My daughter had an interesting conversation with her dentist this week.   It started with teeth and ended with Say Yes to No.

In the chair, mouth open wide, the dentist takes one look and asked Erin, “Were you born in the 1980s?”  A little startled, Erin’s first thoughts were, “Oh, no, there’s something wrong with my teeth.”   She tried that dental chair response - talking with your mouth wide open - “Yes, should I have been born in the 70s?”

“No, your 80s teeth are fine, but I can always tell someone born in the 1980s from the 1990s.  There’s a real difference.”  What the dentist said next, rang Say Yes to No bells in Erin’s head.  Her dentist went on to relate that starting in the 1990s, kids were eating more than their fill of candy and pop.  It seemed to her that kids had more money and fewer restrictions on the amount of sweets they could buy.  She also found parents more willing to spend money on the resulting tooth problems than work with their kids on self-care: like brushing teeth and restricting sweets.

Erin was startled by this, but left with the resolve that self-discipline for kids can start with the little things in life, like a piece of candy.    How do you think self-discipline can start for kids?

David Walsh