Mythical Creatures and Other Parenting Fine Print

Luke lost a tooth this week when his knee connected with his mouth while coming down the slide. He was just fortunate enough to catch it in his hand rather than have it roll to the bottom of the slide and fall off the edge into the gravel, never to be found again.

He came home from the playground, asked for his tooth, and jumped with both feet into full Tooth Fairy Mode. He asked if he should place the tooth under his pillow, but remembering that once (or three times) the Tooth Fairy actually forgot to visit so we resorted to putting the tooth in an envelope on the door, I suggested that we try that again.

That darn Tooth Fairy can't be relied upon to do even the simplest tasks. Like her job.

Luke is an overachieving little guy, and simply putting the tooth in an envelope wasn't enough for him. Noooo, he decided to take full advantage of his contact with the Magical Side. He wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy, complete with questions. These questions were things like

I heard you're about 1 1/2 inches tall. What is the truth?

and

How do you get under the pillows?

and

Do you have wings?

and

How do you know which person lost a tooth?

Yeh, those questions. And then he gave me the letter and the pencil and said that if I had any unanswered Tooth Fairy questions that I could feel free to write them down and finally get some answers. Except, if I came up with a stellar question then I'd have to come up with an even more stellar answer, so I said that I thought that his questions were stellar and I couldn't think of any to top them.

He thanked me.

If only answering those things was going to be that easy. It's the fine print of parenthood that one just doesn't give much thought to until the time that the fine print comes around to bite you in the ever-expanding derriere.

12 comments:

Karen Deborah said...

How about watching "The Santa Claus" that tooth fairy is a flying dentist that doesn't like his name, he wanted to be called the mollinator."
depending on how old Luke is you might want to tell him it's just pretend.....yikes did I just say that?

Aimee said...

I have used the Tooth Fairy Door Envelope Method ever since I read about it here on your blog. Because the Tooth Fairy has some job performance issues at our house too.

It works like a charm!

Flea said...

2" tall, wiggling, yes and magic.

Karen said...

The secrets of the tooth fairy are never to be revealed!

Becoming Mommy said...

Being who I am, I'd be so tempted to answer those questions with the answers from "Darkness Falls."

My kids are going to end up seriously scarred.

Debbie @ Three Weddings said...

Michelangelo lost one in gymnastics class once. Her whole class helped her find it. I'm still amazed they did.

No one told us how quick we had to be on our feet in the thinking department, especially on a few hours of sleep!

Brandie said...

We must have the same Tooth Fairy. She has forgotten more than once.

Funny story: My oldest swallowed her first tooth. Then the neighbor berated me for not just yanking it out sooner. I felt like such a loser first time mom.

Kimberly Wright said...

Our tooth fairy sucks around here. Always forgets, never brings the same amount of money. Sometimes you get bills, sometimes you might get lots of loose change. That fairy has also misplaced the teeth only to be found by the little children later that lost them.

Yep, she sucks.

Krista said...

That danged tooth-fairy is forgetful. Once she didn't come because my daughter's room was too big of a mess and she was afraid to break one of her tiny legs. It's awful that we have such issues with an imaginary twit.

Amy said...

Just to let you know - the Tooth Fairy has a website - www.toothfairyland.com. She'll even send an email! My son loves it!

KG said...

I think every kid has experienced a tooth fairy forget moment. I even recall a moment from my childhood in which the fairy brought me a $10 ... I guess she didn't have any smaller money.

Wineplz said...

I still love Luke! His questions were great!!!

So are you going to post the Tooth Fairy's responses? Is her handwriting eerily similar to yours?

Inquiring minds want to know!