This morning as I read my sister-in-law's blog about my niece losing her tooth and being paid by the tooth fairy, I was reminded of MY dealings with the infamous fairy.
When I was younger I couldn't WAIT for my teeth to fall out so I could get PAID! I could care less about how I looked running around toothless, I was getting paid!
My son on the other hand is a totally different species. When HIS teeth fell out he wanted to keep them! (Clearly not my kid!)
I never wanted to feed into all the myths of Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and all that stuff, but it's hard to evade those things when your kids go to school or you have family members who love it more than the kids themselves. When you see YOUR kid looking forward to the fat guy sliding down the chimney, or the bunny that lays eggs, you don't wanna be the jerk who disappoints them. So what did I do? Yup you guessed it!
His first introduction to the Tooth Fairy was in pre-school. He excitedly told his teacher that morning how he'd lost his tooth (proud of his rite of passage) and before I could gag her and throw her in a closet somewhere, she said those deafening words "So you're gonna put it under your pillow for the tooth fairy?"
I....WAS...MORTIFIED!!!! I wanted to say 'no, I'm gonna hold YOU under a pillow!" but at that moment I had to focus on the confused look on my son's face and gasp, explain about the Tooth Fairy!
That night we put the tooth under the pillow and he woke up in the morning to a wrinkled $5 bill (hey it was all I had on me at the time ok?) But my son was upset! Where had the tooth gone? Why did he have this money? HE was mortified! I figured by the time he got to school and heard the other tooth fairy stories he would be alright. Of course as soon as we walked through the door the same teacher sachays up to us again (as if she HAD to follow up on the tooth!) and asks "so did you get money for your tooth last night?" which upset my son all over again as he explained what happened. Meanwhile she's telling me about inflation because back in the day HER tooth fairy didn't give her "no 5-dollar bill!"
So that night he put the money BACK under the pillow for the tooth fairy to bring back his tooth. I have never seen a child so happy to redeem a dried up crusty old tooth, but like I said CLEARLY not my child!
Fast forward to 2010 and we go to the movies (I won't say which one in case you haven't seen it yet) but in the movie they discuss the tooth fairy, and then he asks "Mom, are YOU my tooth fairy?" I actually felt the wind knocked outta me. What do I say? Perpetuate the lie? Just tell the truth? I mean he's old enough to know...but wait! What if he runs outta the theatre crying, or worse GOES ON OPRAH AND TALKS ABOUT HOW I'VE LIED TO HIM AFTER ALL THIS TIME!!!! I take a deep breath and say "Shh let's watch the movie honey, we'll talk about this later"
Thankfully he hasn't remembered....yet!
When I was younger I couldn't WAIT for my teeth to fall out so I could get PAID! I could care less about how I looked running around toothless, I was getting paid!
My son on the other hand is a totally different species. When HIS teeth fell out he wanted to keep them! (Clearly not my kid!)
I never wanted to feed into all the myths of Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and all that stuff, but it's hard to evade those things when your kids go to school or you have family members who love it more than the kids themselves. When you see YOUR kid looking forward to the fat guy sliding down the chimney, or the bunny that lays eggs, you don't wanna be the jerk who disappoints them. So what did I do? Yup you guessed it!
His first introduction to the Tooth Fairy was in pre-school. He excitedly told his teacher that morning how he'd lost his tooth (proud of his rite of passage) and before I could gag her and throw her in a closet somewhere, she said those deafening words "So you're gonna put it under your pillow for the tooth fairy?"
I....WAS...MORTIFIED!!!! I wanted to say 'no, I'm gonna hold YOU under a pillow!" but at that moment I had to focus on the confused look on my son's face and gasp, explain about the Tooth Fairy!
That night we put the tooth under the pillow and he woke up in the morning to a wrinkled $5 bill (hey it was all I had on me at the time ok?) But my son was upset! Where had the tooth gone? Why did he have this money? HE was mortified! I figured by the time he got to school and heard the other tooth fairy stories he would be alright. Of course as soon as we walked through the door the same teacher sachays up to us again (as if she HAD to follow up on the tooth!) and asks "so did you get money for your tooth last night?" which upset my son all over again as he explained what happened. Meanwhile she's telling me about inflation because back in the day HER tooth fairy didn't give her "no 5-dollar bill!"
So that night he put the money BACK under the pillow for the tooth fairy to bring back his tooth. I have never seen a child so happy to redeem a dried up crusty old tooth, but like I said CLEARLY not my child!
Fast forward to 2010 and we go to the movies (I won't say which one in case you haven't seen it yet) but in the movie they discuss the tooth fairy, and then he asks "Mom, are YOU my tooth fairy?" I actually felt the wind knocked outta me. What do I say? Perpetuate the lie? Just tell the truth? I mean he's old enough to know...but wait! What if he runs outta the theatre crying, or worse GOES ON OPRAH AND TALKS ABOUT HOW I'VE LIED TO HIM AFTER ALL THIS TIME!!!! I take a deep breath and say "Shh let's watch the movie honey, we'll talk about this later"
Thankfully he hasn't remembered....yet!
1 comment:
awwww!!!!!! so sweet love the post sis!!!!!
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