Oh Boy, I am in trouble! It all started out about a dozen teeth ago! it must have been Maelynn or Landen's second tooth lost. I remember that it was nearing midnight on a Sunday evening and I had NO CASH (not an uncommon occurrence in my life). The tooth was under the pillow. The clock was ticking away the sweet hours of slumber. What to do?
This tooth-fairy got creative. I found a new book in my stash of presents that I always keep for whatever birthdays or showers pop up. I thought: "A book - what a great idea for the tooth fairy to leave a book instead of money." It will promote reading in lieu of money which would be immediately spent (most likely on candy at the dollar store).
So - for years that has been the tradition in our house. The kids love to wake up and see the new book under their pillow, or wherever it ends up after they trash around at night. Although it may not have been the wisest financial move as a new book generally costs about 6-7 times what the tooth fairy would have ever left in cash - this plan was however working well. Working well, that is, until LAST NIGHT. Aaaaaaaaaah.
Seth has been harboring a very loose tooth in his mouth for quite some time now. He must have developed a relationship with that little dangly white appendage as he refused to let mom yank it out for days on end.
Finally, on Sunday morning, right before church, he showed it to me and I looked at it and said, "Let me just feel it." With one quick faster-than-lighting action, it was out. No tears, no screams, just a little blood and a lot of excitement! Well, it was easy to explain that the tooth fairy doesn't work on the Sabbath, and he could put it under his pillow on Monday night. What wasn't easy (apparently) was for this Tooth-fairy to recall that fact on Monday night. The ironic thing is that I actually do have a little cash - but NO NEW BOOKS!
I was even at Wal Mart late last night, but it wasn't even on the top 25 list in my foggy brain. In fact - it was so far from anything in my thoughts, that this morning when Greg got me up for prayer, he informed me that the Tooth-fairy hadn't come and that Seth was sitting on his bed holding his tooth in the little ziplock bag that he had slept on all night. My heart sunk. How could I have let him down? And, why in goodness sake do we tell our children that a fairy will bring them a present as a reward for nature happening? Who started this silly tradition? I am pretty sure that my older kids understand how Santa and the Easter Bunny work - and I assumed that Seth was one of those bright kids. I said to Greg, "Should I just go and explain it to him and let him know that I am the one who forgot?"
He wanted nothing of the sort. So, here is a snippet of the conversation I had with that sad boy, lying on the floor, tooth-in-hand, bewildered.
"Seth, I think that Dad was up in the night with Lane and said that he saw the Tooth-Fairy and she was really busy. I bet she comes tonight. Or, maybe she thought you still lived at our old house and took your book there." (Bewildered expression slowly changes into one of serious pondering.)
Scriptures, prayer, sack lunches made, breakfast eaten, kids dressed and loading into the car. On the way to the bus I explain to the kids that I will be heading to a friend's house to help her out with a project. Then, from the toothless grinning mouth of my precious boy comes, "You mean, AFTER you go by the old house to check if the Tooth-Fairy went there?"
Needless to say, I had better finish this blog up and head to Barnes and Noble. I am hereby proposing that we mothers have far too many roles to fulfill. Not only those of housekeeping, taxi-driving, blog manager, laundromat attendant, homework assistant, dishwasher, chef, birthday coordinator, etc. etc. but add to those roles the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the ridiculous Tooth-Fairy. I say we make a unified stand as mothers and hand the Fairy-torch over to the men! All in favor, say "Aye".
8 comments:
"Aye"
I sometimes have to sneak in and pretend I'm waking them up nicely as I sneak my hand under the pillow and extract the tooth replacing it with cash. Ken, in his obvious not thinking about the future, decided long ago that a dollar or two for a regular tooth, and 5 bucks for a molar was an acceptable amount of cash. Then when hard times hit (now) it seems ridiculous to leave so much. Its been reduced and yet, luckily, they are so excited over the thought of some fairytale creature being in their room that the amount doesn't matter as much. Good idea on the book thing. I was thinking of making a list of things to plan for to give to Caryssa when she gets married. If she could start with some fun traditions while her chilren are young, she'll be way ahead of the game. Whereas people like me, who do not even give those things a thought until their baby is 5, and then find these cute ideas I could have been using all along. Well, you get the idea...
If we hand it over to the men you know there won't be a tooth fairy for long. It's incredible how often I have to remind Daniel about doing something. That's why they women do it. But it's a nice thought and I LOVED the story. (I think on one of my kids blogs is a copy of a letter Kimmer wrote to the tooth fairy when she forgot--it's pretty funny).
You forgot. Little F'er. You should never forget your most important role as founder of a "harbor" charter school.
Hey,when we forget the tooth fairy (which we do, sometimes for days at a time) we just tell the kid that the tooth fairy is back logged. "There must be a ton of kids losing teeth right now."
I love the books for teeth exchange! Of course, I think books should be the surprise for everything -- in Easter baskets, Christmas stockings, trick-or-treating. We could start a holiday revolution!
I also took Linda's brilliant idea of the clean fairy. So, now every time my kids' rooms are clean, they expect the clean fairy to come and leave them a treat or a toy. To anyone reading this, don't add the extra pressure. Kids should clean their rooms just for the satisfaction of having a clean room right?! We've also had problems with my kids telling their friends about the clean fairy. Now those friends go home and say "why doesn't the clean fairy come to my house, Mom." I'm sure that makes me pretty unpopular! But, just like your books, once you start something, you can't stop!
AYE.
My favorite tooth fairy story is about Adam Teuscher who refused to leave his tooth under his pillow because he didn't want to support the tooth fairy's disgusting habit of keeping rotten, dead teeth! "What does she even do with all those teeth?"
We haven't quite experienced the tooth fairy yet, so it is fun to see what others do! Thanks for sharing
Tell Seth that Ethan lost a tooth on Sunday, too! Same painless scenario at the breakfast table. We were in California at the time and the tooth got left there on the table. Luckily Tinsel, the tooth fairy, has a GPS and she found us at home in Vegas.
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