Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Hello Vanity

Remember when Sir O knocked his tooth crooked?

Lesson learned: Children who run a lot should not wear footed pajamas.

I was feeling so hopeful because it was slowly moving back into place.
And then this week Mr Renn announced that it's darkening.
It's dead.
And Sir O's permanent tooth won't move in to replace it for another four years.
And the going wisdom for dead baby teeth is to leave them be and not risk messing with the development of permanent teeth below.

4 years with a dark tooth in the front and center of his smile.

I. am. devastated.

Mr Renn, he's not.

Mr Renn had 2 dead permanent teeth hanging out in the front of his smile during his critical adolescence; courtesy of his historic skateboarding crash as a kid. Apparently it didn't phase him.


(and in this picture it actually doesn't look so bad. Too bad we can't know what lovely shade of yellow to gray to brown this tooth will turn.)

I'm pretty sure Sir O himself isn't going to be phased by it either. He's far too busy to be worried about things like vanity.

I'm the one with the vanity, on his behalf.

And I'm the one who has to come to terms with it. I have to come to terms with how much I care about how people think my kids look. Clearly I care too much. Way too much.

So, how exactly does one get over that? (Besides having God in his infinite wisdom and humor kill your child's tooth?)


hairyshoefairy said...

Oh, no! I'd probably be devastated, too. ODD and I are both rather vain on behalf of our kids and anticipate a bucket of acid being thrown into their beautiful, perfect faces someday because of our vanity. It's definitely something we need to work on. At lest Sir O's tooth isn't going to be a permanent problem. It's hard enough as it is with it lasting another 4-ish years.

em said...

Probably the simplest way to get over it is to just step back and realize the bazillion other things that could have/might possibly affect your children's outward appearance and be grateful it's just.a.tooth.

Pretty soon you won't even notice it.

Em said...

This is why I love blogging. The perfect person always shows up to make me perfectly ashamed of myself. Eternal progression is bound to occur.

Deena said...

I had a few thoughts:

1-Photoshop is the best thing in the world.

2-At least it didn't knock it out leaving Sir O looking like a hillbilly for four years. :)

3-Cute kids are able to get away with flaws more easily than not cute kids. He will have no problem getting by.

Aby Runyan said...

My daughter, Capri, had to have a silver cap put on one of her top teeth - third from the front. It was REALLY hard for my husband to accept it, and that it would show every time she smiled. He feared it would upset her, or people would look at it funny. I kept telling him, nobody is going to care and that it is what it is. She's such a gorgeous girl - who cares about a silver tooth!!

So have a little pity party, those are JUST FINE in my book. It helps in the "getting over it" process. Plus, for me - they often include chocolate.

luvs, aby

Amanda said...

I know exactly how you feel! Dyson was riding on a toy train (that wasn't meant to be ridden) and crashed into the counter and his front tooth went dark and is now light gray.
AND, Ridge has his big fall last Oct and had to have one of his front teeth totally removed. He was the hillbilly your other friend mentioned that could have been worse.
I was devastated with both accidents and cried way more than I should have over the lost and tainted smiles.
It gets easier with time and knowing that eventually it will get better and if there is a problem with the permanent tooth you can always cap it.
Just try to remember he is still super handsome.

--jeff * said...


the boy is not horribly injured. it's only a baby tooth that's dead, not him.

it's certainly something that he will look back on laugh about in years to come.
you may as well start the bemusement now.

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