Tooth Fairy Trials

Our tooth fairy had done it again!!  She forgot to take the tooth that was carefully placed under the pillow and replace it with legal tender.  Now, I am not sure if our tooth fairy had been reassigned, or if she was the same one that we had all along, but with each additional child she seemed to have gotten a bit more careless in her scheduling!  I have always assured my toothless children that she does have many houses to frequent each night and that some nights she may just have too long of a list.  In that case, I told them, she would have to hit the remaining houses the following night. 

“Don’t worry, she will definitely come tonight though!”  I would assure them.   At one point, I told my children that I would contact the tooth fairy and let her know that if she had to come one night late, that it would be so appreciated if she would leave a little extra moolah for the waiting time.  Then, I let them know that she was happy to set up that contract with me.  You’d think that would have motivated her a bit more.  After all, it behooved her to be on time.   But, after that there were still more delays on her appearance!  “There must be an awful lot of kids losing teeth right now,” I said.  Seriously, there was one two week period in our house where 6 different teeth fell out (not from the same child)!  But, the kids didn’t mind too much knowing that the following night they would find a few extra coins under the pillow. 

Not until that last missed tooth pick-up appointment have things really improved.  I decided that since I do have the tooth fairy’s contact information, (I have picked up the phone and notified her personally upon the loss of each person’s FIRST tooth), I could just send her a brief reminder on the nights that we expect her.  So now instead of just putting their tooth under the pillow, I ask them to also put the phone on my pillow.  That way they know that I can send her a quick call or text right before I go to sleep.  Seeing that phone on my pillow before I go to bed has miraculously turned around our tooth fairy tardiness.  Not that anyone else has this problem, but if you do….this works! 

I recently had a child lose another tooth and was thankful for this new policy, so past failures came to mind.  Would love to hear if your tooth fairy is ever tardy too.