A childhood belief about monsters

My parents invented "Mr. Tooth Decay" when I and my brother were small. I envisioned him looking like the Mr. Bubble guy, only green,scowling and carrying a pic ax. Mr. Tooth Decay would knock on the bathroom wall (while staked out in the closet on the other side) whenever my parents felt we weren't spending enough time or effort brushing our teeth. Our parents told us if he made it into the bathroom, he would take out our teeth and run away with them. My brother and I totally fell for this and lived in constant fear of his arrival. Sometimes, Mr. Tooth Decay wouldn't even make it into the house, instead my dad or mom would yell, "He's coming up the walk right now!" We'd run to the bathroom and start brushing like mad. To this day I still jump if I hear an unexpected knock while brushing my teeth. I wonder what my parents were thinking scaring us like that!