Dental Tears

To my son Tommy,

Many kids cry and whine and fight over going to the dentist. Not many kids shed tears because they can't go to the dentist RIGHT NOW! Funny enough that is exactly what happened this morning.

We try (or should I say your Mom mostly) to warn and prepare you for any new event. When we bring you to the doctors, we alert you if you are due some booster shots and we prepare you for what the doctor will do. When we recently brought you to the eye doctor, again we prepped you and you were all set. But a major side effect of preparing you is it creates an excitement, a buzz if you will, around the event. You get yourself all psyched up and somewhere in my mind I picture you as Linguini from the movie Ratatouille saying "You with me? So, LETS DO THIS THING!!" The problem is your concept of time, and your eagerness, and the dental office insisting on appointments, well none of this mix. Which is why we had the flood of tears this morning.

There are so many things in this world worth shedding a tear over, some of them beautiful, many of them tragic... but not getting to go to the dentist first thing in the morning, well that just ain't one of them.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo