**THE THING WITH BAD HABITS**

Right from my school days, everyone who's been around me for a reasonable amount of time will testify to the fact that I chew gum a lot. 

Not necessarily that I love it but I just do.

I developed that urge and habit in my school days because I wasn't one who was given to coffee and the likes in order to have lengthier study hours and so the next resort I had was to rely on chewing gum in order to remain focused and alert.

With time the repeated acts of chewing gum unconsciously became a habit. A bad one at that.😬

Everyone around me complained but who sai. Old habits never die hard... Or do they 🤷

To make matters worse I don't chew the gum with relish sef. If you see the way I chew it, you too will be annoyed 😩. 

I chew gum in such a crass manner with my mouth sounding like a typewriter every one minute 🤣.

You wouldn't believe that even on my wedding day I came to the church chewing the gum that I had deliberately saved for that day. 

My husband noticed my mouth whining and because he had come to know me with it like everyone else, he knew I had gum in my mouth and quickly ordered me to spit it out before our wedding service starts 😂.

Fast forward to now that I am a mother and by the virtue of my job meeting people on a daily basis... One would think that I have outgrown the old habit 🙄. For where ???

Even my colleagues at work can attest to the fact that me and chewing gum na 5 and 6. I even buy and save for later.

Not until early last year when it gave me a terrible toothache. One that I am still battling with till date.

For one year now I have not used the right side of my mouth/teeth to chew anything. Not even the softest edible food. 

The left side of my mouth has suffered honestly.

Just when I was about to go see a dentist I took in with my last baby. So I immediately shelved that idea because I am always extra careful of the drugs I take when I am pregnant even though it was of course prescribed by a gynaecologist during one of my antenatal visits; except it is a matter of life or death like when malaria in pregnancy showed me pepper.

So even when the tooth ache became almost unbearable and I told my doctor, he gave some drugs that he assured me were pregnancy friendly; but then I got home, my mama spirit told me otherwise for fear of my baby and so I quietly threw the entire drugs into the trash not minding how much it cost. 

My husband didn't find it funny when he found out but my motherly instincts got hold of my sense of better judgement and so...

I continued managing my self inflicted discomfort since then.

Now that I feel it's safe for me to revisit the issue, my son overheard when I was discussing with husbandman one of the days about what to do.

Husband man was still teasing me for bringing such wahala to myself and for being a 'fear fear' all the time when my son quickly cut in and he (my son) said: 

"But mummy it's not true that chewing gum all the time is a bad habit and can spoil a person's teeth, I thought you said parents know what is good and bad and that always do that which is right so that us your children won't make mistakes".

He continued ... "So if you knew it was bad why did you do it in the first place. This is not what you always tell us". 

I immediately found myself stuttering to defend my parent-self before my son. Shame catch me no be small😩. His father was supporting and hailing his judgmental questioning all the while.

So for the first time since I started experiencing this toothache, my discomfort got spiced up with a little bit of shame.

Shame of how I allowed an initial harmless action become a habit that I refused to control till it turned into something else.

And that also got me thinking...

Is there any sort of action which we've allowed become a habit and has so much eaten deep into the fabric of our lives that whenever it's eventually discovered we'd feel like hiding our faces in shame 🤔.

If you do why not start from today to make the much needed amends... before your sin finds you out 😔.

And while you are on that journey to self rediscovery and realignment, please do well to share your similar experiences if any. 

And share any home remedies for the treatment and care of toothache which is baby and cost friendly 🤝. 

Thanks.