How we killed the tooth fairy

I believed in the tooth fairy as a kid.  Briefly.  Because my parents were Korean immigrants, my beliefs in the tooth fairy, Santa, and the Easter Bunny required incredible faith and willingness to suspend ALL belief - and they required some work.

The work came in educating my parents about these myths.  Did I suspect that they had to participate in some measure in supporting the myth?  I remember telling my parents about the tooth fairy, how she came at night to retrieve little kids' baby teeth and left behind money in exchange.  I remember believing the myth as I explained it to them, probably shortly after losing my first tooth.  I remember carefully placing the tooth under my pillow and feeling excited when I went to bed, wondering how much money I might get from this first tooth.  And I remember being distraught when I awoke and searched under my pillow for the payoff - and found nothing.

"Mommy!" I cried, running down the stairs, "Mommy, the tooth fairy took my tooth, but she didn't leave me any money!"  

"Daddy," my mother said meaningfully, "Ami didn't find any money from the tooth fairy.  What do YOU think happened?"

My dad looked embarrassed and laughed a little.  "Ami," he said, "I thought you were smarter than that.  I put the money under your mattress!"

And with one blow, the myth of the tooth fairy had been destroyed.  Sadly for my little brother, my parents thought it was enough of a fool's errand that the tooth fairy never visited him after this event, either.

Fast forward to present day.  My daughter has lost her second front tooth.  The tooth fairy has been good to this child, and she is looking forward to getting more loot.  She left her tooth under her pillow 2 nights ago.  Well, two nights ago, the tooth fairy and her husband were planning and prepping for Thanksgiving, and, well, you know.  Things kind of slipped her mind.  We reassured Daughter, pointing out that, as she had the tooth all wrapped up in TP, maybe the tooth fairy thought it was just trash, and, if she put the tooth in something more obvious, the tooth fairy would surely stop by.

So, night 2, which, remember, is Thanksgiving night.  Daughter finds a pretty box in which she had gotten some jewelry from a relative, and carefully places the tooth inside and puts the box under the pillow.  Clever thing, surely the tooth fairy will see the tooth now.  But, sadly, the tooth fairy had too much turkey, and you know, the tryptophan makes people and tooth fairies sleepy, and . . . (sigh).  More of the same explanation.   I offer some pretty ribbon to wrap the box and suggest she leave the end of the ribbon sticking out from under the pillow, to be SURE the tooth fairy sees it this time.  Daughter is starting to look skeptical.

Maybe it's genetic.  Maybe my people are just tooth fairy slayers.  I don't know.  I just hope I  I mean, the tooth fairy remembers tonight.