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By the brilliant Grace Farris.
P.S. The best worst bedtime stories and mom glossary.
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I have to admit that the tooth fairy forgot a couple of times, we said that the tooth fairy couldn’t find the tooth and that it needed to be put in a very easy place for her to find. So then the tooth went into a special pocket on the tooth fairy pillow which was then left at the top of the stairs, when the tooth fairy went upstairs (aka known as going to bed) there was no way she could miss it. Each child in our family also had their own tooth fairy and they left them notes sometimes too, my daughters had fairies called Petal and Feather, my son had a boy fairy called Puck. The notes were handwritten and signed and were actually left in response to notes the children had written, it would have been rude not to reply first time around so we just carried on. I think the first note was because one of my daughters wrote the tooth fairy a letter to ask the name of the fairy visiting her and it just snowballed from there. Being a tooth fairy is such an easy way to make your child happy, much easier than finding a meal that they are happy to eat.
Geez, how *is* the tooth fairy operating during a national coin shortage?
In our house, if you happen to swallow the tooth before you catch it, the tooth fairy brings double the amount!
I was baby-sitting two kids for a weekend when I was in my early 20s. The older girl lost a tooth in the afternoon so I had to stealthily contact the parents to learn the tooth fairy traditions in their house before bedtime. Turns out teeth there were worth $5. Thank goodness I had a five dollar bill. I was nervous so I ironed it. to make it extra-crispy before doing the under-pillow swap. Whew!
In the morning the younger daughter asked her sister what the tooth fairy had brought her. The older girl looked me right in the eye while she told her sister, “$10” (not $5). I swear she was questioning this whole Tooth Fairy thing and baiting me. I didn’t bite though. I just said, “Wow. That’s a lot more than the tooth fairy ever brought me.” Sneaky kiddo!
I “buy back” the silver dollars, by giving the kids the impression that they are not entirely legal tender (“Well, have you ever seen anyone buying groceries with silver dollars? No? Ok. Let’s trade: I’ll buy the silver dollar with one paper dollar, or four quarters, or ten dimes”). Teaches equivalency, adds to the magic, and means I have gotten through, like, ten lost teeth with just a few silver dollars.
I’m a teacher, and because I teach a “special” (library), I’m zooming with students during their remote portion of the hybrid schedule (half the day you learn at home, the other half at school). The challenges in this are many, but I feel like I’m rocking it.
One tricky thing is that I have half a grade level at a time (think: 35 first graders). Students want to connect with me, so we’ve had lots of “it’s my dad’s/dog’s/guinea pig’s birthday!” and so much conversation about lost teeth. During one 1st grade meeting, a girl unmuted and said that she was going through her mom’s dresser (oh no) and she found (uh oh) her tooth and the letter for the tooth fairy (full on sweat). She stated, firmly, that she was going to try again, because she thinks the tooth fairy was busy (thank you, dear baby jesus). Another buddy, who cannot stay muted, either, cut in to say, “Yeah? Well I know where she was…” (back to sweating) “She was busy at my house!” He pulls his ipad into his gummy, toothless mouth to show us how many missing teeth he’s had. I had to laugh out loud.
Love, love, love this story. So sweet!
I confess, I told my children that teeth lost after 6pm would not be picked up by the tooth fairy until the next day. Also, the tooth did not go under the pillow anymore but in a special spot on the dining room table. I could have used a dish, but I don’t remember doing that. If I did it was a very small dish.
In our house it morphed into the child puts the pulled tooth in a baggie, and hangs it on the fridge with a magnet, and in the morning the tooth and bag are long gone, and there’s a buck under the magnet. It’s kind of tragic, but completely doable.
Ha Ha! This is awesome!
LOVE that I am not the only parent who has this issue. One morning, after forgetting once again, I just lost it and announced, in exasperation, “there is no tooth fairy. I’m sorry if this is upsetting, but I just can’t do this anymore!” My daughter just shrugged, hugged me, and said. “OK, Mom.”
