Lately, the Bee has adopted one of the less-attractive habits of Violet Beauregarde, and has been ’saving’ her chewed gum to chew again, particularly around meals. I haven’t yet seen her sticking a slightly-chewed piece of gum behind her ear to save it for later, but I feel like we’re only days away from that. It’s pretty revolting.
Tonight, after she brushed her teeth, I caught her chewing gum again. I guess this is what happens when you don’t use minty toothpaste–I find it hard to imagine chewing bubblegum right after I’ve brushed my teeth.
Sometimes, I feel like I spend so much time keeping my children a) alive and b) fed and clean that I just don’t have time to socialize them too. This isn’t one of those situations that I’ve read about in any parenting books. Maybe we’ll just read the book again.
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August 2, 2006 at 12:20 am
Jessica
In reading you, it’s obvious that you give your kids everything they need….if you do find the anwer, however, do share!
August 2, 2006 at 8:07 am
chip
yeah, we have to just pick our battles… I think the socialization will work itself out.
August 2, 2006 at 10:46 am
Kate the Shrew
I think revisiting chewed gum is pretty low on the list of anti-social activities. I remember, as a kid, having a little ceramic cat labelled “gum parker”, which my grandmother had ordered out of one of her catalogs. I guess it’s common enough they felt they could make money off of a special dish for it?
August 2, 2006 at 11:56 am
Jennifer
Oh, this made me laugh!
My dentist gave us some gum with zylitol, he says it actually helps protect teeth. So get her some of that and it falls into category b!
August 2, 2006 at 12:28 pm
doth
I think I used to save my gum for a while… the phase passed so no worries
Though I also remember grossing my mother out completely.
August 2, 2006 at 3:12 pm
chichimama
Oh, so much fun. I am SOOO looking forward to those days.
August 2, 2006 at 6:59 pm
Claire
Hehe, I think all kids go through a random phase akin to this. When I was wee, I remember trying to stick gum behing my ear a few times for ’safekeeping’, a la Violet Beauregarde. After it got lodged in my hair and Marmee had to cut it out, that habit got icks-nayed!
August 2, 2006 at 10:42 pm
fidget
I went through a similar phase, my parents screamed it out of me
August 5, 2006 at 8:29 pm
Library Lady
This is funny, because JR is on a Willy Wonka kick and is watching the REAL (Gene Wilder) version of the movie constantly. And she’s got her very first loose tooth this week!
Neither of my girls really chews gum. I gave it up back when I had braces, and the Man isn’t a gum chewer either, so we’ve been able to keep it out of their mouths for the most part. On the other hand, perhaps I should encourage SC to start chewing gum–it might make her leave her nails alone(!)
Cheer up. There’s no book in existence that can come up with some of the weirdies our kids come up with. Trust me, if it existed it would be flying off my library’s parenting shelves…