Thursday, February 19, 2009

Mother of the Year I Ain't

Yesterday I took the Evil Genius to the dentist - he has a few stubborn baby teeth that are mucking up the distribution of his grown-up teeth, and last checkup they found a cavity which they wanted to fill (it's a baby tooth, but it's a molar and will be there for a while, so it needs filling).

A cavity.

In my six-year-old's tooth.

You know whose fault that is - not his, that's whose. It's the fault of the mother who didn't make sure his teeth were brushed every night, even when someone else said they'd take care of it.

So now he has a filling, but that wasn't enough. Nope. The dentist informed me that the cavity was massive - his word, too - and right at the nerve, so my SIX YEAR OLD CHILD needs a crown. A crown!! And a root canal!! At six!!!!!!!!!

I drove home feeling like a shitheel, even though my cheerful little guy didn't care a whit and wanted to know if he could have a biscuit for breakfast (no, he couldn't, since it was lunch time and anyway, he still had a numb mouth and couldn't have solid food until he could feel his face again. He got milk and some cheddar bunnies instead.)(Yes, cheddar bunnies are solid food, but you try telling a kid that cute and hungry he can't eat.)(Didn't think so)

Today we are off to the pediatric dentist, who will possibly drill, kill, and fill while I quietly sit in the corner and lambaste myself with recriminations and self-loathing...because my six-year-old will now have a dead tooth and a stainless steel crown.

I'm the anti-mother-of-the-year, is what I am.

2 comments:

  1. No no no no no! Sometimes life is just that way. Yes, by all means ride him harder on the teeth issues -- I NEED TO, TOO! -- but my mother has an old story that will make you feel better:

    When she was young (1940s) they ate good, wholesome food and very little soda or candy. She was a saint about brushing her teeth, by all accounts. And yet her head is FILLED with fillings and crowns.

    Flash forward to her three children, who never flossed and had to be badgered to brush, and who NEVER had cavities (until the youngest started getting a few as a tween).

    Sometimes life is just unfair. Lighten up on yourself, K! MWAHH!!

    -- Laurie

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