Wow!! You folks have busy busy little Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves this afternoon. I've only been gone a couple of hours and I had to go back 4 pages to catch up, I'm still only in the 250s!
2JM, I had to take my 12 1/2 yr old son to the dentist today to have 2 teeth pulled in advance of braces. It took me 1/2 hour just to get him out of the house into the car. I confess I was rather ugly to the young man! He was SO SCARED! I was trying to convince him that it wasn't going to be that bad, that he'd have Novocaine and probably wouldn't feel that much. I literally had to walk him down the stairs and out into the garage. Well, we got to the dentist 1/2 hour late, so we had to wait for the person they let go in front of us. The upshot is that now he realizes that he was silly to be so afraid, and he's running around the house laughing because he can't feel his upper lip!
I have a mouth full of metal from my younger years because I was so very terrified of the dentist. Do you remember the Steve Martin character from Little Shop of Horrors? Well, before he made the movie, he was my dentist. His approach to kids who were afraid was "shut up and sit still." My parents should've made me, but they were exasperated I'm sure. My dad even whipped me once after I refused to open my mouth. I was eight. But I think it bothered them so much they just let it go. I didn't go back to the dentist until I was 13.