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Health & Fitness

The Day "I" Covered for the Tooth Fairy

Although the Tooth Fairy has an amazing record, this goes down as one those tarnished moments on an otherwise stellar career.

As a parent with young children, life is such an amazing series of amazing moments parents relish with each child.

A few of the unforgettable milestones are taking their first step, saying their first word, getting their first tooth, and losing their first tooth. Each parent I know can remember when these events happened and where they were when they happened. The caveat to this recall is directly diminished by the number of children you have. The more kids you rear, the more the crisp memorable moments tend have a way of blending together.

The beauty of the first two milestones is they only happen once. For example, you only say your first word once. The child may realize they accomplished something and repeat the word over and over and over again, but it's only the first word once.

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But with the teeth thing, it never seems to stop. I sometimes wondered if they were part shark and re-growing them, but I digress. The loss of the first tooth was something I wasn't as prepared for the first time. Yet after the first few times, you become a seasoned professional. 

Like any other normal tooth-losing incident, my son informed me of his loss. I remember the time like it was yesterday. It was somewhere between lost tooth number two and nine (with two children, memory bleed is normal). My elated son placed the incisor under his pillow and went to sleep. All was going according to plan.  As the parent, I'd done my job and was ready for a good night's rest.

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Like any other morning, I woke up before the children and prepared for my day. My son met me in my room with a bewildered look on his face. Thinking nothing of it I asked him, "Good morning. How are you this morning?" He then informed me of the unthinkable... "Dad, I think the tooth fairy forgot about me."

As you can imagine, my heart sank from astonishment and dismay. I asked if he was sure the tooth hadn't been replaced (hoping miraculously the tooth fairy was running late and was on the way). No such thing was happening that day. The tooth fairy just plain forgot about my kid. It was just awful.

So what could be done in response to the tooth fairy's error?

Well, after school that day, it seems the tooth fairy paid the dad a visit with a replacement gift for my forgotten second-born. The gift bag contained a book, a $20 bill and a card, personalized with my son's name on it. I thought the tooth fairy was totally over compensating for a normally $1 to $2 fetching, but I'm sure it was totally embarrassing for a tooth fairy who only has one job: Deliver the goods to the kids, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, who lose their teeth.

My son was satisfied that the tooth fairy gave the gift for me to deliver since they had messed it up the first time and felt so horrible about it. To this day, I'm not exactly sure what happened and don’t even try to find out. I'm just happy I was there to deliver the goods for the tooth fairy's big mistake.

Please follow me on twitter @darrenthedad or email me you tooth fairy recoveries to darrenthedad@gmail.com

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