Can't afford the Tooth Fairy

[OfAllTheDaysToday]

I am not looking for handouts, just want someone to tell me what a w*nk parent I am. I get paid in 12 days' time. Have had an unexpected £400 drop in income this month, and dd (5)'s tooth fell out today. I don't have £2 to put under her pillow. Heck, I don't even have 50p to put under her pillow! She is so excited, and it's her second tooth so she knows the "going rate". I have a £10 Aldi gift card to cover the next 12 days, and have not been able to pay my non-priority bills, so next month will be super expensive trying to play catch up. I'm claiming everything I'm entitled to, but don't receive maintenance for the dc's. I feel like I've royally messed up, and my new higher direct debit for energy starts on payday too. I don't feel like I'll ever catch up again. Just feel utterly rubbish.

I do this not because I’m struggling because I don’t carry cash it’s all contactless. I most definitely recycled the last pound and they never noticed (I will add it all up at some point so it’s correct). I would also drop it down to £1 maybe it’s only £2 for your first tooth?

Will you manage the next 12 days with only £10? Hoping you have plenty of food in already.

You're not a wank parent at all.

Wank parents have their youngest child run into their bedroom first in the morning, thoroughly crestfallen and puzzled, clutching the same tooth they had put under their pillow the night before.

😬

Or a note from the tooth fairy - they’ve run out of money this tooth round and not due in the area until next week (or after payday) and promises to come back then?

Mine have only had £1, even for 1st tooth ...but Ive definetly fprgotten a few times and had to think on spot Am why nothing delivered, until next night with a sorry note too I have recycled from Money box before.

I normally have some change by the washing machine from emptying pockets and in the car for trolley, maybe worth a look

Leave a note from the toothfairy saying it's been an unexpectedly busy month so far with a lot of children losing their teeth and they don't have enough coins at the moment so she has been booked in for the first slot on the 1st October. Leave the 10p and say she is to look after it and pop it back under her pillow on the 31st September and it will be traded for a bigger coin!

My kids would totally fall for this and they would love the fact the fairy was visiting twice!

If you can take it from her moneybox then go with that option, we've also had to do that before (more than once) when we had no cash in late in the evening of a tooth falling out. The worst for me was the night I completely forgot 🙈 had to make up a story about the fairy maybe having a full bag of teeth already so no room to take one from our house..left a note with a coin the following night explaining what happened!

I feel like you can see me 👀

£1 is more than enough. 50p will get you some sweets so that’s plenty!
Definitely ok to borrow form the money though! Just make sure your put it back ASAP!

I never have cash on me so always use the kids piggy bank money when the tooth fairy calls.
Been doing it for years 🤣

At 5 my kids didn't know the difference between 2p and a £1

Nah we've all done this! Totally fine

Op use the £2 for now. We decided to tell our dc that the tooth fairy leaves chocolate coins and so had a stash hidden in the fridge. We also ordered wee cheap tooth fairy cards from Amazon which look the part (for next time maybe).

Just recycle the money! DC won't know any different!

I hate tooth fairy. Bloody MIL have DS1 a fiver for his first tooth so now there is am expectation that tooth fairy will price match it!

I once returned from a weekend away to find my 6 year old's tooth had fallen out on the Friday. She told her Dad who promptly forgot.
When I got home on the Sunday I found a sad little hand drawn picture story on her desk. It showed her excitement at putting her tooth under her pillow, her bewilderment the next morning when the tooth was still there and no money, and how she hopefully laid it out again the following night. The final picture was of a crying DD with her tooth and a speech bubble saying "still nothing...I am sad"

The picture story was entitled "Is the Tooth Fairy Dead?"

DH still looks guilty when I remind him of this and DD is now a teenager!

During lockdown my son lost a few teeth. I didn't have any cash in the house at all and was shielding. With the agreement of a friend I changed her name in my phone to The Tooth Fairy. She wrote a text saying she couldn't come because she was locked down too but to hang onto the teeth and she'd come when she could. He was very happy about this and excited Mum had a hotline to the fairy!

Try something like that? Maybe say something like super busy at the moment so running behind with collecting teeth, please be patient and I'll be there as soon as I can? Worth a shot!

Tell her that the tooth fairy isn’t currently working out of respect for the Queen. It certainly won’t be the weirdest public service to have been halted.

Don’t feel like a wank parent. You’re most definitely not!! Times are so unbelievably shit at the minute and you’re doing amazing.

fwiw, the tooth fairy that came to me when I was little was always on “annual leave” too!

Awful parent here, not only have I (frequently) recycled money from money boxes - and not always remembered to pay it back. But also threw away (by mistake) my daughter's second tooth! 10p would be fine, kids that age mainly just like shiny coins!

Can you make a postcard from the tooth fairy explaining she is on holiday? You could print a seaside picture or draw one and put it in an envelope.

Also me 👀👀

If you polish it up well even a 1 or 2p coin looks exciting.

I'll never cease to be amazed at the nonsense people type here.

OP, you've had great suggestions. I'm sorry things are so hard for you at the moment. I hope you can get some advice to help the wider situation 💐

I am always short of coins so I raid DD’s piggy bank all the time! Of course you can do that. Good thinking pp.

Oh god. That’s brilliant.

im chronically disorganised and don’t do cash, even pre—covid, so pretty much every bloody tooth put me into some variation of the get out clauses above. With the exception of the loss of a monarch, of course.

we most certainly had a notification deadline, tooth had to have fall. out before 12noon, on a weekday. otherwise had to wait till the next working day.

i recycled the same quid several times, (debt repaid in full at a later date of course)

lots of IOU notes, or ‘I visited but you were still awake’ notes and the occasional ‘sorry your tooth isn’t clean enough, please can you scrub it, clean ALL your teeth and try again‘. That got us out of a teeth cleaning refusal stage.

i was so relieved when she finally twigged, and I could just credit her bloody GoHenry account.