I got my tooth kicked out

We had a babysitter who was mean. I think one thing we held against her was that she made us eat tuna fish crackers - which we hated. Oh and she also screamed at us a lot. She usually made us play outside while she was inside. I think she was watching kid-inappropriate shows on tv and talking on the phone to her boyfriend. She was also our next-door neighbor. I would go inside when I would see her in her own yard. I did not want to interact with her any more than I needed to.

I was embarrassed around her. One time while she was babysitting, I wondered if I could tear up my diaper into little pieces and hide it under the outside stair well. I proceeded with that experiment and was successful. She found me with no diaper and demanded to know where it was. I could not retrieve it since it was in hundreds of tiny pieces. Her anger seemed unreasonable to me at the time because it was MY diaper and I felt I should be able to do whatever I wanted with it. I’m not sure if she found it (or pieces of it), but I felt in trouble (of course) and got yelled at (of course). So this is the source of me being embarrassed around her - though I wasn’t quite old enough to be as embarrassed as I should have been. To me at the time, it was just a science experiment. I was already halfway through the experiment before I had a small thought that someone might notice something out of the ordinary with me.

On another night we were sitting on the floor in the living room watching tv. The babysitter was making us eat tuna fish crackers again. They were laid on a chair that I was sitting around with my sisters. The babysitter left the room and my sister made me eat her tuna fish crackers. I’m not sure how she “made” me. The same way any older sibling makes any younger sibling do anything I guess.

My sister went into the kitchen to get some water. When she came back she tried to step over me at the exact moment that I turned my head. She kicked me in the front tooth and it started to bleed.The babysitter took me to the kitchen and cleaned off my mouth and tooth - my two sisters watching intently. She decided that the tooth was loose enough to come out. I disagreed. She pinned me down and pulled and twisted. I screamed and writhed the best I could but she would not stop. She twisted the tooth nearly clear around. It poked out sideways as I yelled for her to please stop. This is the first time I remember so much pain and so much pleading for it to stop - but it did not.

Ultimately the tooth did not come out and the babysitter gave up. But she was not able to put the tooth back straight. It was turned around in my mouth. My parents came home and threatened to finish pulling it out. My dad “suggested” tying a string to it and slamming the door. I must have been convincing with my terror by that point because they did nothing.

The tooth did not come out that night. It hung on for a few weeks and eventually fell out. I was young to have lost a tooth. I didn’t just lose it though - it was kicked out!!! I was so mad at my sister - she made me eat her tuna fish crackers and kicked out my tooth - both equally offensive.

Did this happen to you too, or am I just lucky?