Are You Flossing?

It’s 3:45 p.m. I’m standing in my kitchen half thinking about dinner, and half thinking about cleaning the floor. My aimless thoughts are interrupted by the inevitable question “MOM! Can I have a snack?” I shift gears and remember that I’m trying to rid the house of Valentine chocolates. I hand the last chocolate to Elliott, figuring this is sure to score some points.

“Don’t we have any apples?” (Apples?!) “Um…don’t you want THIS?” (shoving the chocolate closer, I figure he can’t resist the smell.) “Mom, can’t I just have an apple? PLEEEEZ?”

Bewildered, I reach for the nutritious alternative and ask why he wouldn’t want to have the last chocolate.

“Have you ever heard of a little thing called TOOTH DECAY?”

Remember those little classroom movies we were subjected to as young kids? The ones that used little Pink-Panther-esque cartoon characters to teach us about germs and the like? As a kindergartner, Elliott has been viewing these little films from time to time. He and his buddies are in the process of loosing their baby teeth, so it’s only natural that the topic of dental hygiene comes up. They’ve gotten their diagrams, their little packages of toothpaste…then they turned on the movie. Apparently, all is well in the cartoon world full of dancing teeth, until this creepy tooth decay character shows up with his black hood and sickle! He proceeds to wreak havoc on the fictional incisors, as well as the imagination of my 6-year old.

Once a normal little boy, Elliott is now terrified of sweets. He is even afraid to enter a dark room alone because he swears this tooth decay fellow is hiding in the corner. Although we were originally amused by this abnormal anxiety, Andy and I are completely exhausted with all of this nonsense.

So please, be on the lookout. You never know when TOOTH DECAY will affect your gums or your tranquil existence.