Resident FatherOfFive here. I eventually resorted to slipping a dollar under their pillow before they went to bed. I got more sleep that way. (None of my kids has any noticeable need for sleep. 
) We just left the tooth. The trick is to leave the dollar far enough to the side, or even off the bed, so they don’t see it when they check on their tooth before falling asleep.
Nice. Now I have Diet Dr. Pepper running out my nose. You happy? Huh???
:eek:
That slayed me, I was JUST thinking similar thoughts and there you were. Articulating said thoughts. Brilliant.
Cartooniverse
On the three lamentable occasions when our Tooth Fairy overslept or just plain forgot, I managed to find the money under the bed in the morning. I could then use the incident as a springboard for my “Why You Need to Clean Your Room” lecture.
My younger daughter, who is almost 11 and who you would think would know better by now, lost a tooth not long ago on a weekend night when she was sleeping in her sister’s room. I was shocked in the morning when she showed me the tooth (it’s a tradition here for the Fairy to leave them) and the dollar she’d gotten. She smugly told me that she purposely didn’t tell anyone so that she could be sure it was the Tooth Fairy’s doing. I looked over at her 14-year-old sister, and she had the merest suggestion of a self-satisfied smirk on her face. And so the tradition continues.
When my daughter was a bit younger, her friend spent the night here and lost a tooth. I called the Mom and asked, “What does the Tooth Fairy usually leave for Michelle?” The Mom replied that Michelle was a non-believer. This was a problem, as my kid was a believer and she knew Michelle had lost the tooth. The Tooth Fairy ended up leaving Michelle a dollar, much to Michelle’s complete and utter shock, and she later told her Mom that she didn’t think I could have done it without waking her, so whaddaya know, maybe there WAS a Tooth Fairy.
More recently, my daughter made a comment or two that clued us in that her believing in things days were coming to an end. Sad, in a way, because it was fun, but kind of a relief too. We’ve always had her leave her lost teeth on the fireplace mantel (the Tooth Fairy is in cahoots with Santa, see) and last time she lost a tooth, the TF couldn’t find the tooth! She left a dollar anyway, and the next morning I asked the kid if she’d gotten her TF money off the mantel. “I didn’t put my tooth out,” she said. I said, “Well, no WONDER the Tooth Fairy couldn’t find the damn thing.” The kid looked momentarily shocked, then giggled. The gig is up, I guess.
I just attended a family wedding where a young cousin lost her first tooth on the plane ride to the wedding! I found out that she and her 3 sisters each (!) have their own Tooth Fairy with different names and handwriting (I just hope she never gets a sample of mine after this wink wink). Funny thing is, the Tooth fairy names are getting closer and closer to the girls’ real names. Hmmmm…
As far as my tooth fairy growing up, I once came down to breakfast with my quarter in my hand and told my dad that I’d seen the Tooth Fairy the night before. He turned several shades of white and cautiously asked me what she looked like. I said that she was like a beautiful blue light floating through the air, but that I’d shut my eyes quickly so she wouldn’t know I was awake. When I was older and thought about this exchange I realized that there was a possibility that the blue light I saw was my dad’s flashlight he was using to find his way through my room.
Well, the tooth fairy could always do what my dad did. I grew up living with my mom, but during a visit to my dad one summer I lost a tooth. Looking back I imagine he was probably pretty happy when it happened since he would get to play tooth fairy.
I’m guessing when he placed the money ($1) under the pillow I must have stirred or done something to think that I was going to wake up. The only reason I think that is because I can remember being woken up after being pretty well asleep with him assuring me that he had just seen the tooth fairy leaving the room!!! :rolleyes: He told me to check under my pillow, and wouldn’t you know it, the tooth fairy had come.
I gotta love him for trying.
As a child, I never gave my teeth to the Tooth Fairy. I kept them all in a little box.
I have no clue where that box is now.
Children sleep like the dead.
That’s how.
The Tooth Fairy leaves silver dollars here at the Ivy house…which my daughter promptly cashes in for dollar bills.
Man…I never met the Tooth Fairy…My Dad would let fairies in the house:(