fatherhood

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How Often Children Should Go to the Dentist

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a concerned parent. There are many dangers present in the world today, and so it is a good idea to be careful when you are taking care of the health of your child. “When it comes to dental care of your child, in particular, an early start and regular follow up is the way to go,” says a local Belltown dentist.

First Visit

To begin with, you should take your child to the dentist by the time he or she celebrates his or her first birthday. These first visits are crucial for the child because they get him or her accustomed to the dentist’s chair. As a parent, starting this early also gives you the opportunity to get educated on the best care for your child’s teeth.

In case your child is still on the bottle and hasn’t started to wake up in the middle of the night to drink or snack, you can wait until he or she turns two years of age before you take him or her to the dentist for the initial visit. Once you’re done with the first visit, the standard frequency is to take them for a checkup every six months.

Between 4 and 6 Years

A major milestone is that period between the ages of four and six. At this point, your dentist should take some X-rays to find out if there are any insidious cavities lying between the teeth.

After 6 years

From the age of six, your main focus should be on prevention. This is that age when the baby teeth start to shed and get replaced by permanent teeth. Your child’s dentist is highly likely to suggest a sealant at this point. This is a plastic resin that will bond the chewing surfaces of your child’s teeth and reduces the chances of cavities forming in these spaces. The resin blocks bacteria from getting in those spaces between the teeth and also the grooves and valleys in the teeth themselves. This will be necessary between the ages of seven and nine. The most likely site for such treatment will be the molars, which are especially prone to cavities.

Another thing that is likely to happen around this time, when the child is seven years old, is that his or her dentist is going to suggest an evaluation of the teeth, known as an orthodontic evaluation.

As for braces, the majority of kids won’t be wearing these until they get into their early teens, but that’s not what an orthodontic evaluation is for. The whole point of orthodontics is to modify the growth of the jaw. At this stage, the dentist will evaluate the skeletal origins of things like crooked teeth and correct them early on. By sorting these issues at an early age, the dentist will be able to ensure that your child has a beautiful smile later in life.

What matters the most for your child is the basics: make sure he or she brushes his or her teeth at least twice a day, flosses everyday and go for regular twice yearly dental checkups. Your children will thank you later in life for that beautiful smile on their faces.

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Dear Jack: You Finally Got Your New Bunk Beds

8 years, 1 months.

Dear Jack,

Over New Year’s weekend, Nonna and Papa came up so we could build your brand-new bunk beds that you’ve been wanting for a couple of years now.

And when I use the word “build”, I’m not exaggerating.

It truly was a building process, as the whole kit was made out of all steel.

You took pride in helping put in many of the screws. You helped contribute to the assembly of your own bed.

Once we got it finished, over a 24 hour period, we realized how huge the thing is!

It’s so tall, that you have to be careful when you sit up on the top bunk, so that you don’t hit your head on the ceiling.

The bottom bunk doubles as a futon, so hopefully it can help serve as a place for you to study and do homework in years to come.

Oh, and Papa and I also painted your room blue.

You now have the bedroom of an 8 year-old boy!

Love,

Daddy

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3 Ways to Enjoy the Weekend with Your Family, When You Live in a Commuter Town

As of this month, our family has now lived in our “new home” for 4 years. We moved from the edge of Nashville to a commuter town, or bedroom community, which is 36 miles from Nashville.

We reside in a town full of other families who are in the same situation as us: We drive nearly an hour to get to work each day, yet we live, eat, and sleep in our cookie-cutter homes which were built on top of old farm land.

So while living in a commuter town is great because it provides a more affordable, quiet, safe community to raise a family in an excellent school district, the major downside is that it’s easy to feel trapped there. This is because commuter towns typically have little commercial or industrial activity beyond a small amount of locally oriented retail businesses.

Therefore, the temptation lies in basing weekend plans around going to Nashville; having to travel with young kids for an hour one way, based around the kids’ desperate needs for naps they don’t want- plus having to pay for parking, food, and entertainment. Otherwise, we end up ironically feeling “stuck” in our house.

But this past weekend was really good for our family. And the thing is, we didn’t do much.

