The simplest things can be the most important. Bread and cheese, grilled together, can be more delicious than a gourmet meal. Time together talking to someone you love can be more satisfying than a trip to Fiji.
The same is true with personal care. I spend a lot of time and money making sure my hair is soft, my legs are smooth, and that my pores are small. But the most important thing I do is taking two minutes twice a day to take care of my teeth. Teaching these same good habits to my four kids has been one of my most important tasks as a parent.
It’s not something you think about before you have kids. And at first it’s easy, since it was my responsibility to take care of all their physical needs. After they were bigger, I was surprised that tooth care was a task I had to personally make sure happened for them. For years!
Even now all my kids are taller than me, they are still young enough that I have to occasionally personally ensure the twice-daily brushing and flossing takes place.
The best way to make sure your kids brush their teeth—brush with them! If you can’t do this fourteen times a week, make a point of brushing together at night as part of a bedtime routine, or on weekends as part of a getting-going-to-enjoy-the-mornings.
The reward for making sure your kids have good oral hygiene is so much more than not having to smell stinky kid breath.
More than 51 million school hours are lost each year due to dental related illness, resulting in parents losing 25 million work hours annually. Cavities and oral infections can cause severe pain and can increase a child’s risk for dental issues and poor health throughout their lives.
3 in 4 parents report that their kids sometimes or frequently forget to brush their teeth (raises hand), according to a national survey just released by the Ad Council. In an effort to help parents better understand why ignoring dental health can have serious consequences, and educate families about good dental health habits, the Ad Council and The Partnership for Healthy Mouths, Healthy Lives created Public Service Ads (PSAs) for their Kids’ Healthy Mouths campaign.
The new PSAs are humorous depictions of life lessons which make the point that while parenting can be tricky at times, getting kids to brush for two minutes, twice a day can be easier than most other things parents will try to teach their children.
Go to 2min2x.org (which is available in English and Spanish, and includes a mobile version), where you and your kids can watch entertaining videos—all 2 minutes in length—while brushing their teeth.
In December, the Ad Council kicked off its first ever video contest with Zooppa, the world’s leading crowd sourced marketing platform for producing creative content. The Kids’ Healthy Mouths contest called on Zooppa’s community of over 27,000 amateur and professional video makers to leverage the existing campaign strategy to create their own videos showing parents trying to give important advice in just two minutes. The contest winners capture the spirit of the original PSAs and feature a lighthearted look at parenting today.
Parenting is hard to do in two minutes. Making sure kids brush for two minutes, twice a day, is something a little simpler.
Take the 2min2x Texting Program Challenge with your kids!
75% of kids forget to brush their teeth. Want to make sure your kids are in the healthy 25%? Join the free texting challenge and take part in a five-day family brushing challenge. You’ll get 2 texts per day for 5 days,and will also receive personalized tips and support. (http://2min2x.org/sms.asp) or text TOOTH to 97779 to join.
Also, hey, here’s a fantastic quick and easy giveaway! Enter through the Rafflecopter. Make sure to leave an email we can reach you. Giveaway open to US residents 18 and over. Void where prohibited, etc. Good luck!
Cool! This is a great program. 🙂