Snapshot: The Tooth Fairy

I am all about letting children believe in magical characters like Santa and the Easter Bunny. The one that I was excited about playing but turned out to be a real bummer, was the Tooth Fairy. There are so many obstacles the Tooth Fairy must overcome in order to do her job...light sleeping children, finding the tooth in the dark after your kid has thrown off every cover and pillow on his bed in violent sleep, having cash on hand, where to put collected teeth and really...remembering to do your job...especially when you cozy into bed and are about to fall into a well deserved slumber and right at the last second realize you forgot to get the fu-king tooth.

Alex just recently lost tooth #6. I was over it with the Tooth Fairy business by tooth #3 and consciously decided to fall into slumber and figure it out in the morning for #6. Since Alex has been sleeping in like a champ over the break, I woke up and left a note on his white board before he came down for breakfast.

He found me in Z's room that morning and disappointingly told me that the Tooth Fairy didn't come. I quickly said, "Well, she's not always all there...you know what I mean?" I then ran with it and told him that she's sort of the opposite of Santa and way grumpier. I made up stories about how when I was young, sometimes she took my teeth and sometimes she didn't. Sometimes she left money AND my tooth. Sometimes there was just nothing. I told him for someone that has to work 365 days a year, it's hard and not the happiest of jobs.

He asked me if I ever wrote her a note. (He wrote one for tooth #4 and I never responded...)

I said oh sure, lots of times. I told him that she never responded and sometimes never even took the note. 

He seemed satisfied with these answers. He was even impressed that the Tooth Fairy took the time to write him an explanation when he made it to the kitchen.

I felt a little bad for lying. From what I can remember, my parents did a great job on the Tooth Fairy front.
Unfortunately for Alex, I painted the Tooth Fairy as this unreliable, cross, unfair (why would his friends get $5 for a tooth and he only get $1?!) grouch who is unhappy with her job...But I also solved my problem...cheers.

So if you are a good parent who bought the special tooth box or the cute pillow and used your Tooth Fairy app to take a picture of Tinkerbell sneaking under your child's pillow to leave a $20, please don't share this information with Alex. It will force me to tell him that the Tooth Fairy chooses favorites and he is not even middle of the list, adding yet another box to check during adult therapy.