Mom Stuff

So I've finally come to realize the (rather obvious) fact that I'm not necessarily a good mom or a bad mom - I'm just a woman who is able to do some "mom things" well - but other "mom things" just aren't my cup of tea. Last week I took my eldest to a Sara Bareilles concert here in town. She was playing at the rodeo, thus the cowgirl hats in the picture over yonder. We had a great time. I'm also having a great time cheering her on with her kickball. (Kudos to my husband, who thought it would be a good sport for her - he was right on target with that idea.)

So I'll give myself some credit for the role I've played in introducing my kids to lots of different kinds of music, art, literature and we're even finally getting some athletics into our lives. Good for us. I've got that down.

I absolutely do not have some of the other mom stuff down and probably never will. Case in point: loose teeth. I appear to be physically and emotionally incapable of pulling out my children's teeth. My mom had it down to a fine art. I didn't like it very much, but she was able to loop that dental floss like an expert and pull those teeth right out. Loop. Tug. Yank. Pop. Tooth Fairy. Simple as pie.

Me? Not so much.

When my daughter had her first loose tooth (in preschool - she was little, my kids got their teeth early and starting losing them early), we were visiting my parents in Waco and my mom and brother were mortified that I'd let her tooth get that loose without pulling it out. Apparently it could be a choking hazard at night. (I'm good at feeling the mom guilt too...have I mentioned that mom skill??) So my mom pulled my daughter's first tooth. And maybe some of her others also. I'm not sure. I know one of her teeth just came out in a corn dog. My mom is also the only one who ever clipped my babies' fingernails because for some reason that just freaked me out and I couldn't do it.

My son has lost a few teeth already, although he's such a little man that he generally just takes care of it himself. He pulled his first or second one out by himself. With dental floss...before his dad could even get upstairs with the video camera.

Tonight he has another loose tooth and it's really loose. He asked me to pull it. Bless his little heart. All I could manage to do was to sort-of, kind-of wiggle it. I was able to loop the dental floss around his tooth (although for the life of me, I have no idea how my mom is able to do that cool little lasso thing with the floss) but he had to pull. And...I couldn't even watch while he tugged on his tooth. I was feeling faint just sitting next to him on his bed while he worked on his tooth.

So, to sum up:
- music, literature, cheering at kickball, having fun, and even handling regular and non-regular medical emergencies with my kids is right up my alley
- pulling teeth and clipping baby nails intimidates me beyond all reason

There's probably some deep psychological reason for this, but I don't think I want to know what it is.