They are not charging me enough for this app

If you were to visit my house three weeks ago, you would have witnessed a fight that broke out in the bathroom every morning and every evening. It was the battle over the toothbrush. The catalyst for the fight varied by session, but always involved around one of the following:

• My son wanted to brush unsupervised and would become incredibly upset over being told that he needed to brush longer/better.
• My son did not want to brush his teeth at all and would scream and cry as a parent did it.
• Some other issue set off my son and he was still in a bad mood/yelling when it came time to brush his teeth.

I was unhappy. My husband was unhappy. Our son was unhappy. (The cat was probably unhappy, too.)

We had tried so many methods to improve his habits - switched out brushes, added music, rewards...I even got those red disclosing tablets to show him spots on his teeth to work on.

Then I read a story about a toothbrushing application that was so successful that it was interfering with bedtimes and causing children to overbrush their teeth.

Brushing too often is a bad thing, but I was desperate. I bought the toothbrush and downloaded the free app. Here's how it went:

Night 1: My son was overtired and freaked out over the toothbrush (because it is electronic). My bad for not prepping him properly.

Morning 1: I prepped my son appropriately. We try it. No tears.

Night 1: My son is excited to brush his teeth.

Skip ahead...

Morning 5: I tell my husband that this company is severely undercharging me for using the application. (It's free.)

Night 5: My husband tries the app with our son. He agrees with me.

I don't do product reviews on this blog, but if you are interested in the app you can get the details here. All I can say is that there hasn't been a single fight since instituting the toothbrush and the application. Not one. And, since I keep it on my phone (and my son doesn't know my phone's unlock code) there is no danger of his overbrushing to get more rewards from the application.

All I know is that my son is happy to brush his teeth. And that is huge for me, considering that Halloween is coming up and oral hygiene is on every parent's mind these days. I just cannot tell you how much I look forward to two less arguments every day.

What application has made an invaluable change in your family's lives? Share with me in the comments.