The Po Show

The Tooth Fairy

Tessa lost her fourth tooth today at school (her second lost tooth this week!). Her top front teeth are very wiggly, so they should be coming out soon too. It's so funny to think that they all came in together (she popped 6 teeth in 5 weeks when she was about 6 months old), and now they're all falling out together.

I'm so glad they're falling out, since they had all had cavities that necessitated lots of dental work. She was an amazing trooper through all the drilling and filling (at the tender age of 4), but a couple of the fillings (11 in all) wouldn't stay in even when filled twice. So now she's shedding these hole-filled teeth and starting over with new adult teeth. Please please let these be sturdier.

So the tooth fairy is scheduled for arrival tonight. Last week when she lost a tooth, it was evening and the tooth fairy had been unable to prepare (i.e., make sure she had a dollar bill), but she was lucky to find that she had some Sacagawea dollar coins in her sock drawer. Tessa was thrilled to find the "gold" coin so that worked out great. (Am I a cheap tooth fairy? A dollar a tooth seems generous to me, but I keep hearing of other tooth fairies who leave more. My niece is a generous fairy for her kids, and leaves $5 a tooth. My kids only got that amount for their first lost teeth.)

Matthew is getting very skeptical of the tooth fairy. He wanted to leave her a note, grilling her on various fairy topics. He said that the next time he lost a tooth (I honestly don't know if he's going to lose any more. How many baby teeth do we have?), he was going to hide it really well to see if the TF could find it. Tessa desperately wanted to know where, but he wouldn't tell her, saying, "The tooth fairy hears all." How ominous.

I'm ambivalent about the tooth fairy (and Santa, for that matter). Yes, it's magical and fun for kids and all that, and most are really not traumatized when they find out for sure that these mythical beings are really their parents.

But I'm struck by what Matthew asked me after Tessa lost a tooth earlier this year. He outright asked me if the tooth fairy was real.

I answered, "Of course."

He asked, "You wouldn't lie to me, would you, Mommy?"

Well. I totally copped out by saying, "Some people think she's real and some people don't, and the people who think she's real get money for their teeth, and the ones who don't, don't." He turned around and went on his merry way without another word. Matthew knows instinctively how to keep his cash flow going.

I'm bothered by it because it is lying. It is deception. We sternly admonish our children to tell the truth, but we perpetuate these frauds. But I started it, and I feel like I have to keep it going.

Because Tessa would be *incredibly pissed* if she woke up tomorrow morning and there was no golden dollar coin under her pillow.