It’s Not Easy To Be The Tooth Fairy –spoiler alert ;)

So, sometimes, I’m very impressed with my mom skills…and sometimes, I’m not.  This week was a little of both. 

On Tuesday, as I was pulling into the pick-up lane at school, I could see William running to me, a little unnecessarily enthusiastically.  He was going so fast that all I wanted to do was open the window and ruin his fun by telling him to settle down. 

But, when he got in the van and showed me his tooth in his hand; I understood why he was so excited. 

So, when we got home, he promptly tossed the tooth down on the couch and lost it again.  I would have been more surprised that the tooth seemed to have disappeared from existence, if not for the fact that I live with William.  He’s got mad skills in this area.  🙂  As he searched, there was a part of me that was relieved that I might not have to figure out how to get some tooth fairy cash.  Especially since, I evidently had the bright idea to leave a dollar before.  (This was something that he happily pointed out, on the way home.)  So, the random change that I had in my pocket wasn’t going to cut it.  But, despite my potential to save some money, I still felt bad for him, of course. 

So, he went to bed with no tooth and woke up with no money.  He seemed resigned, but I did hope that the tooth would still turn up.

And, it did.

The next afternoon, he found it in Lizzie’s room.  Lizzie’s room??  Sigh.  He was thrilled, but by bedtime, I had forgotten all about it.  So, the next morning, when he woke up with no money from the tooth fairy, he was less resigned. 

Oops.

Not sure how to save this.  I suggested he write the Tooth Fairy a note because maybe she didn’t know about the tooth since it was on a different day.  He said that he could see that The Tooth Fairy had moved the tooth, even though, she hadn’t taken it with her or left money.  Not sure how to respond, I blindly stuck to my “write a note” defense.  He agreed.

Fast forward to around midnight when I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t dealt with the tooth.  But, since I was pretty sure that he hadn’t left a note and wasn’t sure if he was completely asleep; I took a gamble and figured that I would help him write a note tomorrow.  This was a bad idea.

The next morning, William came out sadly and said that she hadn’t left him anything.  Ready with my answer, I said “Well, did you write a note?”  He said that he didn’t, so I told him that he needed to write a note.  This is when he told me that the Tooth Fairy had taken the tooth.  What??  Again, I didn’t know how to respond.  He added that it was “kind of sad that she didn’t leave me anything.” 

So, I sent him off to school and rushed home to try to save the Tooth Fairy’s (aka my) butt.  My plan was to put a dollar bill somewhere so he would think she dropped it.  I spent way too long trying to decide where to put it and finally just dropped it.  You know, to make it real.  Yep, I managed to drop it in the slit between his mattress and bed frame.   So, instead of a quick fix, I had to lift up his mattress and box spring to find the dollar bill that he would never find. 

I finally got the dollar bill, dropped it on the floor by his window sill where he had left the tooth, and figured I had saved the day. 

William came home and I waited for him to find it.  Nothing.  The day came and went and he never found the money. 

Ugh.

The next day, I moved it to what might be a more obvious spot.  And, still nothing. 

By the end of the night, I was ready to burst.  So, after bedtime, but before lights out, I went into his room and summoned up all my acting skills (didn’t take long).  I said, while trying to be casual, “I was just thinking, have you looked around to see if maybe the Tooth Fairy’s money fell somewhere in your room?”

He quickly got up and started to look around.  He went right to the spot where I left the dollar.  He was even using his 3DS as a flashlight.  But, he sat back down and said “Nothing’s there.”

Seriously, kid?  Work with me here!

“Oh, that’s too bad” I said as I tried to casually walk over to the magic spot.  Only thing missing was a nonchalant whistle. 

I pointed to it.  “Hey, what’s this?!” 

He rushed over and looked where I’m pointing, but still didn’t see anything.

“Right there, William.”  I said, pointing more and more emphatically. 

Finally, he saw it and happily grabbed the money.  He, slightly anti-climatically, said “yay!” and I left the room, silently cursing the creator of the Tooth Fairy.

I was glad that was over.  Or so I thought. 

The next night, I came into the living room and William showed me his tooth that he found in his room.  Again, with my lack of quick reactions, I said something to the effect of “That’s weird” while taking advantage of the fact that I was on the phone with my sister and said I’d talk to him about it in  a few minutes. 

So, a few minutes later, thanks to my sister’s ability to think fast (she got it all, apparently), I asked William if he thought that maybe she dropped it on her way out of his room.

“Yeah, she did!”  He said, confidently.  I guess he had already worked all that out. 🙂

Ok, now it’s over! 🙂 

What have I learned?

I no longer particularly like the Tooth Fairy.

I should confiscate any lost teeth, immediately.

And, yeah, maybe I should get my kid’s eyes checked. 🙂

Not sure that I’m ready to quit my day job yet… 🙂