don’t give your kids’ dental health the brushoff; go check out these links.