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Development, Deception, and Dental Health

by Christine Louise Hohlbaum    

Dental health is important in our family. We brush our teeth after most meals, we don’t eat too much candy, and we even have a teeth brushing song to motivate unwilling players. It is then no wonder that my older child has such a fascination with toothpaste.

The other day I had been a little distracted with two-year-old Jason. In the last few weeks, he has decided that his diaper is no longer a necessary garment. He tries to fight me off with every attempt to swaddle his behind in paper and velcro. Kara had free reign to lick away at the new toothpaste. When I had extricated myself from Jason’s fitful grip, I admonished her that, although it tastes like strawberries, it isn’t something that you can actually eat. At the store that week, I had thought myself clever to buy two tubes: one for upstairs and one for downstairs. I could save myself a little time in not having to run up the stairs at bedtime. We could brush our teeth right there in the first-floor bath. What happened next made me realize that convenience for me meant double temptation for Kara.

Sleep had been a precious commodity that week. I decided that we would all lie down for a nap. After a story hour and some songs, I wished my children a good rest and paused momentarily at each of their doorways. How angelic they looked, eyes closed and breathing so even!

The house was still as I drifted off into a dreamless slumber. An hour later I awoke. It was still very quite so I padded down the stairs to look for a snack. Moments later, Kara’s face appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. I congratulated her for being such a grown up young lady for the hour while Mommy slept. She followed me into the bathroom and said,

“Mama, where’s the new toothpaste, hmmm?” She looked about with me for a moment.

“Oh, I know!” she exclaimed with her finger pointing upward. “It must be in my room!” She ran down the stairs and came back up with a half-empty tube of toothpaste. Her guilty conscience had spoken before I could say a word. In the end, I decided to leave both tubes of toothpaste in the locked medicine cabinet upstairs. And I decided not to purchase such a good-tasting toothpaste next time.


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Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff, is an American living near Munich, Germany with her husband and two children. Visit her web site at: http://www.diaryofamother.com mail to: chohlbaum@smith.alum http://www.diaryofamother.com/