My 7-year old has a favorite friend (we'll call her Z) whose father and I got to know each other while watching our daughters play softball last summer.
It's a small town, so Z's Dad and I bump into each other now and then around town, dropping or picking up our kids from school, birthday parties, etc.
He's a terrific guy and even though we have almost nothing in common that doesn't involve our daughters, we somehow manage to converse on a wide variety of subjects.
The other day while watching her Cars dvd, C commented about the tow truck named Tow Mater, and how his two front teeth stuck out so. We discussed the differences between overbites and underbites, why they call them buck teeth and other toothy abnormalities that are commonly fixed by braces, oral surgery, and regular visits to the dentist. Hey, when you're a parent, you take any opportunity that presents itself to breech the important subject of personal hygiene.
C seemed to grok the engrossing enamel topic when she suddently blurted out that Z's daddy has an underbite.
To which I then explained that what appeared to be an issue of unfortunate maxillofacial circumstances, was actually a small pouch of a sputum producing dried Nicotiana tabacum plant, wedged tightly between Z's Daddy's lower gum and bottom lip.
Now, I'm not a big fan of tobacco products in any way, shape or form, and I don't profess to understand the addictive properties of the plant, or what drives people to pursue the ingestion, suckage, inhalation, or chewage of those little brown moistened smokeless tobacco wonders, but it is apparently a billion dollar industry -- so who am I to judge.
C just thought it made him look kinda "Mater-like."
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2 comments:
Do you purposely use big words to confuse your poor daughter so that she won't ask anymore questions? If so, you may've come up with a parenting technique that could make you millions in book sales :)
I don't understand the allure of tobacco products either. All I know is that it's such an addictive thing that my father would take off the oxgen he had to use to breath just so that he could go outside to smoke a cigarette. I'm sure when he started the habit, he never pictured himself ending up like that.
Tuesday (aka migsy)
Using big words only encourages more questions from the wunder kinder -- ask any parent.
Most of the time, it's the simplest words that are the hardest to explain -- like when C asked my wife and I what the word "sexy" meant.
Still working on that one...
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