Sunday, September 20, 2015

I Didn't Respond to It

I've become obsessed with Mac's loose tooth.  The thing is hanging by a thread, and he won't let me pull it and he won't pull it himself.  He also won't let Dan pull it.  He's been waiting forever to lose a tooth.  I feel like I'd be doing him a big fat favor if I just lightly tugged on it.  But, no.

"Mac won't let me pull out his tooth," I told Mary.

"I mean," said Mary, who is a social worker in grad school for her MSW, "my teacher would say the question is, 'Why do you want to pull it out?'"

"I just really want to," I said.

Silence.

"It's not about power and control," I continued.  "And since he says I can't, I don't force him."  I paused.  "I don't like hold his mouth open and make him let me."

"Well, that's good," she said.

I still feel like she was thinking there was something clinically significant about my tooth-pulling aspirations.  Maybe that's indeed the case.  I do think about it every time I look at his little face.

5 comments:

mm said...

I can't wait to hear what happens when it actually comes out!

LH said...

I don't like to yank on teeth, but I do feel that looking at the dangling tooth in your kid's mouth is kind of hideous. It used to make me feel kind of grossed out. I would offer apples. Sometimes that helped. But those teeth can be pesky.

LH said...

It would be cool to use the tooth for Twin Tuesday. Hman's toenail just fell off so I can use that as part of the pair. Lost body part?

KC said...

Wow, that would be EPIC. I'll let you know if I can make this happen. I mean, probably not. He'll probably swallow it to spite me.

Gina Marie said...

I can picture this conversation so perfectly, and it makes me exceedingly happy. Mary is the best deadpanner I know.