Poor Thing

Lovely afternoon in a restaurant. A mom with her boy. I would say he is about twelve or thirteen. Almost as tall as his mom. She was so attentive. She kept engaging him in a conversation and occasionally added food on his plate. Clearly he was the center of her universe. How sweet. Then at the end of their meal she held his face on one hand and used a toothpick to clean his teeth with her other hand. And he even let her! I assumed this was a normal routine. I imagined in the future he would have a hard time finding a wife who is willing to do that. The thing mothers do for their kids!