Long Live the Tooth Fairy!
She'll Soon Be Out Of A Job
One more tooth to go, and then I’ll lose my job. And I’m feeling pretty sad about that.
A couple days ago, with no fanfare, Little Bean lost another tooth. It was late, right before bed. Since I’ve been moonlighting as the Tooth Fairy these past few years, I went into panic mode. Would I have time to pull together a treat/cash for the tooth exchange?
“Don’t worry, daddy,” she told me with a shrug, “it happened so late and the Tooth Fairy is so busy, I’m sure she won’t come until tomorrow.”
She knows. I know she knows. I wanted to hug her.
But then she hit me with something really unexpected.
“I only have one more baby tooth left.”
One more left. Then the Tooth Fairy will be out of a job.
I’ve always felt the Tooth Fairy mythology, of all the characters that we play as parents, was the most see-through and, frankly, peculiar. What does the Tooth Fairy collect all that enamel for? Why a fairy? Why sometimes candy and sometimes money? Why under the pillow?
One of the earliest folklore origins of the Tooth Fairy is the Middle Ages fear of witches. Kids were instructed by their parents to burn or bury their baby teeth because withes could cause you all manner of trouble if they got a hold of one of your teeth.
But once the folklore broke into the west in the early part of the last century, it started being used in advertising for penny counter candy - be sure to stock up on sweets to give your kids to make the pain or discomfort of losing their teeth more palatable.
But is the Tooth Fairy a male or female? Where do they live? What is the going rate for a tooth? Who knows…
Still, those evenings after she fell asleep where I’d write her a note, gather together a couple silver dollars and maybe some sugar treats, are lovely moments.
There’s a shift now, I can see it in her. We’re moving away from magic, she’s beginning to ask questions and starting to be surrounded by friends who DON’T believe. She’s trying to hold on. Thus, giving me the time I needed to become the Tooth Fairy.
And so, I would once again become the Tooth Fairy for this penultimate moment in time, this second to last instant of magic.
When the time comes, when that last tooth falls out, I don’t know if she or I will miss it more. Probably me.
Maybe she (because, I don't know why, I've always thought of the tooth fairy as female) collects the baby teeth to make dentures for older people, which she then sells to dentists, and that's how she raises the money to pay the children?
I actually did ask my dad why the Tooth Fairy bought all those baby teeth. What did she do with them? His answer? She throws them into the sky, where they turn into stars.