My eight-year-old daughter lost a tooth yesterday. It fell out during gym class. There is a generous excitement bonus when a tooth is lost at school, but along with her delight at being that one tiny step closer to big, comes a very familiar dilemma for me.
When is it the right time to tell children that the Tooth Fairy is about as real as talking pigs and Prince Charming?
My daughters are eight, nine and ten-years-old (yes – very close, no – not on purpose). And they all still believe.
They believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and magic. I’m not sure how or why, for they all have friends at school who have been telling them otherwise for years. My eldest even had a pre-school friend who reveled in sharing her wisdom that Santa was ‘fake’ and parents were liars – when they were five years old!
I’ve always responded to questions about Santa and the Tooth Fairy’s existence with the tried and true – “If you believe in them then they are real.”
Was that a lie? I suppose, but I happily stuck with it without too much thought for a very long time. It did the trick. They were sufficiently satisfied with my answer and it’s kept my girls sweet, little and innocent for just a little longer in a world where Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga are constantly nipping at their still baby soft heels.
Recently I decided that the time had come. Their commitment to fairy playgrounds, elves and rodents bearing chocolate had begun to make them look like fools, ripe for playground ridicule. My eldest was speeding towards puberty and she still believed in fairies. I wish it didn’t matter, but it did.
So, one opportune evening when my littlest had gone to bed, I gathered my two big girls and came clean about Phoebe, the Tooth Fairy who services our local area and has left them so many miniature, lavender-scented notes over the years.
Their reactions surprised me. Miss Ten said straight away, “I knew it!” Immediately followed by “But Santa is still real right?”
And Miss Nine, tears streaming down her face, said in the cutest possible way, “Can I still believe if I want to?”
Perhaps she was worried she wouldn’t get two dollars for her teeth anymore, perhaps she was clinging to her childhood in an age when it doesn’t last long enough. Either way, Phoebe visited Miss Eight last night and we are expecting Santa in December.
Kim Kind is a freelance journalist and mum to three pre-pubescent girls. Before having three babies in three years she worked in corporate communications.
When did you find out the truth about Santa and the Tooth Fairy ?
Comments
102 Comments so far
I found out around Grade 3. When other kids were talking about it at school. I just asked straight-out – but I don’t think I expected to be told the truth about Santa.
As a future primary school teacher, I get a bit twitchy in the classroom toward the end of the year. When Christmas activities are raised, I am waiting for the loud-mouthed kid who is raised differently* to blurt it out and, at that time, all the kids in the classroom will be destroyed and I’ll have to answer to 20-odd parents about why their child is shattered! Plenty of 11-year-olds still believe – and I’ve heard of a boy who stopped believing in Grade 9.
* I’m totally not saying that children who are raised differently (and by that, I mean not in the ‘traditional’ way of believing) are loud-mouthed, but that the combination of a child who knows the truth, with a loud-mouth personality is very concerning for me!
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I am pretty sure I worked these things out naturally over time. Our house wasn’t very big and I could often hear mum and dad wrapping presents on Christmas eve when I was too excited to go to sleep.
Our boys are 4 and 2. We’ve never explicitly talked about the role of Santa at Christmas. They (well, the 4yo) know it’s a symbol of Christmas, but we’ve never said that Santa brings the toys. Not sure what we’ll do re the tooth fairy. I suspect we will play along with that one – mostly because those teeth have caused us so much angst in coming, I’ll be wanting to celebrate the end of them!
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When I was 6, I had my doubts and asked mum directly. She didn’t want to lie to me, so she confirmed my suspicions. My older brother (8) found out not long after – when I told him. I always kept quiet around my school friends though, even offering a possible explanation of how Father Christmas managed to get around the world in one night: different time zones.
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Santa kept visiting my home when I was growing up til I was at least 23!! We did the pillow case thing, no wrapping paper involved!! My little brother is 7 years younger than me, so we kept the dream alive for a very long time!!
