The 4th toothbrush
#BBCreatorsClub ;#supersinglemom

Hello BabyChakra'oms!

Starting today, I want to take you through a journey of #thishappenedwhen as #supersinglemom ;
Had you known me personally, you would have heard me speak of these events in bits and pieces, as I often share my learnings with others. I thank BabyChakra's #BBCreatorsClub and;@KhushbooChauhan for this opportunity to get us up close and personal.
#thishappenedwhen N2 (my younger son) was around 4, he had just returned home from a children's birthday party at the neighbours. He dropped the goody bag in my hand as if I was a holder and ran straight towards our wash basin. I assumed he must have eaten something spicy, and he probably wants to gargle with a toothpaste when I heard him count 1 2 3, in his micky mouse like voice! Wondering in my head, I follow him and find him pointing towards the toothbrush stand. Surely he knows how to count, but why is he pausing?;

With a curious smile on my face, I asked him "what's up beta?" He looked into my eyes and then pointed towards the toothbrush stand and recounted the contents, surely enough there were 1, 2, and 3 toothbrushes. He then, in all his innocence asked me a question I have been wondering how to answer 'when they grow up', he asked me - "momma why we have only 1 2 3 toothbrush, why not 4, like Dhruv's house? even Ekta has 4 in her house she said, and Smiti has 6, why we don't have 4th tooth brush?"

Believe me when I say it takes 'the most of you' or 'rather the best of you' to be calm even when there is a storm raising your pulse rate per second, you feel you are caught red handed although you plead not guilty to a judge who's born out of your own flesh and blood. They ask, and they have every right to know, and as a parent, we need to keep it simple and we can't dodge a question that needs an urgent addressing, right there and then!

I earnestly smiled and with all honesty, I said "Beta because people like to keep their toothbrushes with them, in the place where they belong, we have kept ours here, because this is where we belong, close to each other". "You, bhaa (elder brother) and my toothbrush is here today, when you grow up or when bhaa grows up" I say while picking up his light green and N1's light blue toothbrush; "you will take your toothbrushes with you - right?";

He turned back to the lone toothbrush now standing in the holder and asked "So that time only your toothbrush will remain here? you will not be sad?"

So now I uncovered the raw nerve here, he was relating family to toothbrushes, it was my turn to give him the right assurance. Slightly ruffling his straight hair, I continued "toothbrushes are made out of plastic bachha, but you are made out of love, no matter where you go, where ever you take your toothbrush.." while tucking his light green toothbrush in his shirt pocket, I looked at him and continued "momma will always love you, and you'll always have momma in your heart" I pecked his little forehead.

He kissed me back on mine and took his toothbrush out from his pocket and placed it back in the holder, close to where it belonged. He grabbed my hand and took me back to the hall to show me all that he had got in his goody bag.

That night when I was watching N1 and N2 brushing their teeth before bed, I saw a gleam of something shining in the mirror - a metal toothbrush holder with just one toothbrush in it!