I was not always as wise as I am now *cough*

[eleneariel]

Tonight I was remembering a random snippet from my childhood:

When I was maybe six or seven, I found brushing my teeth to be a needless interuption in my day. It took up too much valuable time that could have been spent reading or playing in any number of my pretend worlds. I mean, come on. A minute and a half of tooth-brushing or a minute and a half of being a Vietnamese rice farmer? The choice is CLEAR.

Of course, my mother, being a good mother, insisted that I brush my teeth anyway.

My solution was to pantomime the entire process behind the closed bathroom door: run the water, pretend to put toothpaste on the brush, pretend to brush my teeth while holding the brush an inch away, run more water, pretend to rinse my mouth  ...

ALL OF WHICH TOOK EXACTLY AS MUCH TIME AS ACTUALLY BRUSHING THEM WOULD HAVE.

Yeah. Logic: severely lacking.

(Er ... mom? Did you know about this? Yeah, sorry about that. My six-year-old self apologizes for her complete stupidity.)

Comments

[jkgeroo.livejournal.com]

Thomas says he did the same thing.

Me, I used to have to brush my teeth before I was allowed to practice flute. Not so much anymore (even if I played anymore...)

And being a Liberated Grownup, I now choose whether or not I want to brush...but fuzzies bother me more than they used to, and thus life comes full circle. Drat.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

This is what I'm finding with bedtimes. For years and years I had to go to bed long before I was remotely sleepy. I could have stayed up reading! (And did, often, with the old flashlight-under-the-covers trick.) Now that I'm old enough to choose my own bedtime ... I find myself unable to keep my eyes open after a mere half-hour's reading. It's SAD.

[jkgeroo.livejournal.com]

Yah. Growing up is just stinky like that. And the answer isn't Red Bull either.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Or entire pots of coffee? =\

[jkgeroo.livejournal.com]

Or two pounds of chocolate :(

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

So remind me again why growing up is a GOOD thing??

[jkgeroo.livejournal.com]

Because then you don't have the nagging wish that you could be a grown up and "do whatever you want to do."

I personally exercised that today by buying my 17th box of tea. It was Lemon Ginger by Stash.

[butterbobbin.livejournal.com]

I went through a phase where I never brushed my teeth ever for months on end. I do not know how this escaped notice.

EDIT: I should clarify that it was at a time when my mom was sick for a few months and she let me stay up late to make up for doing so much extra work. It started with not wanting to run water at late hours and wake her up, and then became habit.

Still, my breath HAD to have stunk.

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

That's pretty impressive. o_O

[franciscanorder.livejournal.com]

Well, at that point it wasn't about brushing or not. It was about defiance. "You can make me be in this bathroom, but I'm *not* brushing my teeth."

[eattheolives.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I don't remember feeling defiant. It just seemed like such a colossal waste of time that I ... took just as much time pretending to do it. It made a weird sort of sense at the time. *facepalm*