Last week John Jr lost one of his last molars. This molar came out with quite a commotion. The school called me to tell me that John had a broken tooth and that I needed to pick him up. I checked him over as thoroughly as I could stand ( I am extremely dentally sensitive) and decided to call his dentist. After much unneeded distress (mostly mine) we were told he had just lost a molar and that it was totally normal. John then went on and on about how the tooth fairy should really pay out good for this one and so on. All this talk from a 9 1/2 year old boy about fairies and tooth money left a bad taste in my mouth. So when John went to bed with tooth tucked safely under the pillow and ready to count his loot in the morning I lay awake agonizing over how old was too old to believe in the tooth fairy and if we were to let tooth fairies go do we have to let Santa go as well? Am I forcing him to grow up before he is ready, Am I keeping him to young for my own selfishness, How would Ben take it, and why the heck I am I laying awake thinking about the tooth fairy when I could be sound asleep.
As morning came I resisted to desire to abandon my plan and let him go to school and tell all his friends that the tooth fairy came to visit him last night or.....end this chapter of innocent bliss in the lives of my little babies, somehow sending them into manhood with this new knowledge of the deceit and that I have led them to believe in a tiny being that collects teeth while they sleep.
I braced myself for a mutiny of sorts
I went to my wallet where I store the 2 dollar bills that the tooth fairy brings and told the boys that I was the one sneaking the money under their pillows and that I saved the 2 dollar bills from when I worked at the bank and that I thought they were getting old enough to not need the tooth fairy anymore and so on.... while they just looked at me in a blank stair of discomfort. I sighed and braced myself for tears, disbelief and sheer distrust but their response was not at all what I expected...hours of lost sleep and distress of how this could affect their delicate physiques and it all went down like this...
I went to my wallet where I store the 2 dollar bills that the tooth fairy brings and told the boys that I was the one sneaking the money under their pillows and that I saved the 2 dollar bills from when I worked at the bank and that I thought they were getting old enough to not need the tooth fairy anymore and so on.... while they just looked at me in a blank stair of discomfort. I sighed and braced myself for tears, disbelief and sheer distrust but their response was not at all what I expected...hours of lost sleep and distress of how this could affect their delicate physiques and it all went down like this...
Ben :" cool, can I have my teeth back !"
John " are we still going to have breakfast?"
They sure don't get their mental stability from me!
