The DayTime Tooth Fairy

The Daytime Tooth Fairy!
         After you have children there are little embellishments that you tell your children that they believe. We tell them Santa Claus lives in the North Pole and delivers Christmas presents on December 25th every single year, even though it is us parents scrambling around on December 24th to acquire that hard to find gift that they forgot to tell Santa in their previous letters. We tell them that they Easter Bunny hides eggs sometime in April or May always on a Sunday, who sends them baskets full of goodies, even though once again it is us parents who are scrambling around in the dark, stubbing our toes hiding those eggs, for the kids enjoyment. Then there is the coveted tooth fairy. This little magical creature that sneaks into their room at night and takes their newly lost tooth and trades it for money. These are the major embellishments that we lay out to our children almost from the time they are born. Unfortunately, the problem comes when the “toothfairy” does not come in the middle of the night because they have fallen asleep and forgotten to trade money for a tooth. This is that true story of what happens when the tooth fairy does not show up at night.
         It was sometime after dinner and my two children and my niece, who had spent the night, were all sitting down having a snack. The oldest one, Destiny who is nine, had been struggling for weeks with a loose tooth. She had trouble chewing her food because it hurt her tooth. While having this particular snack she jumped up and yelled, “Mom my tooth came out.” She ran over to her mother and tried to hand her a cheese fry cover tooth. Looking a little green around the gills, I offered to take the tooth and put it in a baggie.  The seven year old, Abigail, jumped up from her snack and matter of factly told me that we did not need a baggie and that she would go get the tooth holder out of Destiny’s room. She ran away and was back in a minute, which was absolutely astounding since no one can find anything in Destiny’s room let alone get in and out of it in under a minute flat. Anyway, I put the tooth securely in the tooth holder and put it on Destiny’s headboard. We had convinced her that they only way to stop the spot, where her tooth had been, from bleeding would be to gargle cold water. That was done and then she decided to brush the tooth, so she would loose money because it was dirty.
         Because our niece Jazmin was here and it is summer, the kids stayed up very late. Jazmin finally crashed some where around 11:00, Abigail followed suit at around 11:30 and Destiny finally went to bed after midnight. She said that she was trying to wait out the tooth fairy. Her mom told her that if she didn’t go to bed the tooth fairy would not come until the next day. A little sad, Destiny wandered to bed and fell asleep rather quickly.
         The next morning Destiny came bounding into her moms and my room where she yelled, “The tooth fairy didn’t show up!” It was at that point that both her mother and I remember that we had forgotten out duties as parents and tried to make excuses as to why the “tooth fairy” did not come. The most obvious one was that she didn’t go to bed until the day after she lost the tooth so the tooth fairy would come that night. Another one was that maybe she had so many teeth to collect that she just fell behind. And my personal favorite was, she is not Santa Claus and may there were more people that had lost a tooth that night and her wings had given out somewhere around the second billionth tooth, and that she would get the money after the tooth fairy had rested a bit. These excuses sufficed and Destiny went about her day. Upon taking all of the girls outside to play, Destiny’s mother looked over at me and asked if I could sneak out the tooth and put money in without being noticed. I confirm this and made like I was going to go to the bathroom and put on shoes so I could join them all at the swing set. I began my stealth mission. I meandered down the hall to the bathroom, entered the door, I turned around in the door to make sure that I had not been followed. I gathered up some money, stuck it in my pocket; grabbed my socks and shoes and walked down the hall to Destiny’s room. I peered out into the living room to see if anyone was in the house. When I decide the coast was clear I stumble to the tooth holder, grabbed the tooth left the money and ran out again. I put on my shoes and met the kids out by the swing set.
         A few hours later Destiny came running out the front door holding her money and the tooth holder. “ She came Mumma. See I told you I would get money today!” Her mother and I just looked at each other and smiled. Almost in unison we both said, “ Maybe the tooth fairy really does deliver money during the day!”
         The moral of this story is, parents if you tell your children any of these embellishments make sure that you follow through, because if you don’t the kids will remember. Maybe all of us parents should tell their children from now on that the tooth fairy does not only come at night but it can come at any point in the day. Then no parents will have to worry about falling asleep or mistaking a fifty dollar bill for a five. 
         
July 1, 2008