Creative Parenting 101: The Tooth Fairy Makes Mistakes Too, You Know!

A couple of weeks ago, I read this Twitter tweet from Soapbox Mom:

feeling awful b/c the tooth fairy forgot to visit my son… 09:59 PM August 22, 2008 from web

The same thing happened to us a few years back, when the now-13-year-old lost a tooth, and to make matters worse, it was only his second one. We couldn’t believe that this could happen; I mean, what was the tooth fairy doing with her time, just sitting on her lazy butt watching television and then going straight to bed right after the news, forgetting that this boy had that little white tooth packaged up for her, underneath his pillow? We were in total shock that she could be so forgetful.

We didn’t find out, as you would expect, until the next morning when the boy came downstairs, HYSTERICALLY CRYING. We didn’t have to ask what was wrong, because we knew as soon as he appeared before us. We tried to calm this totally distraught little guy by telling him that “Maybe there were lots of European children who lost teeth yesterday too and maybe she just couldn’t make it here before you woke up” and “No, of course she’s not mad at you!”

We talked a good game, but frankly, we were horrified at the behavior of the tooth fairy. This was unacceptable.

We convinced the boy that we were positive that the Tooth Fairy would come that evening, and told him that he should definitely put his tooth back under his pillow.

As it happened, the Tooth Fairy did come that next night. And she left a note for him, all typed except for the signature. It said:

Dear (insert boy’s name here),

I feel so bad that I couldn’t make it to your house while you were sleeping last night to take your second tooth. I just had so many 7-year-olds that lost teeth yesterday that I was overwhelmed with deliveries, and then I ran out of money so I had to go to my bank & make a withdrawal from my account.

I don’t normally do this but I feel so bad about missing you last night that I am going to leave you $2. I don’t normally do that. I have a very strict policy you know, $5 for the first tooth and $1 for every tooth thereafter but I’m going to make a special exception for you: just don’t tell anybody, especially that brother of yours. If he finds out that you got $2, he’ll want $2 also. I can’t afford to give everyone $2, you understand. I hope this makes up for missing you last night.

I must go now. I am quite tired from all the stops that I made yesterday so I need a nap. See you again soon.

And the signature? tf
We were relieved that the Tooth Fairy explained her absence, and the boy was thrilled. So thrilled, in fact, that he wanted to leave a thank you note for the Tooth Fairy.

“Why though? She won’t be back unless you have another tooth for pickup.”

“Because I just want to thank her! Please, please, please can I leave her a note under my pillow tonight?”

We relented, and he left this:

Somehow the Tooth Fairy must have sensed that she needed to come back, because when he woke up the next day, his note was gone.

And he was grinning from ear to ear when he made that discovery, missing teeth and all.
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7 Comments

  • Melissa

    Yup, the tooth fairy has missed here, too! She just swings by the next evening…usually with a bigger pay off!! 🙂

    And wow, a personal note from the TF, nice!

  • Michelle

    Good to know that when the Tooth Fairy messes up here (note: when, not if), there are outs. At what point does a child start losing teeth, anyway? 5? 6?

  • k a t i e

    That’s so sweet 🙂 The Australian Tooth Fairy left the only few bucks I received (one day I’m gonna get my adult teeth and hit a cash cow!) in little jewelery boxes lined with soft cotton wool, which I always thought was wonderful.

    Unfortunately, I once lost a tooth whilst playing on the play equipment at school, so I had to write the tooth fairy a little note about where and how to find it.

    My mother still has it stuck to her wall (she tells me she asked the fairy for it for safe keeping).

  • Mom24

    That beats the heck out of our ‘maybe you didn’t look hard enough…look, here it is! I don’t know why she didn’t take your tooth, maybe she doesn’t always need them.’ Once again, you’re much smoother.

  • Jennifer

    That’s so funny! I love his note to the TF! Priceless!

    We have a lot of fairies fluttering about our house. There is of course, the Tooth Fairy, then there is the binky fairy…For this one, you gather up all of the child’s pacifiers and put them in a gift bag, then tie the bag to the branch of a tree. The Binky Fairy comes in the middle of the night and takes the binkies to give to new babies and she leaves a big-kid gift in place of the binkies. This probably works great but I wouldn’t really know because I ended up in the front yard at midnight with a crying 2 year old on one hip, desperately swatting at the gift bag trying to release it from the iron grip of the branch all the while cursing that damn fairy! Then there is the Poo-Poo Fairy which we used for…well I guess there is no explanation needed there! Next is going to be the “I have no more freaking money Fairy”!!!

  • Melisa

    Melissa: I know, he was thrilled! And even SIGNED! ha ha

    Sue: I’m glad; seems more common than I thought! We felt like total losers.

    Michelle: There’s an out for almost anything. 🙂 I think they start losing them around 6-7? He was 7 and that was his 2nd tooth…

    Katie: The jewelry boxes sound adorable! I want to see one!

    Stacey: Ha: just save this one up. You still have the Tooth Fairy making visits, right?

    Jennifer: I LOVE the Binky Fairy idea! So cute! We just cut the tips off (not in front of him) and told him that they were broken and that he was a big boy anyway so he didn’t need new ones. (we were lucky; that went very well!) And I can tell you with certainty that the “I have no more freaking money fairy” makes regular appearances at our house. She’s a real hanger-on kind of fairy and we don’t much like her. 🙂