Now I tell my daughter (who is 4) that I have Santa’s phone number and will call him – and that stops her in her tracks. I love all the “magic” stuff about being a parents. One of my favourite christmas quotes is “A man goes through 3 stages in life, he believes in Father Christmas, he doesn’t believe in Father Christmas, he is Father Christmas”! And I think it goes for Mums too!
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I don’t feel comfortable lying to my kids. My 6yo has asked me straight out whether the tooth fairy and Santa are real, and I say no.
I explained that Santa was a game that grown-ups and kids played every Christmas time, and to not tell his friends as it would spoil the game. Sometimes he chooses to pretend Santa is real, and that’s fine.
He lost his first tooth this year, and thinks it’s so funny that I pretend to be a tooth fairy. That night going to bed he smiled and giggled and said “Mummy tonight you’re going to be a tooth fairy and hide some money under my pillow!”.
I think there can still be fun and magic as well as the truth. For our family, Christmas is Jesus’ birthday- we bake a birthday cake together and blow out the candles and sing happy birthday. We make an advent calendar with lollies and decorations to hang on the tree. We read Christmas stories (Wombat Divine by Mem Fox is lovely). We wear silly elf hats and go Christmas light driving with my brother and his fiance.
Lol can you tell that I love Christmas time?
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Hey Bookworm
I read your comment and I thought you’d find this interesting…
http://blog.marshill.com/2010/12/13/what-we-tell-our-kids-about-santa-pastor-mark-for-the-washington-post/
I really loved it – even though we don’t follow it in our house! We do the “Santa is real if you believe” line, but we also give God what we consider to be due reverence at Christmas, Easter and, well, every other day of the year!
I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way so don’t think I’m making any comment or judgement on your choices! I’d be interested to hear what you think about the article though!
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Hey Karen I think that’s a great article and Mark makes some great points. I certainly encourage my kids to dress up and pretend. And I agree that it’s important to establish what’s true and what’s not. Reading that made me remember that I did explain to Mr6 that Santa was based on a real person that a lived a long time ago.
So yeah, I don’t disagree with anything in that article. If the kids want to pretend Santa is real that’s cool, I’ve established the facts and they know that. I actually think my 6yo relaxes and feels more free to pretend stuff once he knows what’s real and what’s not, if that makes sense.
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My children worked out that santa wasn’t real when visiting Castle Towers there was a Santa on Centre Stage, one in DJ’s and one in Myer. I was asked “mum if santa is real how come there is so many of him and I’m real and there is only one of me”. They now refuse to have photo’s with santa taken. They were 5 and 3 at the time and I was hoping the fantasy would last a little longer. I wonder how long it will take them to shatter their younger sisters Christmas dreams of Santa.
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I never knew the tooth fairy apart from American books and movies when I was still living overseas. Santa on the other hand, I was nine and my dad came back from an overseas trip, my mom specifically told me not to open this box in the guest bedroom, which pretty much made me want to open it. One day they were out of the house, I opened it and saw this cool toy phone. I wanted to ask if I could have it, but then that would mean I looked when I shouldn’t have, so I didn’t say anything.
Guess what ‘Santa’ got me for Christmas?
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My daughter is four, and I love re-experiencing the magic you feel as a child when you still believe in fairies, Santa, magic and general wonderousness.
For the day when she starts to put two and two together, I have written my own version of this amazing letter, written by a mother to her oldest daughter. It somehow sums up everything I feel about yes, living in the real world, but also keeping a little bit of magic in your heart.
http://www.cozi.com/live-simply/truth-about-santa
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This is a beautiful way to answer the question.
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i figured it out when I was 5. Who wouldn’t? I mean really, a flying sleigh? Anyway during that convo with my mother….so the easter bunnys not real? the tooth fairys not real? santas not real?……..so that means Gods not real? yup, pretty when i lost all my faith in religion
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Love that at five you figured out religion as another great story too
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As luck would have it I’ve just been through this with my very hopeful, then almost 12yo(!) son, who lost 5 molars in fewer weeks. It was with some disbelief I had to come up with a win/win solution that would not murder the toothfairy for him or his almost 5yo sister, given his complete inability to keep a secret. It was one of my (very rare) finest parenting moments so naturally I blogged it.
