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By the brilliant Grace Farris.
P.S. The best worst bedtime stories and mom glossary.
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I have to admit that the tooth fairy forgot a couple of times, we said that the tooth fairy couldn’t find the tooth and that it needed to be put in a very easy place for her to find. So then the tooth went into a special pocket on the tooth fairy pillow which was then left at the top of the stairs, when the tooth fairy went upstairs (aka known as going to bed) there was no way she could miss it. Each child in our family also had their own tooth fairy and they left them notes sometimes too, my daughters had fairies called Petal and Feather, my son had a boy fairy called Puck. The notes were handwritten and signed and were actually left in response to notes the children had written, it would have been rude not to reply first time around so we just carried on. I think the first note was because one of my daughters wrote the tooth fairy a letter to ask the name of the fairy visiting her and it just snowballed from there. Being a tooth fairy is such an easy way to make your child happy, much easier than finding a meal that they are happy to eat.
Geez, how *is* the tooth fairy operating during a national coin shortage?
In our house, if you happen to swallow the tooth before you catch it, the tooth fairy brings double the amount!
I was baby-sitting two kids for a weekend when I was in my early 20s. The older girl lost a tooth in the afternoon so I had to stealthily contact the parents to learn the tooth fairy traditions in their house before bedtime. Turns out teeth there were worth $5. Thank goodness I had a five dollar bill. I was nervous so I ironed it. to make it extra-crispy before doing the under-pillow swap. Whew!
In the morning the younger daughter asked her sister what the tooth fairy had brought her. The older girl looked me right in the eye while she told her sister, “$10” (not $5). I swear she was questioning this whole Tooth Fairy thing and baiting me. I didn’t bite though. I just said, “Wow. That’s a lot more than the tooth fairy ever brought me.” Sneaky kiddo!
I “buy back” the silver dollars, by giving the kids the impression that they are not entirely legal tender (“Well, have you ever seen anyone buying groceries with silver dollars? No? Ok. Let’s trade: I’ll buy the silver dollar with one paper dollar, or four quarters, or ten dimes”). Teaches equivalency, adds to the magic, and means I have gotten through, like, ten lost teeth with just a few silver dollars.
I’m a teacher, and because I teach a “special” (library), I’m zooming with students during their remote portion of the hybrid schedule (half the day you learn at home, the other half at school). The challenges in this are many, but I feel like I’m rocking it.
One tricky thing is that I have half a grade level at a time (think: 35 first graders). Students want to connect with me, so we’ve had lots of “it’s my dad’s/dog’s/guinea pig’s birthday!” and so much conversation about lost teeth. During one 1st grade meeting, a girl unmuted and said that she was going through her mom’s dresser (oh no) and she found (uh oh) her tooth and the letter for the tooth fairy (full on sweat). She stated, firmly, that she was going to try again, because she thinks the tooth fairy was busy (thank you, dear baby jesus). Another buddy, who cannot stay muted, either, cut in to say, “Yeah? Well I know where she was…” (back to sweating) “She was busy at my house!” He pulls his ipad into his gummy, toothless mouth to show us how many missing teeth he’s had. I had to laugh out loud.
Love, love, love this story. So sweet!
I confess, I told my children that teeth lost after 6pm would not be picked up by the tooth fairy until the next day. Also, the tooth did not go under the pillow anymore but in a special spot on the dining room table. I could have used a dish, but I don’t remember doing that. If I did it was a very small dish.
In our house it morphed into the child puts the pulled tooth in a baggie, and hangs it on the fridge with a magnet, and in the morning the tooth and bag are long gone, and there’s a buck under the magnet. It’s kind of tragic, but completely doable.
Ha Ha! This is awesome!
LOVE that I am not the only parent who has this issue. One morning, after forgetting once again, I just lost it and announced, in exasperation, “there is no tooth fairy. I’m sorry if this is upsetting, but I just can’t do this anymore!” My daughter just shrugged, hugged me, and said. “OK, Mom.”
Oh I love this thread! It’s the best of this world.
