How my son ruined the tooth fairy for my daughter and taught her a valuable financial lesson

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It was meant to happen eventually.

Key points

• Younger siblings tend to learn a lot from the older one, for better or worse.
• While my daughter no longer believes in the tooth fairy thanks to my son, she also has a strong understanding of personal finance.

When you have a child who is several years older than his siblings, your younger children are likely to realize certain truths before you are ready for it. For example, my neighbor recently spent hours trying to convince her 9-year-old son that Santa is, in fact, real after her 12-year-old decided to bust that myth and ruin Christmas for everyone (or so she says). ).

Meanwhile, in my home, there have been many instances where my eldest son’s teachings, so to speak, were less than welcome. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say that my 7-year-old daughters are more familiar with some inappropriate language than they should be at their age. And that is only an example.

Another example happened last month. My daughter lost two of her teeth in a short time, and that warranted two separate visits from the tooth fairy.

Now, in our house, the tooth fairy is pretty cheap when it comes to giving real money because she knows her daughters are likely to lose physical bills. So instead of putting a $10 bill under my daughter’s pillow, what I usually do is give her a $1 bill and a coupon for a local treat in town, whether it’s ice cream, cupcakes, or cookies.

When my daughter received her latest gift from the tooth fairy, she was absolutely thrilled with it and proceeded to show her money and coupon to her older brother. And at that moment, she decided to bombard her with the truth by explaining that the tooth fairy is none other than her mother. She even pointed out that the handwriting on the coupon could easily match mine, which sealed the deal for my daughter.

Now I could have gotten really mad at my son for spoiling the tooth fairy for a 7 year old. But the way he explained it was enough to make me grateful that he took it upon himself to bust that myth.

An important lesson learned

My son didn’t screw up the tooth fairy to make my daughter a jerk. Rather, she’s the kind of kid who has never bought that kind of thing, and she likes to let others know about it.

But also, the way he explained things to my daughter made me appreciate his little truth bomb. That’s because he said something like, “First of all, how could a magical fairy appear here at night without anyone hearing someone enter the house? That would make the dog bark like a storm. And also, did he ever Have you noticed that all the gifts from the tooth fairy require mom spend money? So wouldn’t it make sense for Mom to be the tooth fairy, because she’s the one on the hook for claiming those coupons?”

Hearing this, my daughter didn’t actually get upset, but instead said something to the effect of, “You’re right. Everything we get comes from Mom and Dad, so it makes sense that they give us everything we need.” the tooth fairy is supposed to do it.”

It’s all about appreciation

No parent wants to raise spoiled children. Now that my daughter knows I’m the tooth fairy, she’ll probably appreciate the fact that I’m the one who takes the time to write her coupons, and that I’m the one who gives her the finger. credit card to pay for your ice cream/cupcakes/cookies when you go to redeem them.

Now, just to be clear, there are still a few things I wish my son would keep to himself and not share with his younger sisters. But I’m actually glad he destroyed the concept of the tooth fairy and taught my daughter to appreciate the fact that she’s all she’s got. comes from their parents.