Therefore the quick answer to your quick question is summed up in the attached pic: the letter from the tooth fairy regretfully letting my son go…and it worked. No questions asked. Did I mention he. is. 12.?
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That’s wonderful!
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we never did any of the ‘pretend’ things. no santa, tooth fairy or easter bunny. we still got presents at christmas, still got money for our teeth if they were hole-free and still got eggs at easter. we were those annoying 4yo at kinder informing every other child that santa etc didn’t exist….
with our children we chose not to do it either. It seems to make more sense to my daughter that all these things are pretend especially when we made it clear fairy tales etc were pretend. i have tried to ensure that she understands that other kids like to pretend and it’s fine to pretend with them so that she doesn’t go ruining anyone elses christmas like my sister and i did….
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I always knew as a kid, and found/find it hard to believe anyone believes. So yeah, we don’t do santa, easter bunny or tooth fairy with our kids either. But once they hit school age, they’re taught not to get into arguments about it. I find other parents feel very threatened by our approach
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Ask a kid my family didn’t do the santa/easter bunny thing either. Growing up easter was when we got our new jeans for the coming winter.
I never have with my kids either – probably for a different reason though. I don’t like giving a whole bunch of easter eggs. And when it comes to christmas I’m the one doing the hard work, I dislike shopping and gift buying in particular, why should someone else get the credit.
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I don’t think I ever thought they were real. Huh, I’ve never realised that before.
Which is odd, I suppose, since my mum still signs presents “from Santa” and we still have an easter egg hunt (only now I’m the one who sets it up for my nieces & nephew)
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I’m the same MissT, maybe because I’m the youngest, maybe I was a very observant child or maybe because I’ve always been a realist. Can’t actually remember ever believing. But I still love those traditions. This year I’ve bought me & my boyfriend stockings to fill with presents from Santa. I’m just a sucker for a tradition.
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I think it depends on the kid – some want to know, some dont.
My brother caught on quite early, and thought he was so grown up for knowing the truth. He still got Santa presents and stuff, he just knew where they were coming from.
Me, on the other hand, I didn’t want to know. I think I must have picked up on it somewhere along the line, but I never admitted to it. I got the tooth fairy until my last baby tooth fell out, and Santa and the Easter Bunny until I was 12 – my mum had always made it very clear that once you start highschool the easter bunny and Santa dont come anymore, because there are so many new babies being born and needing presents, if Santa gave kids presents forever he would never have enough time! I was quite happy with that, and that is what I am doing with my kids. I have to admit, even though I was 12 and really had known for a long time that my Mum was Santa, that year I cried when I realised there was no more Santa. It was like the end of my childhood. If my Mum had sat me down and explained to me that it all wasn’t real before that, I think I would have resented her for it…I would rather have worked it out on my own and kept the magic alive as long as I could. Other kids would rather be told, I think its all up to the particular child.
Though, even when I found out it was all my parents, I still argued with people that Santa was real – My Mum is Santa, and she is real, therefore Santa is real. I still say that now – I am Santa, I’m real, so Santa is real.
I don’t think I’ll ever sit my kids down and tell them its all a farce – I will let them come to it when they are ready. Kids aren’t stupid, they know what is going on. Some kids believe longer than others, but they all realise it on their own eventually. Only some kids admit to it and some don’t. I figure if they don’t admit to it, it means they aren’t ready to let it go yet, so why make them? Its not so often these days that kids get to act like kids, so why not make Christmas the time they can?
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Where is it written that the Tooth Fairy and Santa and the Oestre Bunny aren’t real? How real is “real?” People believe in “gods” of all kinds? Don’t they? IRMC.
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I’m not sure how old I was, maybe 10 and I was suspecting that the easter bunny, santa, tooth fairy etc wasn’t real but I wasn’t 100% sure either way. It was either Christmas or Easter when my Mum took me aside and said “you know x isn’t real but your little sister still believes so don’t say anything”. I think I nodded sagely but inside I was devastated, the truth was out, my suspicions were correct but I didn’t want them to be!
