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Kate's Take
TOOTH FAIRY-ING IN MODERN TIMES
By: Kate Cayanni | June 2, 2021
On a recent morning, I came downstairs, and my husband said to my daughter, Zoey, “Show momma your smile and what you showed me this morning.” She ran up and gave me her toothiest grin. A tooth on her bottom row was missing. I gasped, unprepared for this moment with a five-year-old (isn’t this supposed to happen when they’re six? Seven?) and cheered for her, surprised and thrilled for this big girl’s moment.
I felt behind as a mother, and wondered if I had missed the boat completely, or if she was indeed, early to this milestone. Philippe set to Google to find out the average age for losing a first tooth (she’s early, but not in an unheard-of kind of way). I asked the source: “Zoey, have any of your classmates lost teeth?” She looked at me, deadpan, over her fig bar and said, “We don’t talk about that.” Sigh. I am pretty sure my brow furrowed. “Really?” I asked. We go to a Montessori school and I believe, in this moment, that the teachers avoid the tooth conversation to avoid the fairy conversation. The tooth fairy is not Montessori … but some of the kids might still be getting visits from her and they are not going to get involved. Zoey then relented and confirmed that a few of the kids had lost teeth.
We sent her to school as normal and I decided to poll my friends and other moms to find out, “Are we doing the tooth fairy these days? What’s that like?”
From what I can remember, the tooth fairy was a sham from an early point. I have clear memories of one parent tucking me in while fishing for a tooth under my pillow, and the second parent very un-smoothly putting a dollar under my pillow while saying goodnight. I can remember finding the dollar before even falling asleep. Has the game improved? What’s the going rate for a tooth these days? Or are we not telling this lie, this time?
My best friend shared, “I got them each a tooth pillow, which they set next to their bed and it has their name on it.”
Multiple parents commented on the current value of the tooth. Many a mom my age reported receiving a quarter to a dollar when we were little. Now, a dollar is ideal, but due to lack of small bills, many kids have received $5, $10 or even $20 per tooth. Beware of the precedence this sets. For a mouth of 26 baby teeth, at $10 each, that little mouth is going to cost you $260 bucks.
A jar or a pillow on the side of the bed is good practice (it won’t disrupt your sleeping child).
Another mom reported that her kid would stockpile teeth like a tooth fairy savings account, knowing each tooth traded in was worth money, while saving up for an expensive item.
One dad I talked to, who has a nine-month-old and hasn’t actually had to confront this yet said, “Can’t we just say something like, ‘Oh! You lost a tooth…isn’t that weird…another one grows back in its place…let’s throw that one away…gross’.” When I asked him about Santa Claus he said, “That’s different.”
Ultimately, we took her to Target, walked down the aisle of Legos and told her that since she lost a tooth, and losing your first tooth is a big deal, she could pick out a new Lego. And she was excited. She picked out a police car which was instantly more interesting to her little brother as soon as it was built.
Perhaps when she is older and we are expecting a lost tooth, now that we realize this is the time we’re in, the tooth fairy might visit her. But in the meantime, I can tell you… the tooth fairy is budget conscious, prefers tooth pillows or jars that are not under the kids’ head and still mysteriously arrives in the night when her benefactors cannot see her. And we don’t talk about her at school… because it’s not the same at every house.
Happy tooth-fairying.
Kate Cayanni is a mother to two toddlers, a lover of baking at home and handwritten letters. She is the founder of Good Smart Funny, where she helps small business owners develop a plan to hire their team and engage them. You can reach Kate by email – kate@goodsmartfunny.com follow her @goodsmartfunny or learn more at www.goodsmartfunny.com.
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