My dental complacency has finally bitten me in the butt. I haven't had any cavities since I was a kid, so I typically floss the day I go to the dentist and for about three days after my semi-annual cleaning until the guilt wears off. I figured that I served my time when I was little - lots of fillings, jaw surgery, braces for half my childhood - and could now brush off the nagging hygienists because I'm just not one of those people who has to worry about crowns and root canals. It turns out that I just wasn't one of those people yet. After many consequence-free years, I left the dentist a few weeks ago in shock - 2 fillings, 2 crowns and a possible root canal. It's expensive enough that I actually wasn't worried about the pain until I saw the syringe. Holy crap that thing is huge. I think people who would have been torturers in another age wield the Novocaine shot and the epidural. I know, they're both meant to relieve pain, but they look really scary and in our day psychological torture is the only socially acceptable form.
Where guilt has failed, hopefully pain and cash will succeed. Wait a minute, I'm feeling a parenting truth here. If you just nag your kids, they hear, "Blah, blah, blah." If you make the experience painful in some way, financial or otherwise, your concern becomes their problem.
In other news, Rand and I went to the grocery store. I got to the store and realized he had bare feet. Really, it wasn't that cold and he would have been fine, but I was embarrassed to take him in like that. It's the kind of thing dads can get away with - we just smile at the sweet, if slightly clueless man graciously picking up groceries for his family. Negligent moms get hostility - "What is she thinking? It's November!" So, I put my socks on him - not for his comfort but for my pride.
I'm missing my boys--especially by buddy Rand. I was looking through some old pictures today; found one of you, Summer, when you were a baby--side profile--looks exactly like Rand!
ReplyDeleteLove, Gran