OMG, I love this illustration and the comments! My older daughter is 9.7, and she either still believes in the tooth fairy, or puts on an exasperatingly credible show of pretending she does. Yesterday, she lost another canine tooth, just two days after the one before (sweat). The only thing I happened to have left in my closet as a possible gift was a pretty scrunchie by French brand Petit Bateau (She doesn‘t like to get money from the tooth fairy, I did that once and she was so disappointed). This morning, I found her almost-crying (I know this sounds like she‘s super spoiled, ugh!) in her bed, and she explained to me that the tooth fairy had BOUGHT that scrunchy from a store, namely Petit Bateau, where I (mom) also Shop sometimes, and how was that possible? Doesn‘t the tooth fairy have her own production company-manufacture-whatever? How could she just BUY something. I was speechless. I was this close to telling the truth about the fairy, but my younger daughter‘s presence just about stopped me from spilling it all. Thankfully, my younger daughter was helpful and supported my suggestion that the tooth fairy just sometimes buys things from other people, which appeased my older daughter. They agreed that maybe she shopped at Santa‘s shop sometimes. At almost 10 years! It‘s as cute as it is exhausting!
Love this!
A few other ‘tips’ from over the years:
1. If you swallowed the tooth or lost it, the TF will still come.
2. Nothing special teeth get $1-2. It’s good for keeping reasonable, grounded expectations in life.
3. If you only have a $20 then that was an “extra special tooth” and you still have to give it. (My friend once “had” to give a $50!)
4. Nothing wrong with leaving the window open a crack to keep the fantasy going.
5. If you forget, it’s good to remember that sometimes the TF gets stuck in traffic and can always come the next night.
6. Never tell. They obviously know it’s you eventually and they are still psyched to keep it going.
Love this
Caroline, I want to print this!
My daugher is almost 12 years old so our Tooth Fairy Days are behind us, however I 100% agree with number 2 on your list. When she lost her first tooth my husband and I decided to leave glitter (aka fairy dust) on her nightstand, near her pillow etc. She loved it, but man, was it hard to sustain, especially on the nights the Tooth Fairy was running late and/or already in bed when she realized she had forgotton. : ) It was worth it though. Always is.
My parents would forget for a few nights when I was growing up and always came up with the best excuses. The tooth fairy would get caught in the sprinklers so she couldn’t fly in that night or get caught in air traffic. We never really believed in the fairy but it was a fun to hear their creative stories.
Any no tooth fairy families out there? We did a big present and cake for the first one, and then some smaller treats for the rest.
And yep, we dont pretend about Santa, Easter bunny, etc, although we do celebrate all of these holidays with enthusiasm. The kids seem ok, fingers crossed!
Oh yes. We haven’t done anything, not even for the first tooth. Neither of our parents did anything either. And just like your family, we don’t do Santa or the Easter Bunny either. Our children are happy anyway!
Same! I thought we were the only buzzkill parents out there who didn’t do any of these traditions. I’ve never met anyone else who doesn’t, except for religious reasons.
We don’t do Santa or the Easter Bunny at our house, and not for religious reasons either – my family never did growing up, and I never missed the lack of them. We still have Santa books at Christmas, and talk about Santa, but all of the presents come from from us. But we do do the tooth fairy, although our kids realize it is us fairly young – we tell them if they don’t believe in the tooth fairy she will not leave them any more money, so they are happy to play along! I think it is fun to have some make believe, and also nice that it doesn’t feel like our children’s trust and imagination are riding on us continuing to do Santa or the tooth fairy perfectly!
Thank you! Glad to know I’m not a monster. My oldest started losing her first teeth a few months ago and she hadn’t heard of the tooth fairy and I was like… why would I tell her? We also don’t really do Santa or the Easter bunny. I never really believed in Santa as a kid and my mom confirmed it when I asked when I was five so it was never important to me.
My oldest daughter asked for chocolate coins instead of money, so that’s what my girls get. I am also continuing the (creepy?) family tradition of storing their baby teeth in the girls’ bronzed baby shoes. They like to play with them and look at them as much as I liked to.
Our oldest just got a full-sized bed and sleeps on the far side. It was FAR easier to pull out the tooth when it from the top bunk of a twin-sized bed. And, somehow, she’s lost THREE teeth in the couple weeks since the bed swap. Luckily, there was a tooth lost early in the pandemic that set precedent (by note) for the tooth fairy being late due to safety precautions and fewer tooth swaps per night… We also use the Sacajawea coin, which may have been a mistake, but used to be easy to get as change from vending machines… back when vending machines and an office were a thing that happened.
