Tooth Fairy

Nobody has time for this!! All you parents know that by the time the kids are asleep you are playing rock paper scissors or some other game with much higher stakes to see who has to go slip money under the pillow and retrieve the tooth.  In our house, the tooth fairy is someone who sometimes forgets altogether.

When Halle lost her first tooth, we were so excited. What a special moment! The tooth fairy left 5 bucks, and tooth went into the safe (congratulations, robbers).  Next tooth, a fiver and the tooth goes in an envelope in the top of the closet. Third tooth?  Forgot!  Hid three bucks under the bed and told her she must have knocked it under there.  Fourth tooth?  Seriously, I am over it.  I went to bed, and Chad slipped a buck under the pillow.  The next morning I am left to explain why the tooth fairy has become  such a cheap bastard.  I went with "the harder it is to get the tooth out, the more money you get." 

Halle is no dummy, and one of her friends has already told her the tooth fairy isn't real. She asked me if this was the truth, and I choked.  I wasn't expecting the question, and quite frankly, I couldn't care much less if my kid believes in fairies or not.  My response was a cool " What do you think?"  as I casually ate my roast beef dinner.  She then says, "If tinker bell is fake then so is the tooth fairy."  I retorted with the old "If don't believe, you don't receive!" I am quite sure Halle didn’t give a big fat rip since she probably figured the next thing left under her pillow was likely going to be an I.O.U....

Teeth keep falling, and we keep waffling.  Whatever is in the wallet winds up under the pillow.  Poor Tess, she hasn't lost one yet. We may tell her that teeth just end up in the garbage disposal and then go buy a Gatorade - one with a squeezy top for sore mouths that have just lost teeth.  Besides, aren't the horrible thoughts of a life-sized rabbit hiding plastic eggs in your backyard and an elderly fat man coming down your chimney enough for a child to digest anyway?