I stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy pretty young, but that didn’t stop me from believing in gettin’ paid for teeth.
When my daughter was 6 she had a loose tooth and started hinting that she might not believe in the Tooth Fairy anymore. After a few days of beating around the subject she came out and asked. I told her the truth (as I promised to do whenever she asked me a straight out question about anything). The next moment was the proudest I’ve ever been of my little girl.
She let me know that if I had told her the Tooth Fairy was real she was planning on not telling us when the loose tooth came out, secretly putting it under her pillow and checking to see if she still received the payout. Just six and already designing experiments to test what she thinks she knows. Does a heart good I tells ya!
And the loot 
I’m pretty sure my son figured that if “Santa” went away, so would the “Santa” presents which were most of the good stuff.
I’m wondering the same. I remember knowing that there was no Santa at 5, and it seems to me that by first grade other kids didn’t believe in him anymore either…
Yep. I can’t remember when I stopped believing the “tooth mouse” (French equivalent of the fairy). In fact I can’t remember believing in it, either. But I always dutifully put my teeth under my pillow, and expected payment.
Oh, that’s great! My daughter would have loved the “tooth mouse” much more than a fairy!
I don’t think my parents ever played Tooth Fairy - if I lost a tooth, I got 50 cents. Same with the Easter Bunny. I was nearly an adult before I learned that the Easter Bunny was supposed to be responsible for hiding the eggs. My parents would give us baskets in the morning, we’d all go to church, and then afterwards we’d come home and my mom would hide plastic eggs in the backyard while we had to wait in our rooms.
Santa was definitely a thing at our house, but I stopped believing around 7 or so (and I remember being very skeptical at 6). It wasn’t a big sad thing. I still got presents. I did have a friend who believed until at least 10 (when I moved away) and her 12 year old brother claimed to believe too, though I now suspect he was pulling our legs.