Years ago I noticed my 8yo son had lost a tooth. I asked him when it had happened. “Three days ago. And no tooth fairy!” So I pointed out that maybe the tooth was too well hidden. So he showed it to me, on my bedside table. Oops. I made a mental note to exchange it for money. But I forgot!!! The next day my son said “Still no money, and this time the tooth fairy knew!!!” Busted!
ahahaha
Loll
I remember thinking as a kid that there was NO WAY the Tooth Fairy was going to be able to sneak into my room; reach under my pillow while I was sleeping; take a tooth AND leave money all without waking me (they always managed ha). However, now that my 5 year old has started losing teeth I realize it’s the easiest thing, no stealth required. She sleeps like the dead. The Tooth Fairy gig is my jam (ie. EASY).
The pandemic and sheltering-in-place prompted some cleaning, sorting and purging, including my twin sons’ baby teeth which were individually wrapped in various tissues, coffee filters, envelopes and ziplock baggies. The Tooth Fairy had to work with whatever she had at hand to note the date and which child’s tooth it was.
Those sons turn 17 in a couple of weeks. They were utterly uninterested in the bounty I’d been saving for over a decade and asked “why did you save them?!” What a good question I could not answer very sufficiently.
We moved last year, and going through drawers decluttering I found my 21yo son’s baby teeth stored in a small jewelry box. I ceremoniously gave them to him….and Also…he was underwhelmed and nonplussed. I do hope he kept them though…..
Our son lost his first tooth on Christmas Eve. It remains his most exciting life event that Santa got to see the Tooth Fairy. We of course had to do a note from Santa relating to spotting his dear friend. This is also my best execution of tooth fairy duties.
This is the cutest thing ever!!!!
You always remember TF duties for the first tooth. But after that…. that alarm is no joke! TF Reminder is on my phone to be activated any time a tooth breaks free.
This sounds like in the US there ist a gift for every tooth?
I know it only for the first one…
Every tooth would totally stress me out. ?
I remember as a kid we had a special tooth fairy pillow with a pocket for the tooth – but it essentially was just a small hole that led to the stuffing of the pillow (where a tooth could slip away leaving you digging around with one finger). It did not take long for my mom to suggest putting the tooth in a sandwich bag in the pocket to make it easier on the fairy.
oh my god! We had a pillow like that, too! I have not thought of that pillow for at least 30 years. I wonder what my mom did with it.
My mom used to tell me that the tooth fairy couldn’t get inside our home because the house alarm was on and she didn’t want the police to show up. The next night, I’d remind my parents at least a dozen times NOT to set the alarm!
Ha! That was good thinking on her part!
My mom eventually had me leaving my teeth under the hall rug. That tooth would be crushed to tiny shards before she would ever remember!
Just had our first loss here – kiddo has been trying to save up money so we saw it as a chance to give him $5. But hubs and I agreed to our story, and even got Grandma in, too – “WOW. That is so much. It must be because it’s the first tooth. Yup, will probably be $1 for next ones.” Side note – I was ready to throw the tooth out but hubs said, “My mom kept mine! We should let him decide” and in the moment I didn’t know what to do with it – no special box here – so it’s in a baggie in my purse. Baby was already asleep in our room so it felt like best second option.
I have all of my sons’ lost teeth, too, and they are really starting to accumulate, at 10 and almost 12. I’m not sure what to do with them now.
My wise-guy son likes to leave extensive surveys for the tooth fairy to fill out (where do you live? how do you know I lost a tooth? how do you get into our house?). He’s 13-years old now and has one more tooth left to lose! One would think that’s good news after dealing with such a high maintenance person with teeth for so many years. However, he decided that he will now help his 6-year old sister craft extensive surveys for the tooth fairy! Passing that baton. Oh, kids.
Aww I love it! Curious kids turn into awesome adults :)
Our tooth fairy pays an extra dollar every day she forgets, so the kids get really excited when they don’t find their money on the first day:) Plus, it’s motivation not to forget too many nights in a row!
I said the same thing to my husband, who wanted to do a silver dollar or $2 bill – this kid has a bunch of teeth! He will lose some when we’re out of town or unprepared. Better to make it a dollar or some loose change.
Recently I forgot, two nights in a row, and my son was super bummed.
But low and behold we later found a teeny note and a rolled up dollar outside his bedroom window (between the window and the screen). Due to COVID, she needed to keep more distance and has decided to leave the money there. Who knows how long it’s been there….. sheesh.
Love this haha!
Haha that’s excellent!
yes, I’ve done this soooooo many times.
