I thought it would be berry good. How wrong I was.....

There's a new kind of Listerine out for kids now - I don't remember what it's actually called, but maybe you've seen the commercials for it. After brushing, you use this rinse and then when you spit it out you look in the sink and there will be proof that it works - dark colored little particles from what you missed brushing (or something like that). It looked fun and I figured healthy teeth are always a good investment so I bought some today at good ol' Wally World. There were only two flavors to choose from. Mint and Berry. It was a no brainer decision as I excitedly tossed the berry flavor into the basket.

Fast forward several hours to the bedtime ritual tonight. I played it up and they happily agreed to try it. I instructed them on the correct way to swish and spit and explained that it needed to be for 60 seconds. For a moment I thought they would both back out as they gazed into their little white cups I had poured the pink stuff in, but when I said "go", they opened their little mouths and in it went.

Exactly 2.5 seconds later, the water was turned on full blast and they were spewing that stuff out like it was castor oil. They just couldn't spit enough. Over and over they filled their little white cups with water and swished and spit, trying to get that "gross" taste out of their mouths. It was pretty ridiculous, let me tell you.

I tried. I lost. Oh well.

Tonight when they asked for a story about when I was little (this is a nightly occurrence and they do not let up until I have recalled at least a couple of exciting childhood tales), I told them about my own fluoride rinse memories. I attended a medium size Christian school for most of my elementary years in Arizona and once a week a lady came in with a tray full of small white cups. Each white cup had a measured amount of fluoride in it. I remember it was green and fluoride-ish tasting. (Imagine that - fluoride that tasted like fluoride). After all the cups were passed out, she would say go and we would have to swish our green stuff for 30 seconds. I have vivid memories of watching the second hand clock of our big white and black classroom clock go slowly around. When the time was up, we would spit the fluoride back into our cup and the lady would walk around with the tray and collect all the used cups. (What a glamorous job that poor woman had.) I don't know why, but I always kind of liked the fluoride swishing time each week. It was exciting for some strange reason. Maybe I just enjoyed a break from reciting the times tables. Who knows.

Not surprisingly, the kids asked for a different story when this one was over. "Don't you have an exciting one? Or a scary one???" This has been going on for a while now. Pretty soon I'm going to have to start making stuff up. But really, what's wrong with a good fluoride story?