“Get up, you losers!”
The noise, along with the sudden brightness of fully opened hotel curtains, threw my teenage brothers and me into a fit of groans and complaints. Confused by our tennis coach’s sarcastic and sudden morning wake-up call, we’d roll over trying to block the light, covering our faces with pillows and blankets in an attempt to get a few more moments of sleep.
Our efforts meant he would then tear the comforter, pillows and sheets from the bed, leaving us no chance of snoozing any longer.
In a thick Ethiopian accent, our coach would challenge us with a smile, “Show me what you got, if you got anything at all.” The frustrating transition from sleep was instantly replaced with laughter, pillow fights and wrestling matches across the hotel room.
As teenagers, who treat sleep as a sacred and most precious commodity, you’d think we would have hated our tennis coach for his morning routine with us.
You’d be wrong: we loved it.
Our coach helped us through the daily drudgery of alarm clocks and transformed those dreaded summer mornings into fun, enlivening events.
Honestly, is tooth brushing any less of a daily bore for young children? As a dentist, I hear about this every day. You may or may not be surprised at how often parents say, “My kids won’t let me brush. They absolutely hate it!”
I understand how hard it is to get resistant kids to brush (I am a dad–I get it), but I also see the painful result of that lack of brushing in my dental practice. I often see kids as young as 2-3 years old with a mouth full of cavities.
This is why I started Tooth Training. Because I want to do more than just fix cavities for the rest of my life. I want to teach parents easy and fun ways to prevent those cavities from ever starting in the first place.
Everything hard but necessary in life requires a little training. From getting kids to potty train, sleep through the night, or give up a pacifier—to encouraging them to read, be on time to soccer practice, or stick it out with piano lessons—it all requires some coaching and encouragement to help our kids persevere when things are unpleasant. And often, the earliest lessons last the longest.
I hope to be your family’s dental coach. (And I promise I won’t wake you up in the morning by calling you a loser!) I hope to help you successfully Tooth Train your babies to care for their teeth for a lifetime—with effective daily practice and, yes, even creativity, fun, and laughter.
Sometimes we all need a coach to help us through something mundane or difficult and push us to the next level. Let me be yours, as you go on to be your children’s.
Tooth Training Challenge for this Week:
Sign up for my free guide to easier brushing. Take five minutes to read through the concrete tips and strategies, and try one out this week! Leave a comment and let me know how it went and any questions you have. I will respond.
Great site! I love these tips!