Tuesday 12 June 2007

Worst mother in the world? Maybe not.

Hannah announced last night that she had a wobbly tooth. We told her to go to sleep an we'd talk about it in the morning.

This morning Dave tells me that Hannah has a wobbly tooth, and we check, and she does.

Huge guilt sets in. Hannah isn't even five years old and she's losing her baby teeth. I panic because I don't think children lose their baby teeth until they're at least six years old.

And then I realise she hasn't been to a dentist since she was about a year old. Because that's the last time I went to the dentist. Because trying to go to the dentist is a nightmare.

About two years ago I made an appointment and the dental practice cancelled the appointment twice.

I had another appointment about a month ago and, because of Denis and Vish, I forgot I had the appointment.

I have another appointment booked next Tuesday.

I asked if I could get the children and Dave on the dentist's patient list and was told "not at the moment", which means Hannah and Ethan are dentistless.

All of which means that Hannah hasn't been to the dentist for the last four years. And in my head this was why Hannah had teeth falling out (OK, wobbling a bit).

So the guilt was big. Until I spoke to Jane who said loads of children lose their baby teeth in the Reception school year.

So the guilt is now small, but my children are still dentistless. Must read up on Tooth Fairy behaviour.

So maybe I'm not quite the worst mother in the world.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Definetly not bad mother, children were losing teeth in my class at International School, 5 to 6 year olds. We even had tooth chart, thats how common it is!
Re dentists: I can't get into any NHS dentist in Tring, theres no room. I need to travel to next large town to find one, they don't really make it easy for us to be 'good tooth mums'!
Jo