The first time you were visited by the toothfairy

For the inspiration behind this blog click here.

Do you remember the first time you were visited by the toothfairy?

Ok I thought I'd try to take a trip down memory lane to another fictional time - the time of the toothfairy! I know we've all experienced the fairy population at some time in our past. These tiny, flying people were the ones that wanted our teeth! Did we ask many questions about that at the time? I suspect not as we were more interested in the coin they left us in exchange.

I don't recall much about the toothfairy. I suspected they were related to Santa though as it always seemed to be winter time that I lost my teeth. Not sure if there is any science to this at all - the loss of teeth in winter, not the relationship between Santa and the fairies.

So I wanted to explore this memory further but when I asked around, most people can only recall vague memories of the tooth coming out (they were all baby teeth of course so there was little pain involved), placing it under their pillow and a coin materialising there in the morning.

We did have a laugh though at the value of the coin. Who remembers 10p for a wee tooth and 50p for a bigger tooth? Some, reflecting their age, remember shillings and pence.

So, disappointed that this was perhaps an uneventful memory to post, I was on the point of going back to Santa Claus tales when someone piped up a story about his first experience of "being" the toothfairy for his children.

Three things stuck me when he'd shared his story:

1. Why do the fairies take the teeth and is their a universal answer to that question, which most kids are likely to ask at some point?

2. It really blows my mind that parents are under so much pressure to instinctively know what the going rate for a tooth is on any given year. Does this type of information pass to expecting mothers from the placenta to the brain? There is so much trivia they need to know to deal with inquisitive kids (eg why is the sky blue, why do cows go Moo?) that it seems some kind of madness that we invent fictional characters and themes which will bring on more questions (where do the fairies take the teeth, where does Santa go in the summer?).

3. The final thing that struck me is something I'll share at the end of the story.

Two for me please

"My daughter had two loose teeth at the same time. It was her two front teeth and the proper ones were growing in behind them but these two at the front were just wobbling about and not coming out. So we came up with a plan to encourage them out!

Following a trip to the supermarket I made her eat an apple when we got home. It worked! She bit into it and out came the tooth. Her poor wee face screwed up in pain and she struggled to tell us what had happened. She ran over to her Mum grabbed her hand, then spat the whole mouthful into it! We then had to dutifully poke about the saliva, apple and god knows what else to find the tooth. That was fine though - one down and one to go.

But the other still wasn't budging. That evening I told her to put the extracted tooth under her pillow.

"Why Dad?"
"Well the toothfairy will come and take your tooth away"
"How will the toothfairy get in Dad if the door is closed?"

I said the first thing that came into my head - she doesn't need the door to be open, she comes through the keyhole".

Quick thinking I thought! This is more Rachel's area (his wife). Anyway, the next question came quickly.

"But Dad, why does she want my tooth?".

I must have been on a roll. "She takes it way to fairyland and uses it to build houses for all the other fairies."

That night I had to part with a £2 coin. Rachel tells me it's the going rate for teeth these days but £2!. Well I was down £4 by the end of the week.

The second tooth came out without any engineering by me or my wife. My daughter was playing with her friend in her room. She has a bunk bed. They were on the top bunk playing when Emma decided to get down to get another toy - she slipped on the ladder and bumped her jaw on the rung of the ladder. Out came the tooth and I lost another £2."

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Ok, the third thing that stuck me was why on earth fairies would take the teeth. I'm sure I would have asked the same question as a nipper, but don't recall the explanation. I mean is it a good thing to suggest that fairies live in houses made of teeth? It must be really smelly. And what happens when the teeth disintegrate? Poor fairies, living in crumbling houses.

Ok, in a bid to keep the fairies in homes, we must do something about the declining population in the UK. Unless of course fairies can travel the globe......

Have agreat weekend!