Dear Tooth Fairy!

My almost 11 year old daughter’s tooth fell out on Wednesday.  She is now at that age where she knows Santa Claus is not real. This she figured it out 2 years ago and knows we put the presents under the Christmas tree.  I suspect that she knows the Tooth Fairy is not real. But is still taking advantage to milk her poor parents for monetary gain.  Her 7 year old sister then takes it upon herself to write a letter to the Tooth Fairy.  Starting off with Dear Tooth Fairy ….

Oh and looking at the letter below, the tooth fairy had to sign it as well.

Guys, let me just pause for a moment and say that this letter amazed me. Nobody helped her, she wrote this all on her own.  I can’t believe how neat this 7 year old child of mine is writing and all in a straight line.  Not to mention the sentence structure. Ok, there are a few spelling mistakes but she is only 7.

With the letter and tooth placed in the shoe, they head off to their rooms to sleep.  My husband then sneaks into the room to place money into the shoe. Takes the letter to give it the “Tooth Fairy” signature places it back in the shoe and retrieves the tooth.

In our house the Tooth Fairy doesn’t give anything more than a R20 perhaps pushing it to R30. That’s if the “Tooth Fairy” is in a generous mood.  We’ve heard many complaints before about this Tooth Fairy being a little on the cheap and stingy side and that friends at school receive up to R100.  Our response to these complaints were that there are different tooth fairies for different areas and in our area more children lose their teeth on a daily basis. Therefore our Tooth Fairy can only give a smaller amount as she needs to stretch the money.

Then yesterday morning, I overheard my 7 year old daughter asking her dad “Dad do you believe that the Tooth Fairy is real”.

Probably caught off-guard at 06h00 in the morning he answers “If you believe that the Tooth Fairy is real, then I do.”

The truth is, I don’t want to mislead my children in believing in fantasies but I also don’t want to burst my 7 year old’s bubble right now in telling her the truth about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.  Well the Easter Bunny doesn’t count as my kids know we buy the Easter eggs.

Although her sister now knows there is no truth behind these make believe characters, she has kept this secret from her. Without us telling her to do so.

According to an educational psychologist keeping the fantasy about these characters alive, is good for developing a child’s imagination.

So until she starts getting suspicious and suspects there is no truth behind these make believe characters and ask us about it – then we will tell her truth. I have a feeling by next year, she would’ve figured it out on her own.  For now, we will keeping the fantasy of Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy alive.