So what happens when the tooth fairy forgets to come?

When the Tooth Fairy first comes to your home, everybody is engaged in the giddy process. The thought of forgetting is just not even remotely on your mind. With two children in the tooth-loosing stage, we lost a tooth every few months, so it was a regular routine in our house. I have a special stash of cool coins, only to come from the Tooth Fairy. We whip out the gold dollars, the Susan B. Anthony’s, the half dollars from our TF days – this tooth fairy is ON IT with the rarest coins ever delivered in their cute little pink pillow. Enter a year of stagnant tooth loss. For 12 months, this household didn’t lose a single tooth. Until last week.

My middle child (oh doesn’t this always happen to the middle child?!) lost her tooth at school, this should have been the most notable experience. She got to share it with her friends, lucky duck! But then she had to face them the next day when the Tooth Fairy DID NOT COME. Ugghhh, it pains me to type this, because I am all about all things M.O.M. I pride myself in creating clever and special memories. Boy did I ever biff. And hard.

So the night of the recent tooth loss, I’m pretty sure we had at least two kids activities after school, one may have been a sport that I was a coach. I’m certain “we” (meaning me and my 5th grader, I’m telling you, these tests are getting harder and harder and it’s a group effort in our world!) had at least three big tests the next day, maybe throw in a throw-up virus and that should give you an idea of my crazy household. I’m sure when my head hit the pillow, the tooth fairy was the furthest thing from my mind. Not that there are any excuses for a mom screw-up of this magnitude.

The next morning we woke up to a very upset little Isabel. She just couldn’t understand why the Tooth Fairy forgot her. My first incredibly lame response was “well honey, maybe the Tooth Fairy came and you were still awake?”. Yes, I’m going straight to h-e-double-l by placing the blame back on my child. But that was my first instinct and had to go with it. She wrote this sweet note to the TF and left for school.

I was in a full on panic. Should I up the bounty to $20 just for my Lame Mom of the Year error? Would that be too suspicious? Should I sprinkle her room with TF fairy dust? No, I can’t do that since the TF has never done that in her previous visits. Should the TF come before she gets home from school? Hubby was adamantly against that, as if he ever partakes in these forced parenting traditions(!). So that night, I wrote a letter back to her (in my handy lefty slant fairy script) and explained that sometimes the tooth fairy doesn’t get it all done. She’s just like us humans! She came a little too early and Isabel was still awake and didn’t have time to come back. So lucky Isabel, she got two nights of tooth fairy kisses. And an extra $5 in addition to her rare coins. OK, so I had to do something.

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