Lessons in Parenthood

Dearest Jackson,

You teach us so much!  And we love being your pupils...99% of the time.  But we recently learned one of our hardest lessons thus far and we hope there's not a quiz later. 

After over a year of super hygiene, you suddenly changed your mind regarding rinsing your mouth after brushing your teeth.  One night, you refused to spit the water out after we brushed and I just blamed it on a long day and off to bed we went.  The next night, you wouldn't even pick up the cup of water and we were so confused.  We tried talking you through it calmly but you ended up going to bed again without rinsing.  This behavior continued for about a week and your dad and I were just beside ourselves.  We tried everything from letting you go to bed with toothpaste in your mouth - to spanking you - to sitting you in time out - to turning it into a game by having a spitting contest in the backyard.  A few of those nights involved sending you to bed just so your daddy and I could go out to the living room and discuss our gameplan for the following day.  In the end, we have to accept that you are your own person who gets to make your own decisions in life and we can't actually make you do anything.  And if you're getting any ideas while reading this, then just know that I am twice as stubborn and will always be there to challenge you!  So, while we understand that you are going to sometimes do things differently than we've planned - we still have to put our foot down sometimes.  Therefore, we had one more trick up our sleeves.  We took you to the store and let you pick out special "spit juice".  Considering that this is your first time using mouthwash spit juice, we had a talk about how it is for your mouth only and not your belly.  After you brushed, you proudly sipped the juice, and promptly spit it out.  We celebrated that night and we've continued to tell you how happy we are with your renewed hygiene.  For now, it seems like we've all learned.  While it was not fun, if this is the hardest lesson we have to endure, then we'll consider ourselves incredibly lucky.