Dentist first time. One after 909

This one is more about me than the kids.

I`ve been a Father for nearly six years now and still I have fears about getting it right.  I mean real fears of doing the something I have to do to the point where you want to just forget it and not do it.  Now, granted, I`m sure daddy's of 20 years will tell me, `yup, me too`, but I figured at some point some parents, maybe even myself, would start to relax and just do it like you go to the bathroom or get ready for bed.  Maybe it`s because I have a more general phobia of  "getting up" and doing anything at all.  Leaving the nice security of my home and chair is more than being lazy, its a medical problem.  Then again, maybe I am just making excuses and I AM lazy.  That would be a nice sociological survey:  Are you lazy or do you have a medical problem?  I could see the results now.  New drugs developed by Glaxo Smith Kline or Pfizer to combat "homeitus".  I shouldn't make such jokes as the condition really exists and it is terrible for those who have it. To even go outside can be a nightmare. So maybe I have a bit of that.  Travel fear carried to the nth degree.

I got off on a tangent there.  I drank a cup of coffee and got my two year old dressed for the occasion.   Her first excursion to the dentist.

Look, its not as easy as it sounds.  In fact you have to plan your whole day around this one event, and that will be another task for the mentally, lazy, inept such as myself.  The dentist appointment is at 3pm.  It means you have to get outside for the morning stroll by 10 am or sooner so you can be back by 11am so you can prepare the lunch by 11.30 so you can get her to her nap by 12.15 (she is a slow eater), so she can have enough nap, so you can wake her up by 2 so you can leave by 2.15 so you can pick up her sister at pre school by 2.30 so you can leave for the dentist by 2.40 so you can get lost for five minutes because this is the first time and a new location for you, so you can get them there BY 3pm and look like a completely responsible Father!!!

It reminds me of the Beatles song "One after 909".  "Took my bags.  Run to the station".

But, you will say, its nothing more than anyone who has a job that is tied to the clock doesn`t do every day.  Bingo.  Exactly.  I don`t understand why parenting is looked down upon because in fact it is a job just like any other job with all the same agenda.  Why do we look down on Mothers AND Fathers who are at home taking care of their little ones?  Maybe because nobody pays us so it is not considered "real" work.  Hey.  Mitt Romney--remember him?-- ran a huge financial company with hundreds of workers which took over other companies and fixed them or trashed them and sold off the parts.  He personally made millions of dollars every year.  Mrs. Romney raised 5 BOYS pretty much by herself who all are successful grown ups with good teeth.  She had to ask her husband for spending money.

Teeth?  Yeah, oh yeah.  So what happened was we got home at 11.15 from our stroll and she wanted to do a puzzle. No time no time, it will throw the whole schedule off.  Weeeell, lets just do the puzzle then we will eat.  That will be fine.   At 11.45 we finished the puzzle and she said, "Daddy I`m tired.  I want to go to bed".  She had gotten up at 6.30, earlier this day.  Uh oh, that wouldn't be responsible, putting her to nap without lunch.  Well she did have an egg for breakfast and some knackebrot snacks.  I was thinking about it puzzling over the ramifications and my duties, when I realized she was gone.  She was in her room taking off her clothes for nap time.  OK, that's decided. 

She woke up at 1.55.  Plenty of time, so I finished my cup of coffee.  We made it to her sisters pre school by 2.25.  Something about having too much time so you dawdle and do this and that and end up being late anyway, but that is for another story.  We got out of her school by 2.45.  I had insisted the smaller girl go in the stroller so I could go faster.  We live in the city, everything is nearby so we don't need a car for these things.  All the same it`s a fifteen minute FAST walk from school to the dentist.  The older girl is holding onto the stroller, tight, or else she will get left behind.  For some reason the music from the Wizard of Oz, the wicked witch from the West comes to mind as I`m pushing that stroller down a city street with another little girl running at the side.  Wasn`t I doing something like this just recently?  

At exactly 3pm I am at the door of the address I was given for the dentist.  But... there is no dentist in this building.  Agh.  I call up the office.  "Oh, we are at number 34, not 37".  Rrgghhh rggrr.  General knashing of the teeth sounds.   Took the stroller and the two little girls attached to it running down the street.

I got over to number 34 at 3.05, five minutes late.  I know that makes me a bad parent. I should have re calibrated my whole day to account for more time to get lost.  I shouldn't have finished my coffee.  I should have gotten out the door sooner.  It`s my fault.  I am not responsible enough for this parenting thing.  Mommy better do it.  I am IRresponsible.

The dentist took us at 3.20, fifteen minutes late.  She asked me a couple questions.  She looked at my older daughter`s teeth for three minutes in the patient`s chair.  Then she had me in the chair with my two year old.  Looked at her teeth for three minutes.  Said they both had really healthy looking teeth and the teeth had come in correctly.  Two more molars still coming in in the little girl`s mouth.  Don`t let them drink too much fruit juice and definitely no sodas.  They don`t drink sodas or even pop, nor cola.  Fine.  So make an appointment for the Fall.  Nice to have met you, have a nice day.   End of story.

Said we`re driving on the one after 909.