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When I was about five I suspected that there was something fishy about the tooth fairy. So, I asked my darling mum ‘is the tooth fairy real?’ to which she responded ‘well, do you want me to tell you the truth?’
Cue five-year-old shaking her head!
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I figured it out pretty early (I reckon around grade 1 or 2), but pretended to believe. I was very skeptical, lol. I would ask my parents why there were so many different Santas at the shops if he was supposed to be at the North Pole. My parents always told me that they were his helpers because he was too busy making presents. Then I would ask why our Santa presents had barcodes. Then I would ask why the gift tag was in mum’s handwriting. Then I would ask why we only got one present from Santa and some of my friends got HEAPS. I finally knew for sure when I found a pair of rollerskates in mum’s cupboard and they were my gift from Santa… Even though my parents knew I knew I continued to get presents until I was 13 because I had a younger brother and sister.
As for the Easter Bunny, I was pretty much the same. I cottoned on because my friends would get HEAPS of eggs for Easter and we would only get a few, plus I’d have friends getting the coolest eggs and we would get pretty ordinary ones.
My poor dad told my brother the ‘truth’ when he was 12. My brother was devastated!
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oh dear my tooth fairy story isn’t a good one….. i was babysitting my little bro (7 years younger than me) one night and he ahd lost a tooth that day. Instead of under the pillow or in a glass on the bedside table, mum had decided a few times before that the tooth should live in a glass on the bench in the kitchen. This time, the glass was sitting on the bench, near the tap of the sink. So, like a good house-keeping daughter, before i went to bed i threw all the water out of the glasses around the sink and put them in the dishwasher. Next morning, little bro wakes up, no money. “Where’s the glass? Wheres my tooth fairy money?” he says. Realisation dawned on me! My efficiency and cleaniness broke the spell for him and then Mum had to break the news to him! Felt soooo bad!! Poor kid! I think he woul have been around 7 or 8 lol so then the inevitable question came “So is Santa and the Easter Bunny real?” Mum says, “Of course they are mate!”… pretty sure he kept believing! lol
When it comes to Santa i do remember when i was about 10, searching with my best friend through her mum’s closet looking for either a santa list or a bike (what she wanted for xmas)…. didn’t find either tho!…. I look back now and wonder how we thought her mum could hide a bike in her wardrobe!
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I did that to my sister’s tooth as well!!
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My husband did that to my son’s tooth, too. Luckily it was after he had gone to bed, and we discovered it when I asked where the glass was.
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I was tossing up about telling my daughter when she was 9, but at the slightest hint (from others) she would either shrug it off as their bad luck that they didn’t believe (kids) or get upset (hints from adults). So, I figure she suspects, but really wants to believe. So I let it go. Then one day, she found her baby teeth in the cupboard…. And she didn’t mind at all. I think she actually thought it was pretty cool that I was the tooth fairy and had been leaving her treats. Father Christmas is still on the books as real, though (she’s 10 now). Lots of her friends are openly scornful about believers, but she doesn’t care. She loves it. The fairies still visit fairy rings in our neighbourhood, too…
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I don’t really ever remember believing.. I remember pretending to believe, that was fun but no defining moment of finding out they weren’t real.
However, I was pretty devestated when I lost a tooth at my dads house (I would have been about 7 or 8) and the tooth fairy didn’t come. My dad of course didn’t seem to notice, but my stepsister (only 3 years older than me) put some of her own money and a note under my pillow explaining that she (the toothfairy!) had been stuck in fairy traffic and was sorry for running late. Nicest stepsis ever!
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I don’t know when I stopped believing – maybe I haven’t truly stopped believing?
I hope that the younger ones believe for a while yet but with Miss 5 at school I know there will be questions soon. I will somehow cross that bridge when it comes but with younger siblings I hope she will allow them the right to believe for a little while.
