Good habits in the bathroom

My son is working on refining his "clean routine" habits. Mostly, this has included making him more aware of the amount of time he spends in the bathroom in the evenings. He gets distracted in there - singing and talking to his reflection in the mirror.

I tried putting a shower clock in his bathroom, but that didn't work. He didn't notice the passage of time. So, we switched to a Time Timer which allows him to see how much time is slipping away. It seems to be working a bit better, as he has now invented his own version of the "beat the clock" game, but I still have to check that he is completely clean.

The next area I've started asking him about is the amount of toothpaste he uses. When he first started brushing his teeth, we would put a pea-sized amount on his brush and tell him that was the right amount to use. When he took over the job himself, we didn't do a great job of checking up on him, and one day realized that he was using too much.

I blame the toothpaste companies for always showing a full swish of toothpaste.

So, we are now getting him to use less toothpaste, since using too much causes kids to get too much fluoride, which is not a good thing for developing teeth.

I am thankful that my son is older now and it is easier to have these conversations with him. When he was a little younger, he was so focused on getting his independence from our toothbrush monitoring, that I am not sure he would have listened to the reasons why he needed less toothpaste.

Seems like such a little thing...but most of parenting is made up of these little conversations.

How old was your child when you stopped monitoring their tooth brushing? Tell me in the comments.