Oops! A Little Mishap

Ugh, this pic of Toby! I DIE!!!

When I was just 8 years old, I lost a tooth, I put it under my pillow, I left “the tooth fairy” (AKA my parents) a note, and even a cute little tooth bag. The next morning I woke up, looked under my pillow, and the tooth, the note, and the bag were still there, I was a really sensitive child back then. I remember I sat for about an hour in bed, crying. My mom came in to “wake me up” I swear she reached around my pillow and took the tooth while she talked to me, thinking I would not notice When she walkeded out, I looked under my pillow, and sure enough the tooth was gone! But the note and bag were still there, I never got more then a dollar for a tooth, and later that day, I sat with mom on her rocking chair, I attempted to confront her about it I said “Mom, I didn’t know YOU were the tooth fairy” she just looked at me and said “What are you talking about?” I still haven’t gotten the truth out of her yet, I’m still only twelve!

I liked unusual currency as a kid so the tooth fairy would bring me a $2 bill or a bicentennial quarter – that sort of thing. I was cleaning out my childhood room and realized that there were only a few coins in an envelope I had clearly labeled as from the tooth fairy. My mom then had to fess up that she recycled the same few coins or currency … I never noticed.

I wish I had the time to go through all the comments to see if I’m repeating someone, but has anyone listened to the episode of This American Life with the adult who tells the story about what happened when she found out her friends’ dad was the tooth fairy? It’s right here in the prologue, and so funny that I have admittedly pretended the storyteller was an acquaintance of mine as a guaranteed way to get laughs in a group. LISTEN! https://www.thisamericanlife.org/188/kid-logic/prologue

I am the worst tooth fairy ever. I always forget. My best tooth fairy moment though: My mom sends my kids dollars in the mail occasionally and writes their name on each bill. I will usually put this money in my purse until we put it away or they spend it. Yep, these dollars (WITH HER SIBLINGS NAMES ON THEM) ended up under my oldest daughter’s pillow one night.

I’m only on the 6th tooth and haven’t forgotten yet but our tooth fairy has run into a different dilemma several times – NO cash!!! We routinely borrow money from my son’s piggy bank for the tooth fairy then have to replace it on the sly after a run to the bank a day or two later. :)

I have definitely forgotten! I used a similar excuse as you and felt like such a failure. But the most recent time my son lost a tooth (his 7th, he’s almost 8 as well) we both forgot to put it under his pillow. It was a week later that I remembered and said “Charlie! We never put your tooth under your pillow!!” We laughed and laughed that we both forgot. He was worried that the tooth fairy wouldn’t come since it was a week later but I told him that she knows we sometimes forget too :)

When I was a kid I went looking in my mom’s jewelry box and found all of my teeth that I had lost. I was mortified and asked my mom why she had my teeth. She told me that moms can’t part with them so after the tooth fairy takes them she gives them to the moms to save forever <3 PS- That was some quick thinking, mom! :)

omg this happened to me! except my kid woke up at 5am in tears and we convinced him that it was still nighttime and he had to go back to sleep because there was still time. phew! now we send emails to ourselves and set timers on our phones as soon as a tooth falls out. ?

When I was a kid I asked the tooth fairy to draw a picture of what she looked like. I was thinking of the blue fairy in Pinocchio, with beautiful wings and long hair.
When I woke up the next morning, I checked my pillow and found a drawing from my tooth fairy! It was of a lumberjack with a big ax and a burly beard. I thought it was so weird that everyone else had cute fairies, and I had a lumberjack for a tooth fairy.

Forgot. Every. Time. I started implementing a new rule; you had to yell “hey Tooth fairy, I’m putting a tooth out!” before bed to foil those ones who hid the tooth in secret. I finally resorted to saying the Tooth fairy is sometimes too tired to fly upstairs so let’s leave in on the kitchen counter for her. Yeah, she still forgot……signed, Mother of Triplets.

Once when I was a kid the tooth fairy forgot to come. The next morning under my pillows had a printed out email from her apologizing. The email said that the tooth notification system had gone down so she didn’t know until the next day! So, I got an email and my dollar!

In Germany in the last decade or so it has become a thing for some families to have the “Schnuller-Fee” come. That means “pacifier-fairy”. If a kid feels ready to chuck the pacifier, they leave it under the pillow or tie it to the bed and it will be gone in the morning. The Schnuller-Fee will have left a little gift by the bed. In our family it is usually a little book or a litte trinket or toy figure, nothing too expensive.