The eldest being 16 plays along nicely for the little ones. She wouldn’t admit it but gets a kick out of seeing the joy believing brings.
I don’t think that it hurts to allow children to believe as long as we are also willing to come to a natural conclusion at some point. I don’t think it has to be as blunt as sitting them down and having a chat but more a natural part of growing up.
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Apparently when I was little I told my mother “of course Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are real! If you were the Tooth Fairy you’d have a jar of my teeth somewhere!”
A few years later she showed me the jar. haha
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I have one of those jars as well!
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I don’t remember when I found out about the tooth fairy. I think I got money all the way through but I was still quite young when I’d lost all my baby teeth. So by the time I was too old for the tooth fairy, it wasn’t really an issue.
Mum told me Santa didn’t exist when I was 9. I’d asked for something quite expensive for Christmas, Mum told me she couldn’t afford it and I told her I’d ask Santa for it. So she had to tell me. I think I’d started to doubt it already by that point though and I wasn’t particularly surprised. I definitely wasn’t traumatised by it.
As the eldest though, I still got Santa presents to keep up the illusion for my younger sister. A perk of being the oldest child in the family!
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I figured it out early but my mum always said Santa comes to those who believe. So I said I believed. My little nephews are 7 & 8 and I’m hoping they still believe! They beleived in the Easter bunny this year. We had our traditional good Friday picnic and my brother took a whole bunch of eggs to hide for the boys. He would throw out a pile while they weren’t looking and put them in the trees. Soooo many eggs! They had so much fun. “wow that bunny is quick!” I hope they don’t stop believing it’s just so sweet to watch their excitement. My little niece is almost one so she is starting to understand Santa. We went to a Xmas party and she sat on santas knee and got her present and watched all the other kids get theirs so she is quite keen on this long white bearded fellow!
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No idea how or when I realised about the tooth fairy.
I do remember when I was about 6 or 7 find out about Santa. That Christmas mum has bought some festive Christmas sticky tape and I had been helping her wrap family presents. On Christmas morning, all our presents from Santa had the same sticky tape on them… I don’t remember feeling devastated though… probably just that a bit of the magic went away.
My eldest who is 4.5 years lost a tooth a few months ago (from an accident) and she was beside herself with excitement about the tooth fairy. But she said a few days later, I don’t the tooth fairy is real, I think you and daddy just put the coins under my pillow. I was gutted! I denied it profusely and told her ‘you have to believe’! She still goes along with getting excited about tooth fairy and Santa, but I reckon she knows already…
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My eldest worked it out at age 5 and we didn’t deny it when he asked. He’s very much a thinker and would have come up with question after question if we had denied it. He’s the type of kid who would prefer to know the truth over believing in magic anyway.
I thought my middle child believed last year (then age almost 5) as he went along with everything, but then we were talking about Santa and he said “but I know it’s really you and Daddy and he’s not real” in a very matter of fact way, like he had known for some time.
To be honest I don’t really get the big deal about the whole Santa thing and why people seem to be so keen for their kids to believe as long as possible. But I think I’m in a minority. I don’t remember really believing in Santa as a kid but I guess I must have at some point. I’ve always loved Christmas day and everything that goes along with it, and didn’t need Santa to make it special.
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Santa IS real! You can see him from tonight…
http://www.santaclauslive.com/main.php?link=santa_claus_live&kieli=eng&pid=1
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Wow. My son still believed at eleven and I thought that was great- if he had asked, I woud have told him the truth, but there was no way I was going to sit him down and break it to him. If he wanted to hold onto it, even though most of his grade 5 class knew the truth, that was fine by me… you only get to be a child once, and for such a short time.
In the end my 8yo daughter was the one who doubted first. She asked me four times if Santa was real, then when I kept saying yes (grade 2 seemed so young to give up!) went away and wrote down a list of reasons she didn’t think he was and then presented them to me with a “see if you can get out of it now” look. Of course I caved- she was ready for the truth. She immediately told her brother (funny, I had NEVER dreamed I’d have to worry about my youngest spilling the beans to my eldest!) who said “Yeah, I thought so, but it felt more exciting to believe, so I decided not to stop.” No tears from either of them, thank goodness
I cried and cried when I found out at age 9- told by a neighbourhood kid.
