h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Faith has a loose tooth. It feels like it has less than a week to stay in (much less if she concentrates in wiggling it!). I thought Tom and I would have at least a little bit longer before having to decide the Tooth question!

I suppose this could come under the heading of growing up, though it was nearly little kid torture!

We were outside, getting ready to head home, when the ice cream truck started driving up. We got home quickly, poured money out of the piggy bank, and I picked out $1 in change for Faith. She headed out, and I started putting the money away. I decided to help her decide what to get, and finish putting the change away when we got back. When I did, Faith was standing at the boundary of the parking lot, looking across it and the sidewalk at the ice cream truck, with money in her hand, crying for me (or Tom) to come so that she could cross the parking lot. So now we definitely know she accepts that particular rule--even though she had a friend making his purchase by himself right then!

Ice cream trucks are .

Dear Amy and Tom,


Goodness she is growing up fast. I always used the toothe fairy. Camnot imagine wh!, but the chiodlren alwayws 4njoyed recieving a small sum in their slipper - where they placed the tooth wrappeed up in paper, and which I carefully removed and cherished long afterwards.

Forgive my dilatory manner in not phoning you. I have really not been feeling very well, and am finding it increasingly difficult to actually implement what I would like to do.

with much affection to you all

Christiane. !!
Also Ran80

You must both be very proud of her my darlings.

Well done.

CME AR80

I'm proud of you, as well, AR80.

How kind of you - I really needed that = for a host of reasons. anyway, I hope we do not lose touch . we have been friendsfor such a long time.

I've seen it happen too often: just as a person grows more and more in need of contact with friends and family, it becomes harder to get around. I remember a lovely lady whom I corresponded with for years after she moved away, but I gradually lost touch with her. By the time she was in her eighties, her sister had moved from a nearby elderly housing complex to another state (to be near the sister's children), and it would have gotten harder to get to church.

Merci - gratia,

Do keep in touch. It means a lot.

The Tooth question?

What's the Tooth question?

Is it anything like the Verruca Gnome Conundrum?


HN

Part of the question is one I posed to another of the aids today during my break--"What's the going rate for the Tooth now-a-days?" Let's just say that figures she's heard on the playground reflect the fact that the school I work at has students from the more affluent families in the county ($40 for one tooth?!?) The other part of the question reflects the fact that Tom *wasn't* raised with most of the common childhood myths, nor was he around many peers when he was the believing-in age, so he's against introducing things that he feels are lies--sort of like he doesn't understand why I feel grandparents are so important (since Faith's only set, I'd be perfectly happy to see maybe twice a year or less--yes, they live across the street--if they weren't Faith's only grandparents)--both of his sets of grandparents had passed away by the time his parents met each other.

OK, I have no idea where I was going with that, because I just got off the phone

Hey Myopia! Faith does grow up fast doesn't she! Over here, we don't have a tooth fairy, we have a tooth mouse. When small I was pretty sure fairies did not exist but quite sure mice *do* exist. The story my parents told me was that this little mouse uses teeth as bricks to build a little house with. I only got a small coin for each tooth but that hardly mattered to me, I was much more excited by the idea of the little mouse coming and taking it and making good use of it! I even wrote letters to the tooth mouse. Well I wrote one small letter, and dictated others to my dad. I left the letters with the tooth and a piece of cheese ... or when there wasn't cheese in the house, a small apology for not leaving cheese. Then with my coin the 'mouse' left an answering letter! We still have some of those letters (and teeth, and coins).

I don't see all that as 'lies', it's make-believe though but when I was a kid I indulged in a great amount of make-believe, I've always had a powerful imagination ... and I think imagination is a good thing, even in an adult. A kid should learn to tell apart reality from imagination by the pre-teen years ... many people never learn that particular trick though!

well done Willem!!

My parents being French did not have any of these idiosyncranies of the Brits, and so I never got anything from the tooth fairy!! Iwonder if there are fairies in France?

Keep we;;. It ios beginning to get cold here, but I am as warm as toastin my lovely flat.

I have two lovely friends coming from Zimbabwe to spend the night tonight. I am looking forward to it.

with affection

Christiane.

The French language has a word for fairy (le fee), and a famous one at that (King Arthur's Morgan La Fee), so I'd say French fairies are fairly important.

Oh, THAT Tooth question. Sort of a two-part question. Should a child be given a reward for losing a tooth? And should parents tell the child that the reward came from the tooth fairy?

My mom always said, "There is no Tooth Fairy. I'm the Tooth Fairy." I grew up in a Santa Claus-Free, Tooth Fairy-Free environment. But I still turned in my tooth and got some small change, I think it was a dime for an incisor and a quarter for a molar. I know it doesn't sound like much, but even a lowly dime bought a piece of caramel, or a couple of peppermint sticks, or some other inexpensive candy back then, and that was a nice little reward for being a good girl and putting up with soft, sore spots in my mouth where teeth should have been.

At some point in my childhood, my mother was visited by the Promotion Gnome and the Pay Raise Fairy, and I got about twice as much change for each lost tooth.

Skipping neatly over the whole fictional benefactor issue, I'll take up the "inflation corrected bribe for being a good girl" issue instead. Consumer goods cost at least 6-to-7 times what they did when I was Faith's age, but the extreme low end has completely disappeared because no one sells candy by the piece like that anymore. Probably the monetary equivalent of an ice cream or a candy, something Faith would enjoy selecting, purchasing, and devouring.



HN

Considering that there's a Dollar Tree within long-walking (for 5-year-old legs) distance (assuming the weather's no worse than when you and Mr. Nerd were here) we'll probably do $1 (haven't gotten around to talking to Tom about this yet...) I used to get $0.25 a tooth, regardless of the tooth, but I don't remember what I bought, if anything

How about a "Tooth Fairy coupon" instead? Redeemable for her ice cream or candy of choice? That way, she gets to have her ice-cream and keep it too!

*rubs eyes*

*blinks*

Could it be...?

Shrillian! Where ya been?!?

Yes!!! It's really me! Life has just been so hectic in the last two years! I haven't been able to keep up with a lot of my interneting as a result and H2G2 was one of the ones that unfortunately fell to the wayside - probably becasue of its addictiveness!!! I did for a little while, trying to keep up with everything (argh! The backlog!!!).

I've been reading up on things from your postings and hope all is going well with the new place and the new expectancy! Many ccongratulations to you and Tom!!!

I never ever believed in Santa Claus, and I was suspicious that the Toothy Fairy was my mother, but I was never one to turn down money and gifts.