Brush Your Teeth

Brushing the babe's teeth has always been a painful experience for us both. She fights me, bites down on her tooth brush, squeals, fidgets and generally acts impossible. I had recently resigned myself to just letting her jam the tooth brush in her mouth and chew on it. I was feeling guilty that I wasn't being a good mother and was letting her teeth rot. I made myself feel better by focusing on the fact that they were her baby teeth and were going to fall out anyway.

The other night I had a break through. In the past we had tried to show her how to brush her teeth by brushing at the same time. She seemed to find it amusing. The real break through came when I gave her the tooth brush and let her "brush" my teeth while I brushed hers. And you know what? It worked!

I just have to get used to having her jam the tooth brush around my mouth. I now understand why she never cooperated with me as it is very awkward having another person navigate your mouth with a tooth brush. But I am happy to let her brush my teeth if it makes me feel like I'm doing my job as a responsible Mom (and her teeth are getting clean, of course).

Here's to brushing teeth.