“I have some sad news.” Oh, sweet Toby!

Luckily, in Hungary we dont have this tooth fairy thing.

I was 5 or 6 when my parents forgot the first time. I remember telling my mom that the tooth fairy hadn’t come the next morning and, without missing a beat, my mom asked, “well, did you do anything you weren’t supposed to?” I wracked my little brain trying to figure out how I’d misbehaved! My mom told me later that she panicked in the moment and it was the first thing she thought of to cover her tracks. I’m 25 now and still tease her about the Tooth Fairy Complex she gave me. ;)

She’s lost three teeth. We remembered the first time (though I had to go find a bank that evening after work to get silver dollars… which was not as easy as I thought)… The second time we forgot (told her the tooth fairy must not have seen the tooth yet – “try again tonight”) and the third time I forgot we had the silver dollars stashed away and I ran out at 9pm to buy something at CVS. Not a good track record… but she didn’t notice a thing!

I’ve done the “it must have fallen in the floor, let’s look” ( while mom or dad frantically search for cash) then “oh look, here it is under _____” ,more times than I’d care to admit. There’s also the ” well, some nights are busy for the tooth fairy, lets try again tonight” strategy I’ve also used. Parents are human & we have A LOT on our minds:)

I have not only made the mistake of forgetting, but my daughter found the teeth that should have gone to the tooth fairy. I quickly explained to her that I am very sentimental and wanted to keep those little teeth. So I snuck in and left my own note for the Tooth Fairy, to please leave money, but put the teeth under my pillow so I could keep them. She bought the story. My husband was impressed with my on the spot explanation, and quite honestly, so was I.

When our daughter lost her first tooth, I dutifully put a pound coin (this is England) under her pillow and instructed my husband to put the tooth away somewhere safe. I wasn’t ready to toss it in the bin, but I wasn’t sure where to store it. Next day, my daughter wanders into my husband’s office – having already collected her pound coin prize – and shouted “mama! The tooth fairy left my tooth on daddy’s desk!” I told her that the tooth fairy’s bag must have been overflowing with teeth and the tooth slipped out on her way out the window. Her response, “do you think I can put it under my pillow again tonight and get another pound?” I let her give it a try, rewarded her with 50p (initiative!) and made my husband promise NEVER to be so sloppy about tooth storage ever again.

One night, my daughter pulled her tooth out after she had already gone to bed. She tucked it under her pillow without sharing the news, so I didn’t even know she’d lost it! The next morning she came out of her bedroom crying and I was bewildered. When she explained what happened I made up a story about how if a tooth comes out after bedtime, the tooth fairy doesn’t come until the NEXT night.

Our other funny tooth-related story is that she unknowingly swallowed one of her teeth at school one day. At pick-up, I noticed she was missing a tooth and we figured out what must have happened. She started crying, convinced the tooth fairy wouldn’t come. I explained to her that she could just write a note to the tooth fairy but she was sure that wouldn’t work. Then one of her friends noticed she was crying and came over to find out why. The friend said, “just put a note under your pillow!” And my daughter was instantly consoled…doubted me, but took her friend’s word for it!

I used to get my children to put the tooth fairy pillow at the top of the stairs so the tooth fairy can find it easily as soon as she goes upstairs. That way I always saw it on my way toned and it never got forgotten.

I’ve definitely forgot! We go with the are you sure? Look again, palm the money and drop in the bed – their beds are always messy and they have had the experience of not being able to find a lovey in their sheet and then finding it so it works.
But the first time my second son lost his tooth, I did remember so he came in so sad that she had taken the tooth but not given him anything! And I knew I had done it so We had to go and ransack his bed, he was ready to give up – but I knew it was in there! Finally I put my hand in the pillowcase and there it was … $5! (Because with my first son I didn’t have $1 so he got $5 and I told him first teeth were special and of course he passed on the news) The tooth fairy is rough!

The tooth fairy had flawless attendance for my first child, but was prone to forgetfulness with my second ;) one morning, after forgetting yet again, I suggested that perhaps the tooth fairy doesn’t do pickups in messy rooms. It’s a workplace safety issue. Perhaps she would try again in a few days, if the unsafe conditions improved? Bedroom was cleaned up pronto (and the tooth fairy was able to make a successful pickup and coin drop on her return)