I was just about to crawl into bed last night, but as I set a glass of water on my nightstand I made a startling discovery. There, in a haphazardly sealed plastic bag was a tooth.
The tooth itself wasn’t a surprise — my oldest daughter had lost one of her front baby teeth a few days ago. The fact that it was still here was.
Admittedly being a bit squeamish, I didn’t handle the Tooth Fairy duties on this occasion, and I guess I had assumed that my husband had thrown it away when he made the swap. I mean, why wouldn’t you…right?
I carried the bag into the kitchen and waved it at my husband: “Why is there a tooth on my nightstand?!” (It even still had a bit of blood or the root or whatever that red stuff is stuck to it!)
Anyways, it was gross, so I chucked it into the kitchen trash can. But instead of getting a hero’s thank-you for preserving the mystery of the Tooth Fairy (it was laying in plain sight after all), my husband gasped as I threw the tooth away. He was upset. He had wanted to keep it.
His reasons weren’t for science or stem cells, or anything of the like. It was purely sentimental. My husband, who likes to pretend that he is stronger than all of us “sensitive” weenies out there, was sad at getting rid of a baby tooth. (Like there won’t be a dozen more!)
“Well, you didn’t seriously expect to keep every single one of our girls’ teeth did you? No way am I having a bunch of bloody old teeth laying around!” Now I sounded like the insensitive one!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually a very sentimental person. My favorite gift is actually a handwritten card with a heartfelt message, and I keep them forever! But I just can’t see a good reason to save my child’s baby teeth!
There’s talk of using teeth to regrow stem cells and I’ve seen quite a few articles shared on social media imploring parents to “save you child’s teeth because you could save their life!” However, the technology isn’t fully developed and shipping and storing them “just in case” is very expensive with no guaranteed reward. Stem cells in teeth are only viable for a VERY short time, so any you have lying around the house already are worthless for that purpose. And I’m sure not using them to make a creepy keepsake or gluing them in the girls’ baby books!
If my husband really wants to keep them, he can take care of it and hide them in his sock drawer or something. As long as I don’t know or stumble across bloody teeth I’ll be ok. Just don’t leave it up to me to save my child’s baby teeth!
What about you? Do you save your kid’s baby teeth? If so, what do you do with them? I’d love to hear so maybe my husband and I can come up with a compromise!
For more positive parenting ideas from REAL moms, follow my Positive Parenting Tips board on Pinterest:
Follow Stacey @ The Soccer Mom Blog’s board Positive Parenting Tips on Pinterest.
Get a FREE Daily Goal Planner!
Join thousands of moms & dads in sharing ideas and positivity by subscribing to the Soccer Mom Blog Weekly Inspiration Newsletter - and get a FREE Daily Goal Planner, too!
You might also like:
Have you ever thought about starting a blog of your own? Click here to find out more!
Follow the Soccer Mom Blog on Pinterest - Facebook- Twitter - Instagram
My mom kept ask of our teeth, and later gave them to us. I thought it was kind of gross.
I do not keep my kids teeth. There’s no point.
Gross! Nope! We aren’t going to do this! There are other things we can keep: little beanie from the hospital, baby blankets, onesies, pictures, wrist bands from hospital, one piece of clothing or art project from each year. But no, not teeth.
Yep! There are so many other keepsakes besides teeth!