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I was a gullible child and my younger brother was the one who figured it out when he was 7 and I was 8.
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I used to think my parents were really slack at giving presents, compared to Santa. We only got a couple of things from our parents but Santa gave us heaps! I don’t remember finding out that Santa wasn’t real but I remember telling my Mum I didn’t believe in the Easter Bunny anymore when I was about 11. I think I just wanted to be cool like one of my friends who didn’t believe and then the truth was clear and my childhood died a little.
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My brother and I (aged 20 and 17) still get Santa sacks – filled with lollies and little things. I haven’t believed in Santa since I was 7 or 8.
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Ha, that’s funny, I’m Lauren aged 20 with a brother aged 17 who still get Santa sacks! You don’t have a mother named Ann and a father named Michael do you?
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Kim, I am not sure if anyone else has posted a link to the as I haven’t read all of the comments, but I stumbled upon this yesterday on Pinterest and loved it. It is a letter “The Truth about Santa” that I thought was perfect! It may help.
http://www.cozi.com/live-simply/truth-about-santa
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Great letter Sarah, thanks.
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That is so touching. I love it.
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That just made me cry! Beautiful
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There’s no way I’m voluntarily telling my kids about Santa and his friends. If they directly ask I will be honest but if they are still believing (or pretending to believe) at 16 then I am not going to burst that bubble!
I’m not sure how old I was when I learnt the truth or who told me – but I’m kind of thinkning it was my elder brother who spiled the beans.
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Having been a shopping centre Santa for about 5 years I believe he exists. However as kid I started to question Santa when I worked out that Santa’s handwriting was exactly the same as my parents handwriting.
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Found out about Santa and easter bunny courtesy of my older brothers at a very early age. Not so upset about Santa as he scared the crap out of me as a small child, but absolutely devastated about the Easter bunny. I could have sworn he was real – used to see him looking through windows and in the garden. Still love him (can you tell I am a chocoholic)!!!
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Looking back I feel very sorry for my poor mum. I had figured out the tooth fairy wasn’t real, but didn’t want to let on, so instead I’d play a trick where I’d leave my tooth in a glass of water next to my bed, with a note asking the tooth fairy to leave me my tooth (yet give me the money anyway) and to dye the water a particular colour for me.
However, first I’d sneak into the kitchen and check what colour food dye mum had and then pick a colour I knew she couldn’t make! The poor “tooth fairy” would have to write little poems to me explaining why the water wasn’t the colour I had requested!
I also didn’t let on about knowing Santa wasn’t real for years, I think I was scared if I told them he’d stop coming! Although I clearly shouldn’t have been, my mum still makes us leave out Santa sacks as well as food for the reindeer when I go home for Christmas – and I’m 24!
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My mum still won’t admit to me that santa isn’t real…… this christmas (as with every other year) there will be a santa stocking under her tree for me, my husband and my 3 children!
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My family have the same Santa tradition. All of our presents are ‘Dear _____, from Santa’.
For us, it stems from when I found out about Santa, mum told me that we would get less presents when my sister found out, because no one ‘believed’ anymore. My sister found out when she was 6, and she asked me first for confirmation, and my response was “hes not real but SHHH if mum and dad find out, we will get less presents”.
So my sister pretended to believe (around mum and dad) until she was 12 – and by the time she admitted it, the whole thing became a family joke, so effectively we claim Santa still exists.
Even at the ages of 21 and 18, my sister and I email ‘Dear Santa’ lists to our parents!
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my sister told me when i was 5 (she was 9) because i had broken her barbie and she was angry at me. I burst into tears. She found out there was no santa because she woke up on xmas eve and saw mum and dad putting presents under the tree.
http://www.xxxmissvxxx.wordpress.com
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I knew about both for ages before I let on to my parents. I wasn’t stupid, I still wanted the money for teeth and extra ‘Santa’ presents and if they knew I didn’t believe, I wouldn’t have gotten them anymore. I think kids know much sooner than parents would like to believe they do.
