I get out of the shower, put on my robe and head to the stairs to go wake my girl up this morning. There she sits at the top of them, all dressed and ready. I say “Good morning Sunshine” and she bursts into tears.

“I didn’t get any money!” she wails. Huh? Bad dream? Still sort of asleep?

Then it hits me. The tooth that had hung on forever was still sitting on her nightstand. The Tooth Fairy had forgotten it. Oh, what a horrible sinking feeling to know you’ve let your child down.

(image by Baddog_ via Creative Commons)

The leaving it on the nightstand was a new thing I was trying with this fourth tooth, and turned out to be both good and bad. Good that I now had an excuse.

“She must not have seen it there,” I could explain.

Bad because Mom had promised her there was no way it would be missed, and now the Tooth Fairy has to go back to digging around under the pillow to find it.

Tears dried eventually with reassurances that tonight we’d put it back in the traditional place and she’d find it, and we proceeded to breakfast. But, I still felt major guilt.

I tweeted, “Worst. Mom. Ever. The tooth fairy totally forgot to pick up a tooth last night. Girl crushed. Mom crushed.” And, was reassured to hear back that I was not the only one who’d had this happen. Several people presented good ideas for follow up, and I even shared one of them with her to show my girl that it wasn’t so uncommon.

So, we both found reassurance and absolution. And, tonight the tooth fairy delivered - including a little extra left to make up for the slight delay.

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