My mom bought a bunch of little necklace charms somewhere, and every time I lost a tooth I got a little charm and a shiny dime. I think I still have almost all of the charms and they’re so special!
Oh I love this. I want to do something more commemorative, but I don’t understand how this plays out at school when they’re all getting different things???
Our tooth fairy might have to get creative as she’s running out of singles due to not wanting to handle cash during the pandemic. And $20 would be an awfully big jump in tooth valuation. Ha.
…sometimes the tooth fairy borrows money from the child’s piggy bank and places it under the pillow and tried to remember to replace it later.
The last time my son’s tooth came out I realised I didn’t have any change, so fumbling around in the dark I had to borrow two 50 pences out of my daughter’s piggy bank. In the morning my son found he’d been left a special Peter Rabbit 50 pence piece and was eager to show his sister what he’d been left. Of course, my daughter was quick to say she had that coin and quickly tipped out her money box contents to find it -only to discover that hers was missing. She was distraught!! I have a few of these special coins in a box put away, so in between the rush of getting ready for school, I had to quickly find them and hope I had a replacement. Luckily, I found I had another one and then went through a whole play of finding her coin on her shelf under a book and telling her she must be really careful to put all her money away properly!
My nine year old has lost four teeth in the last two weeks and the tooth fairy has had a tough time finding change in the house on short notice, especially since we’re not using cash much at all these days! Time to make a special trip to the bank for some coins.
#2 is especially true! We started with a book and a buck. At the time, she was a “beginner reader” so we wanted to encourage her with starter books. But as life gets busier and busier, and more teeth start falling out as she got older, we kept forgetting to get the young chapter books ahead of time. One evening a tooth fell out before anyone saw it coming, bookless, the Tooth Fairy had to write a note explaining how it had an unusually high quantity of delivering that night, so in order to lessen their load, compensated the lack of a book with a $5 bill instead. It was quite well received.
We forgot THREE nights in a row once. (We had a newborn too and were sleep deprived haha!)
Anyhow, I wrote a tiny note that said it was raining where she lived and her wings got wet flying in and she had to let them dry.
It worked, but my daughter was so disappointed every morning and my husband and I wanted to kick ourselves! I live in fear that this will happen again! I need to start setting an alarm or using Bethany Ball’s idea!!
Brings back lovely memories of being a tooth fairy. Now that all my kids are grownups.
The tooth fairy has been delayed (forgotten!) more than once over the pandemic – we have told our kids that she has do a lot of extra cleaning and sanitizing between people now, so it takes her longer to get around.
when my youngest daughter got her first loose tooth, her dad went to the bank and got 20 gold Sacagawea coins. We hid them in a tin in our family room so we always them on hand. She’s 21 now and i recently showed her where we kept them.
this is so sweet. i have a seven month old son, and i can only imagine what it must feel like when the stash runs out!
I am so in awe of Grace Farris and all the working mothers who are holding down jobs (especially during a pandemic), staying safe, caring for children and maybe even having to home school, keeping up with housework/groceries/meals/bills/ laundry/other chores, and at the end of the day also making sure the tooth fairy comes. So proud of everyone getting it done!
I needed to hear this; thank you. What a tough year.
After our older son asserted that he no longer believed in the Tooth Fairy, he received Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge tokens under his pillow as compensation for his next lost tooth. He revised his opinion.
At our house the tooth fairy always leaves a tiny note. She was recently a day late on delivery for our 7-year old (not for the first time!) and my husband authored the note. It said, “Hey Axxx, Terry the fairy here. Tooth Fairy broke her leg so I’m subbing for her. Couldn’t come last night because I ate some bad chicken. Good luck at school! Yours, Terry”
This made me lol. Your husband is funny.
Just started setting an alarm after completely forgetting recently. Thankfully my daughter had fallen asleep in our bed, so I said the tooth fairy must have come by before we moved her and gotten confused. I find this duty to be quite stressful at times! I don’t know HOW all the Elf on a Shelf parents are pulling that off.
My mom really committed…she used to sprinkle fairy dust on our window sills. Our tooth fairy was Tooth Ann and she usually left a note. And we always got a $$ and a book, I always remember being more excited for the book. :)
My trick when I would forget was to grab the money and run upstairs and say, Are you sure? Are you sure you really looked? And then pull money out from under the pillow or the bed where “it fell.”
Haha genius!
You deserve to win the internet today.
Bethany, I used to do the same!! Great minds! Hahaha!
Yep me too! And more than once haha
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