being in the same school as my son allowed me to attend to his urgent needs and still get on with my work subsequently.
Parenting is a time-consuming task. Child-free people say that it is a colossal waste of time. Take today, for instance. My son told me that he was experiencing pain in his lower front tooth.
Now, I am sure most parents would have advised their children to wait it out and let the baby tooth fall out naturally. However, I am a novice at parenting. I think a part of me does not want to endure my son’s grimacing and whining. So, I immediately made an appointment with the dentist and took him there.
$75 is not an astronomical cost in the grand scheme of things, but I did feel the pinch. Is it an extravagant expense since I could have waited for his tooth to fall out? I honestly do not know. I do think that the immense relief I felt at the end was worth the money spent. I could get on with my day and set the Preliminary Foundation Science paper.
Glossary
- colossal - Imagine something so huge it feels like a giant—way bigger than normal.
- astronomical - a number so big it feels like it belongs in space 🚀
- immense - something so big or strong that it almost feels overwhelming
In your sentence:
“A colossal waste of time”
→ A very, very big waste of time
“not an astronomical cost”
→ Not a crazy expensive amount of money
“immense relief”
→ Very, very strong relief (like a big “phew!” feeling)
the writing is my original masterpiece, but the explanations are from ChatGPT.
I aim to be child-free as long as possible, but I wouldn't precisely say it's a colossal waste of time. It's more appropriate to say it's a colossal, intentional, investment of time.
nice catch! low time preference, like investing in Bitcoin, heh. thanks for helping me reframe ;)
Why?
My job offers lots of creative flexibility, but is inflexible (relative to past jobs I've had) in every other possible way.
Take this with a grain of salt, but it's worth considering (at least a tiny bit) that the body behaves in certain ways for an evolutionary reason and short-circuiting normal/natural things could have unintended consequences.
e.g. Staying on the dental theme, if a jaw develops naturally (lots of chewing through adolescence via (unprocessed) chewy and relatively tough foods coupled with good nutrition), wisdom teeth remove gaps as the jaw grows to its adult size. Most of our jaws don't develop to full size so we end up with impacted wisdom teeth, or they cause our teeth to crowd rather than straighten, and we have them removed.
I wonder if there might be a point to letting baby teeth giggle and find their way out on their own - perhaps communicating tooth positioning to the body. Or, the pain might discourage putting pressure on that area of the gum/jaw while the adult teeth move into position.
thank you for your thoughts.
I think I was very earnest in trying to help my son avoid pain (and buy myself peace Ngl haha), but your take on letting nature take its own course gives me much food for thought. it’s unlikely that I will have so much $75’s to burn anyway, so I will convey your ideas in child-friendly language to my son. wish me luck! 🍀
My daughter is eagerly awaiting her baby teeth getting loose.
so nice to see life unfold through their eyes, right?
I try to convince her that it’ll happen faster if she eats more fruits and veggies because they’re harder to chew
Next time maybe call the dentist first for advice, sometimes they’ll tell you if it’s urgent or safe to wait
true, that. explore all options first
Your piece hits.
I believe parenting isn’t about saving every dollar, it’s about buying peace of mind when it matters.