Brushing your teeth isn't a chore

When did brushing your teeth become a chore?  There are things children should be doing to "pull their own weight" around the house, such as making their own beds and putting away their clean laundry.  Even helping with setting and clearing the table and with carrying in and putting away the groceries.  These can be considered chores.  Sometimes you're in the mood to do them, and sometimes you're not.  I can understand if a child feels burdened by having to help out in the house when he really just wants to play, and complaining about making his bed when he's just going to mess it up again anyway in about 12 hours.  I can understand that.  I would still say they have to do these things, and explain to them the value of maintaining a well running home, and of being able to take care of oneself.  I would also explain to this child that he is lucky he is learning how to do housework because these living skills will help him function well as an adult.  I would point out that many students away at college for the first time are at a loss when they have to do their own laundry and cook their own meals for the first time, without any prior training.  I would explain it is better to learn to always increase self-care responsibilities until, by the time one finds oneself in college, he can fully care for himself instead of eating only fast foods and wearing clothing pulled out of the hamper.  However, I would hope I don't have to explain why showering daily is important, and why brushing your teeth has to be done twice a day.  However, when I tell my children to brush their teeth before bed time, they sometimes act as if this is a surprise to them, as if we haven't been doing this every night since they were one years old.  They say, "Brush my teeth again?  I'm not in the mood.  Do I have to?"  And this is when I have one of those are-you-serious moments in parenting, when I wonder, really, are they serious?  But they are.  I shouldn't have to explain to them that brushing your teeth isn't a chore, but I do have to.  I remind myself that, as a parent, sometimes I have to explain the obvious.  Because it's not obvious until you know it.  I tell them they don't have to be in the mood to brush their teeth.  I explain that it should be a habit, done almost without thinking.  I say brushing your teeth isn't a chore.  And I can only hope that one day they will laugh, when they find themselves saying the same thing to their own children.