Tooth Fairy Backstory

~ Laura

Jonah: Mom, what does the toof fairy do with all those teeth?
Me: TooTH, Jonah. TooTH fairy.

Good question, kid, even if you can’t make the “th” sound yet. What does the tooth fairy do with all those teeth? What kind of sicko collects discarded human body parts like that?

My first thought was to tell Jonah that the Tooth Fairy was building an extension on her castle and that she wanted it all white and glistening. Little kid teeth were excellent building material. But that was a pretty gristly image for a six year old, and I didn’t want to deal with giving him nightmares. So, instead I told him that the Tooth Fairy likes to collect teeth in an elaborate filing system. Each kid has his own drawer labeled with his full name. (Jonah already has two middle names.) The Tooth Fairy is a librarian with an acute case of OCD.

Jonah very much wants to see his tooth drawer in the white, glistening castle.

Published by Laura

9 thoughts on “Tooth Fairy Backstory”

  1. Jonah would probably be happier here in Germany, where there is no tooth fairy, but kids collect their baby teeth in a special container, a Zahndose.
    As a German-American family, for our 5-year-old we have made a compromise. The tooth fairy comes, but we always leave her a note to please not take the tooth. That always seems to work.

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  2. When I was a kid, back in the Cold War, my parents mailed our teeth off to some researcher who was analyzing for strontium-90 (replaces calcium, if present) to see how much harm atom test fallout was doing. This after the Tooth Fairy had done her stuff…

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  3. Do you know about the Ratoncito Pérez? My kids are hooked on the tooth “mouse”. Basically, the Ratoncito Pérez uses the teeth to build a castle. Though we have one book in which the mouse collects the teeth to make lovely jewelry.
    I grew up in Puerto Rico but my parents are American. So they told me about the tooth fairy. Somehow I always envisioned it as a little mouse so somehow I must have heard about the Ratoncito Pérez, although it wasn’t until I had kids and started collecting children’s books in Spanish for them that I became aware of that particular version of the story.

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  4. hi
    toothfairy
    how are you? i hope you are fine there. i am fine here.
    can yuo give me a magic stick plz.i want a real magic plz.
    from sanjana

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  7. Do not a lot of cash to buy a building? You should not worry, just because this is achievable to get the personal loans to resolve such problems. Thence take a consolidation loan to buy everything you want.

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  8. The kid did ask a good question. By the way, I know this is an old post, but I’m looking for blogs about the tooth fairy. That’s how I ended up being here. This is the first time I’ve heard of this version of the tooth fairy’s story. The teeth-as-building-material version, that is.

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