I Tried 6 Brushing Fixes With My Two Kids. [Only One Actually Worked.]

For [two years], I was the soundtrack. Every morning, every night.

[The first night, I stood next to Leo and didn't say a word. The light turned green and he pressed Go.] Klaar said it all: "Top teeth first. Small circles." "Now the insides." "Now the chewing tops." A picture for every step. [I actually teared up.]

[lines from the Pages v2 page; swap in the locked firmware script before this runs]

Brushing was a fight at our house. Pinning. Bargaining. "One more minute."

[By the end of week one, it was mostly gone. The steps stopped coming from me, so there was nothing to argue with.] I got to be the one who cheers.

At the times you set, the ring around the screen glows green and waits for the big orange Go button. Their name is printed on the band. [By night three, Leo was racing his sister to press it. Now he reminds me.]

• The sand timer counts to two minutes. It never says what to brush.
• The light-up brush lights up. It doesn't say where.
• The song is fun. The steps are still yours.
• The sticker chart works as long as you run it.

A timer marks the start and the end. Your voice fills everything in between. [Researchers who filmed 3-year-olds brushing at home found half of what parents said was instructions, mostly "keep going" and "brush" (Leonard and colleagues, 2022).] Klaar fills that middle:

[lines and times from the Pages v2 page; swap in the locked firmware script before this runs]

It's a GPS for brushing: it calls the turns, and you ride along.

Two kids, one sink, and I was the referee. Now each child has a profile, and the screen shows whose turn it is. Everyone gets a row of ticks, no scores. [Mine stopped fighting over it by night three.]

"Did you use soap?" "Yes." (They didn't.) Now Klaar runs hand-washing too: "Wet your hands." "One pump of soap." "Palms!" "Backs!" "Fingers!" Each one counted out loud, then "Clean hands!" [Fewer germs coming home from daycare.]

[hand-wash lines from the Pages v2 page; the firmware still has to settle whether the scrub counts in fives or to 20, and whether it names the nails]

[Recommended by pediatric dentists.] I looked it up: the American Dental Association says two minutes, about 30 seconds for each quarter of the mouth. [Klaar paces exactly that], and from age 3 it calls the insides and chewing tops too.

"Children usually need help with brushing until they are 8 years old" (American Academy of Pediatrics). Klaar doesn't replace me. It makes our two minutes count.

Klaar is not affiliated with or endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics or the American Dental Association.

[Our brushing app crashed mid-routine on night four.] Klaar has no app and no account, so there's no phone at a wet sink. Whoever does bedtime, my partner or Grandma, it says the steps the same way. [Same steps on night 500.]

I added it up: [over $120] on fixes that didn't stick. The sand timer, [$12]. The light-up brush, [$25]. The app, [$48 a year]. Stickers and "fun" toothpaste, [$40]. Klaar: $99, once, [the only one that actually worked].

That's about 14 cents a brushing routine in year one ($99 ÷ 730).

Cancel any time before it ships. Then take 90 nights at your own sink. 90 nights to see if they press Go. 90 nights to see if you get your evenings back.

If it isn't working, send it back, even with their name printed on the band. [Every dollar back.] [No questions asked.]