Friday, May 15, 2009

Scamming the Tooth Fairy...

Yes, we are heathens and our kids believe in the Tooth Fairy. Or the Tooth "Person" as I like to call him/her.

Here's the background for this story.

Aidan lost a tooth a while ago, but he accidentally swallowed it. He didn't place it under his pillow for obvious reasons and he missed out on the $1 reward. We all pretty much forgot about the incident.

Fast forward to last week when Aidan lost another tooth. (And lets give me a shout out for pulling that thing out. It was my first tooth pulling as I'm normally quite adverse to yanking things out of anyone's mouth.)

Aidan gets the idea to place a note under his pillow explaining to the "Tooth Person" that he didn't get his money for the last tooth he swallowed.

You got to give the kid props for trying. So I (uh, I mean the "Tooth Person"), showed a little mercy and gave him a quarter with a note explaining that a full $1 is only given when the tooth is under the pillow, but we could "sneak" him the $0.25.

He was thrilled that he got the quarter.

But then Becca gets an idea to leave a similar note. But she decided to take things to a whole new scamming level. She writes a note to the "Tooth Person" about how she lost 4 teeth and swallowed them.

Yeah...right.

Well, I (I mean the "Tooth Person") started leaving notes with her each night about how her smile does not show any more missing teeth than what she has already been paid for. I also wrote about how lying is not right and it may place future "Tooth Person" visits at risk.

The good news is that she apologized in her return notes. And now she has hung the notes from the "Tooth Person" up in her room as a reminder to tell the truth.

While somewhat humorous, this story is only the tip of a large iceberg. Our little girl has been having major problems with truth telling lately. This has been a tough week on us as we have tried to figure out what to do in order to help her get out of this habit. Let's just say that there have been some significant changes to her little life that we think will help bring about some behavior changes.

So, if you think of it, can you pray for us all?

Sometimes it's tough being a parent.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Indeed parenting can be challenging. Payton is a pretty big kid for his age - about the size of the three year old and twice the size of his 1 yr old peer that we babysit - and recently has started get his giggles from toppling the wobbly one year when he's trying to walk. I know I'm horrible for thinking it's kind of funny too, but we're really trying to figure out how to get him to see that he has to be gentle when he's so much bigger. My prayers are with you.

Anonymous said...

You know we're praying. I admire you guys for all the hard work you're putting in and you WILL reap the rewards. One day you'll look back and laugh.
And always remember that "truth" rhymes with "tooth". (you really should have added that to your story)
All the best...
~cheryl