So, what do you do when the Tooth Fairy forgets to visit? This happened recently to Eli, and I had to explain that it was because he forgot to leave the tooth on his bedside table, opting to tie the little Tooth Fairy’s special tooth container to his bedpost instead. Now he has the impression that the Tooth Fairy is a fussy bureaucrat. I suppose I could have leveled with him and saved myself a few bucks over the coming years.
I suspect, however, that children resent parents who are painfully honest at the outset about the Tooth Fairy and Santa, who teach their young ones the clinical names for their sex organs, who assert theological opinions about the doubtfulness of a favorite pet making it to Heaven. These things suggest to me not so much a commitment to honesty as a failure of compassion and imagination.
Then again, I like to write completely made-up stories for the sheer fun of it. So perhaps I’m not the best judge in this area.