It was so noticeably enjoyable, that I decided to write this blog post to determine the formula for our success. So here it goes…

1. We didn’t leave town. When you have young kids, being in a car can pretty quickly drain your happiness level as a parent; especially if that drive is any longer than 10 minutes. So much stress is elevated from both the parents and the children when the family doesn’t have to leave town. Because even if it’s in the name of entertainment, it’s often not worth it if by the time you get there, everybody is tired and frustrated.

2. We didn’t eat any meals at restaurants. While not having to cook, or sit through a meal with kids who don’t want to eat anyway, then have to clean up for that meal is a glorious thing, the reality is, it’s still not that great to have to pay money for food while having to entertain and referee kids who don’t want to be there in the first place. When I was a kid, I loved eating at restaurants. But I recognize that my kids’ generation is apparently not wired the same way.

3. We did hang out at a locally owned coffee shop. While dining at a restaurant can be a bit too much with young kids, going out for coffee can be totally enjoyable for the whole family. We visited our favorite local coffee shop, Legacy Coffee, this past Saturday morning. Not only is the coffee the best in town, according to my wife and me, but there are plenty of freshly baked pastries for the kids. So we hung out for about 20 minutes, all enjoying our delicious calories. It was a fun outing, yet it didn’t require much of a drive, or a time commitment, or a heavy bill, yet it helped contribute to a local business.

So that’s my advice, if your family also lives in a commuter town.

Sure, we travel to my parents’ house about 2 and a half hours away once a month, and go on vacation to California as well as Florida each year.

But other than that, the majority of our weekends take place where we actually live. So for those weekends, I will be more mindful of these three tips I learned this past weekend.

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Dear Jack: Your Brand-New Homemade Lizard Blanket!

8 years, 1 months.

Dear Jack,

Last week, you stayed at Nonna and Papa’s house for a few days while school was still out.

You and Nonna stumbled across some unused fabric from 20 years ago, of lizard print.

So that gave you the idea to ask Nonna if she could make you a lizard blanket.

Just your luck, she was happy to do it!

She took you upstairs to her sewing machine, so you can to see it being made.

Needless to say, you were to proud to bring home for brand-new, yet very classic, homemade lizard blanket.

It is safe to say that it is the only one in the world:

A small blanket with lizard print on one side, and a soft plush on the other.

 

Love,

Daddy

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At Age 37, My Wife and I Have Begun Investing Our Money, Thanks to Charles Schwab

At age 37, I am fully aware that I am now at the halfway point of the average American lifespan. I suppose this is literally the most appropriate time to have my midlife crisis.

Finally, I can trade in my old paid-off Honda Element for a brand-new Jeep Wrangler, take a spur of the moment trip to Spain, and start training for American Ninja Warrior…

But instead, I am focusing all that energy into planning for the 2nd half of my life- and my wife’s, as well as our children’s future.

My wife and I got married 10 and a half years ago, right in the middle of the 2008 Financial Crisis.

The first half of our marriage was spent building our careers from entry level positions and trying to manage the tens of thousands of dollars of debt we were in; largely due to college loans and our wedding.

The most recent half of our marriage began with us finally becoming debt-free in 2013, buying the last steal-of-a-deal new home in the Nashville area, and both finding ourselves far enough into our careers and side hustles that we started making a comfortable living.

But as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid explains, your goals and motivations evolve as you overcome your previous more basic needs and desires.

Now the focus is… how to invest our steady stream of income into our future.

I thought it was as simple as just paying off our house, then worrying about retirement afterwards.

However, my wife has been listening to the Moneywise program on Moody Radio on the way home from work each day. She explained to me that based on our interest rate on our home, it would actually be a better investment of our money to start building our retirement now, alongside paying off our mortgage early.

My wife then set us up an appointment with Charles Schwab financial investment company, which she had been hearing endorsed on Moneywise.

Today was the big day.

Our financial advisor helped us rollover my 401K from my previous employer to traditional IRA and select a portfolio for it. She also gave us direction on determining our financial goals so we could better plan our retirement and our kids’ college funds.

This was a major milestone for us. Here’s to the second half of life!