Yuck...

When I taught third grade, I came up against a stomach turner at least once a week...a lose tooth. On the first day of school, I would share with my new students that if they need to throw up, please hit a reciprocal of some sort...a trash can, a sink or a recycle bin. Even better, if they ran out of the room - no problem! I would also share that I will get someone to help them because unfortunately vomit was just something I couldn't  help them with. 

Then I would share how I also get sick to my stomach with lose teeth. I am super excited for them about that tooth and I sure hope they would lose it at school so they could put it in the little treasure chest, but they really don't have to show me their lose tooth. Once it's out, I will look, but not when it's hanging by a string in their mouth.

The kids thought it was hilarious, but also took me very serious!  (phew!) Several times, a boy or girl would come up and say, "Mrs. B!! Look at how lose my tooth is!!" And sure enough, there would be another child, not very far behind, "NOOOO!! Don't tell her!!! You KNOW that she will faint or get sick!!!" 

Bless all those kiddos hearts!!

Now, there are two types of kids when it comes to loose teeth.

1. The Hanger:  These kiddos will NOT let anyone touch their lose tooth, no matter what the circumstances. (Though I did find out that many kids would not pull their teeth until they got to school so they could get a treasure chest to put their tooth into. If I knew that earlier, I would have sent boxes of treasure chests home with the kids on the first day of school!) Now the tooth is staying in the mouth by the dreaded "thread" or "string." And it never failed, that the child would need talk to me and all I could do was look at that tooth and wonder if it was suddenly going to fly out and hit me in the eye. 

 It grossed me out. 

2. Then there is what I refer to as The Worker. This child about put me under my desk every time. This  child left their house in the morning and noticed that their tooth may...or my not, no, yep,  wiggled a little bit. And they spend the ENTIRE day working on getting that tooth out. It takes several trips to the drinking fountain because a "thread" would break (great success and a showing to the peers beside them.) And while I read aloud to the kiddos, there would be one audience member with their entire hand in their mouth working on getting that tooth out, because "DAMN IT, I AM GOING TO GET A TREASURE CHEST FOR MY TOOTH!" 

It grossed me out.

Well, back to my story. We have two of each category in our family. I am sure you could figure out who is what, but in case you can't, I will just let you know. Sam and I are hangers. Do not touch the lose tooth  until it falls out because I sneezed or bit on something and the tooth twisted at a terrible angle and now I have no choice.  But that's not all, it takes a good 45 minutes to work up to letting someone pull it and a good 15 minutes of ok do it, no stop, ok do it. Then it takes all of 2 seconds to get the tooth out because as I have state before, it was hanging there by a thread. 

And then we have Jason and Jack. Jason LOVED pulling his teeth when he was young! He loved the snap of the thread. (I am starting to get light headed just writing this!) We also have Jack...Can you tell what type of tooth person he is?

Yep, he is a worker. He is a typical, to the tee, tooth worker. But, with a twist. He likes to watch his progress in the mirror. I did not take this picture...Jason had to due to the fact that I could not stand watching this sport!

Jack had been working on this tooth for some time, so I finally yelled, "Jack...is it out yet?" 

"No! Part of it won't come out!"

Me: "You have 15 minutes and then you will have to wait until tomorrow!" (I should have added...and you will get a treasure chest for your tooth if you wait and pull it at school!)

Two minutes later he came out to show me this...

Here is a close up of his tooth hole. It was raw! That tooth was nowhere ready to come out! 

But I guess a worker's job is never done until the bloody proof is in a baggie for the tooth fairy!

(After looking at this picture I went to double check to see if Jack's mouth was that crooked! Phew!! It's not!)