We have a saying in our house that I borrowed from a friend...Don't feed the monster. Charli had a meltdown at the dentist yesterday, clamped her mouth shut and flat out REFUSED to let the hygenist finish cleaning her teeth. This has never happened before. The hygenist had to come and get me. I walk into the room and there is my daughter watching TV, mouth tightly shut, and her eyes red from crying.
Let me stop a moment to give a little back story: The day was hectic. I had to leave work, pick her up from school and have her to the orthodontist by 2:10 to get her wire for her braces removed before taking her to the dentist. The dentist office is 35 minutes from her orthodontist office. Then after the dentist I had to get her back to the orthodontist to have the wire put back in as her orthodontist's office wouldn't be open again until Tuesday. I also needed to pick up hog feed, run and buy dog food and swing back by work to drop it off as I knew there was a possiblilty I would be off to enjoy an extended weekend while there is no school between teacher work days and the MLK holiday. The point is we were in a major time crunch.
I stood over Charli while she was reclined in the seat and made up my mind that I wasn't going to feed the monster. I looked down at her and told her that she needed to open her mouth and finish her cleaning...period. Do you know what my precious daughter did? She stuck her tongue out at me in front of her dentist and hygenist!!! (I am sure your perfect children would never do such a thing but my kid missed the memo regarding sticking her tongue out at her mother). I was stunned but I recovered quickly, tied my supermom cape a little tighter and I asked her if she wanted me to pop that tongue back in her mouth. I then said " Do not think just because we are in public that I won't escort you into the bathroom young lady! Open your mouth NOW and let her finish so we can go!" There was no coaxing, bribing or anything of the kind. She opened her mouth (granted not happily) and we were out of there 10 mintutes later. I did find out from her dentist that she had 2 tiny cavaties! Blah (Oral-B super brusher? Nope...guess not)
I decided since I moved her dentist appointment up and it was currently 3:33, I was going to press my luck and drive to get the hog feed (which is located halfway to B.F.E.), prior to heading back to the orthodontist. I also had to stop for gas because I was running on fumes. I made it to the ortho at 4:41. We were out of there at 4:55. I stopped to pick up the dog food, called the bosses' gave them the run down, and went back to work to drop off the feed and dog food. I unloaded 200 lbs of hog feed (50 lb bags...yep little heavy) and put away the dog food. Charli and I left rejoicing in the fact that I would have a long weekend off work while she was out of school.
Don't feed the monster simply means, I am not going to fuel the bad behavior. I am also not going to bargin or bribe a 10 year old. Ode to joy...now to schedule her filling appointment. I am pretty sure Mark will be off that day :D
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