Re Santa I think I realised when I noticed that Santa had very similar handwriting to Mum and had used a texta that we had in the house to write a note to me haha. I’m sure it would have been much easier if my folks had a kid that didn’t notice every single thing that went on around her!
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My sister was going into High school the next year so my mum had to tell her. I remember my mum taking my sister to her room as he needed to tell her something important so I snuck upto my sisters room and listened through the door. When I heard the words “Santa isn’t real” I was heartbroken. Then angry that my mum (and everyone else) had lied all this time. I cried myself to sleep. The next morning I pretended nothing had happened
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Tooth Fairy- I found out when I lost my tooth and woke up to still find it next to my bed. When I walked down to breakfast my mum look at me, I looked at her, and she said “I’m sorry I only had a $50 note”. That’s how I found out! I was about 6
Santa- I asked my mum very seriously (probably about 6 again) whether Santa was real, she told me the truth
Easter Bunny- I don’t think I ever believed. Chocolate came from Grandma!
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Oh god, I laughed out loud at your tooth fairy story!
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My poor sister. One easter she had gone to bed, and the adults and older cousins were hiding eggs and putting chocolates in baskets. She came out to get a drink of water, mum panicked about her seeing the chocolates, and this conversation followed…
“Hey, Mum….”
“Oh, piss off, Jenny. Oh no, sorry, sorry sorry!!”
I think that killed the magic for her right there.
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Oh god, that’s hilarious. If I’d been drinking a beverage, you’d owe me a new keyboard!!!
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Never had Santa being Jewish and all but I don’t think we had the Tooth Fairy either. Think my parents just told us to brush better.
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I remember discovering a Baby Born doll in a cardboard box in the spare room at the age of 6 and realising that Santa obviously wasn’t real. But I don’t remember being upset – I don’t think I really cared, as long as I got my Baby Born!
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Santa – found a present from Santa to me in a cupboard 2 weeks before Christmas…kind of wasn’t that surprised…I would have been 6 or 7…
Tooth Fairy – I lost my baby teeth late, so I think I was way over believing by that stage…I still asked for the money though!
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I found out a 6 by my friend but didn’t let on to anyone I knew. So for years my mum made my brothers and sister go to redicilous lengths to keep the dream alive and I guess I kept it alive for her. My little boy is 6 and is soo excited for Santa this year. Eventually he will find out, but I love the joy it brings to him
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I woke up one night, age 5 or 6, to see my Mum sneaking into our bedroom (shared with my older sister) and doing the Tooth Fairy thing… she didn’t see I’d woken and I remember feeling this complete shock and sadness that there was no Tooth Fairy.
I think I still held onto the Santa and Easter Bunny thing for a few years, but then when I was about 10 one Christmas eve instead of going to bed and waking up to a tree with prezzies under it, my parents bought the prezzies out while we were watching the carols… a part of me died that night
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Father Christmas – I worked it out when I recognised my mother’s handwriting on the tags; probably about age 6. I didn’t let on that I knew because I thought it might be bad manners.
Tooth fairy – a tooth fell out after I’d gone to bed, so I put it in my shoe & when I woke up the next morning it was still there.
Easter Bunny – the bunny visited while we were in church, but I can’t remember when I got suspicious about the coincidence of my father staying at home (as a non-Cathloic, he never came to Mass anyway).
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Love this!
I have far too many stories to tell about Santa and the Tooth Fairy. But I do remember my brother and I tried to trick the Tooth Fairy once. I know this sounds terrible but, on the station where we lived Dad used to move the horses as they passed away (of natural causes!) to a horse graveyard.
And, I’ll just spit it out, my brother and I stole their teeth. You know, they were massive and we figured we would get like TEN TIMES what we got for our tiny human teeth.
