Bad Bad Parent

I know as parents we all tend to say things that maybe are a little bit scary on purpose to get the kid to do something without quite so many questions.

I knew a mom that was on child number two and had the teeth brushing routine down by age one. Yup, her kids brushed their teeth and LOVED it by age one. It seems I was not so adamant about it and fell into the category of well by age two we should begin to introduce brushing our teeth. This was not done lazily, I did some research and most dentists didn't even want to see the kid until age two. I know, I know, some say go as soon as there are teeth but hey, at that point H was more than happy to bite anything that came his way and I wouldn't have wanted to be the dentist in that transaction.

Anyway, I did take H to the dentist at about 2 1/2. He did ok. We talked about it before hand so he wasn't too scared. He sat in my lap. He stared at the pretty blond young dentist and only slightly opened his mouth. Good news was, gaps between teeth - good things. Okay, says pretty blond young dentist bring him back at age three and I'll show him how to brush. So, thought we had better step up the tooth brushing routine a bit more and create a habit.

We have been working on that diligently and I think I finally have it down into my morning and nighttime routine. Of course, brushing one's teeth means that one might stay up a little longer so there's not much push back except on really tired nights when everything is a battle.

On one such night when delay after delay occurred, I finally told H, who was sitting on the floor in a time out having a fit and not wanting to brush his teeth "We are just going to bed." So, as somewhat expected being a really really tired three year old, he began to cry. Not just cry tired whimper cry but almost hysterically cry.

"H, okay you are really tired. It's time for bed."
"No (sniffle cry harder real tears begin streaming down his face.)"
"H, that's enough please get up and let's get to bed."
"No (same as above.)
"H, what is wrong? Why are you crying?"
"I want to brush my teeth (see above actions)."
"No, it's very late and you are so tired, we are just going to bed."
"No! I want to brush my teeth (see above.)"
"No, we are done. Please get up and go to bed."
"No (wailing by this point) MY TEETH WILL FALL OUT!"

Bad bad parent tries not to visibly laugh and coughs instead.

I may have given him the impression that we need to brush our teeth so that they will not hurt and fall out.....Well, what do you tell your kid when he/she asks why we need to brush our teeth????