Oh I love this thread! It’s the best of this world.
OMG, I love this illustration and the comments! My older daughter is 9.7, and she either still believes in the tooth fairy, or puts on an exasperatingly credible show of pretending she does. Yesterday, she lost another canine tooth, just two days after the one before (sweat). The only thing I happened to have left in my closet as a possible gift was a pretty scrunchie by French brand Petit Bateau (She doesn‘t like to get money from the tooth fairy, I did that once and she was so disappointed). This morning, I found her almost-crying (I know this sounds like she‘s super spoiled, ugh!) in her bed, and she explained to me that the tooth fairy had BOUGHT that scrunchy from a store, namely Petit Bateau, where I (mom) also Shop sometimes, and how was that possible? Doesn‘t the tooth fairy have her own production company-manufacture-whatever? How could she just BUY something. I was speechless. I was this close to telling the truth about the fairy, but my younger daughter‘s presence just about stopped me from spilling it all. Thankfully, my younger daughter was helpful and supported my suggestion that the tooth fairy just sometimes buys things from other people, which appeased my older daughter. They agreed that maybe she shopped at Santa‘s shop sometimes. At almost 10 years! It‘s as cute as it is exhausting!
Love this!
A few other ‘tips’ from over the years:
1. If you swallowed the tooth or lost it, the TF will still come.
2. Nothing special teeth get $1-2. It’s good for keeping reasonable, grounded expectations in life.
3. If you only have a $20 then that was an “extra special tooth” and you still have to give it. (My friend once “had” to give a $50!)
4. Nothing wrong with leaving the window open a crack to keep the fantasy going.
5. If you forget, it’s good to remember that sometimes the TF gets stuck in traffic and can always come the next night.
6. Never tell. They obviously know it’s you eventually and they are still psyched to keep it going.
Love this
Caroline, I want to print this!
My daugher is almost 12 years old so our Tooth Fairy Days are behind us, however I 100% agree with number 2 on your list. When she lost her first tooth my husband and I decided to leave glitter (aka fairy dust) on her nightstand, near her pillow etc. She loved it, but man, was it hard to sustain, especially on the nights the Tooth Fairy was running late and/or already in bed when she realized she had forgotton. : ) It was worth it though. Always is.
My parents would forget for a few nights when I was growing up and always came up with the best excuses. The tooth fairy would get caught in the sprinklers so she couldn’t fly in that night or get caught in air traffic. We never really believed in the fairy but it was a fun to hear their creative stories.
Any no tooth fairy families out there? We did a big present and cake for the first one, and then some smaller treats for the rest.
And yep, we dont pretend about Santa, Easter bunny, etc, although we do celebrate all of these holidays with enthusiasm. The kids seem ok, fingers crossed!
Oh yes. We haven’t done anything, not even for the first tooth. Neither of our parents did anything either. And just like your family, we don’t do Santa or the Easter Bunny either. Our children are happy anyway!
Same! I thought we were the only buzzkill parents out there who didn’t do any of these traditions. I’ve never met anyone else who doesn’t, except for religious reasons.
We don’t do Santa or the Easter Bunny at our house, and not for religious reasons either – my family never did growing up, and I never missed the lack of them. We still have Santa books at Christmas, and talk about Santa, but all of the presents come from from us. But we do do the tooth fairy, although our kids realize it is us fairly young – we tell them if they don’t believe in the tooth fairy she will not leave them any more money, so they are happy to play along! I think it is fun to have some make believe, and also nice that it doesn’t feel like our children’s trust and imagination are riding on us continuing to do Santa or the tooth fairy perfectly!
Thank you! Glad to know I’m not a monster. My oldest started losing her first teeth a few months ago and she hadn’t heard of the tooth fairy and I was like… why would I tell her? We also don’t really do Santa or the Easter bunny. I never really believed in Santa as a kid and my mom confirmed it when I asked when I was five so it was never important to me.
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