Yeah, turns out the Tooth Fairy doesn’t work on a pound-for-pound payment system. But we still got 50c for our efforts.
Later I would go on to discover my mum had kept our own teeth in a crystal heart-shaped thing on her dresser. That was when I knew.
It was like the big reveal in a creepy thriller movie. Find the teeth, realise Mum was the tooth fairy all along.
We’ve been had!
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LOL I had this vision of you as Simba in the lion king in the elephant graveyard… but with horses!
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I’m not even kidding. It was exactly like that! (But I was not a lion).
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I leave tooth money for my kids and they get presents in their Santa sack up to the age of 10, but I have never explicitly lied to them about who it is from. They know what’s going on from all the cultural cues! And if they ask me if Santa is real, I say ‘What do YOU think?’ I have NEVER said ‘Santa is real’ – I just tiptoe around the issue because, come on, Santa is FUN!
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I kept my daughter’s teeth in a little jewellery bag as I didn’t quite know what else to do with them. One day when she was about 9 she found the bag and can skipping into the kitchen saying ‘look mum a whole bunch of teeth the tooth fairy didn’t take! I’m going to put them next to me bed now!’ I just looked at her quizzically waiting until I saw the realisation dawn on her face, ‘it was you all along!’.
I eventually threw them all out. It is pretty gross and seriously what was I planning to do with them?
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That’s a nice way to handle it. There is something magical about how excited the little ones get.
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I agree, the magic is great. I tell my little girls all the time, ‘you have to believe!’ when they ask about fairies, mermaids and goodness know what else!
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A related question: what do you do with your children’s fallen out teeth? This might sound heartless: but I just throw them in the bin. I tried to think what I’d do with them in the future, if I kept them. Would I take down the box and gaze lovingly at them? Probably not. My mum kept my teeth and tried to give them to me a few years go. I declined.
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Bin. Who wants to keep a grotty wee baby tooth?
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Was dicussing this very thing in the office this morning. I have kept all my son’s teeth and I know not why.
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Me too … I have a box with the baby teeth of three kids in it … its a bit macabre really lol … but every time i try to throw them out, I just can’t do it
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This will probably make me sound like a total nutjob, but anyway, I have a jeweller friend and I had them dipped in gold and made into a bracelet. It’s really pretty and you can’t actually tell what they are. I am ridiculously sentimental. And a nutjob obviously ( I even have their dropped off umbilical stumps in a little box somewhere).
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I can’t imagine keeping them, sounds a bit yuck. I had looooong hair when I was 5, and my mum took me to get it all chopped off, and my dad kept the ponytail of hair as a momento for years – he could still have it (and im 27!), yuck, old hair!
I think I’d chuck the teeth, can they go in the compost bin? (serious qn! you can put hair clippings etc…)
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Our Mum put ours in the garden. My husband has kept our son’s first tooth but I think I will put the rest in the garden as well.
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I asked a bunch of friends that the other day when my DD’s first tooth fell out. That was Saturday, she lost her second on Tuesday. Everyone I’ve spoken to so far has kept them because we’re just not sure what else to do. After all, we waited for those teeth to arrive (and some of those teeth were responsible for sleepless nights!) and then we brushed and took care of them and now they’re gone. Until I figure out what to do with them (make a necklace that would probably mark me down in history as a serial killer or something?) they’re stickytaped to the inside of my top bedside drawer.
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I had this convo with friends over coffee a couple weeks ago – only one admitted to keeping all her stepdaughter’s teeth, and we paid her out so badly she probably went home and threw them out!
It came about after one of the ladies (who owns a shop) asked us about stocking these: http://www.babytoothland.com.au/baby-tooth-organizer/
Ewwwww!!!
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Definitely chuck them. My husband found all his in a box after his mother passed away. It was beyond gross, definitely no loving glances to be had.
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I keep them.
I have each tooth in an individual snap lock bag, and notes about the date, how it was lost, and which position it sat in.
My husband thinks I’m a nutter. He’s probably right. But I cannot bear the thought of throwing them out!!!!
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