Gosh, there are so many awful parenting moments to choose from but this one goes down in history as an all time low. My oldest son was in Kindergarten and lost a tooth. How exciting! Right? Yes, it was BUT the tooth fairy forgot to come. Well, many parents will tell you that's not unusual. But what happened next snowballed into an uncontrollable nightmare.
My son came to me so disappointed that the tooth fairy didn't come. I've never been quick on my toes and didn't think to say the obvious "Oh that happens all the time, he/she must have been very busy and will surely come tonight." Rather, I panicked for an immediate solution. I grabbed a dollar bill and when my son went into the hallway bathroom to brush his teeth, I quickly went to his bed and stuck it under his pillow. I was going to tell him how he just missed it and it was there all along. BUT, he caught me putting the dollar under the pillow. Oh no! Again, not being quick on my toes, what came out of my mouth next may have been the worse possible thing one could ever tell a five year old. I forgot for a moment that he was five and thought he could handle the truth. "I'm sorry sweetie, the truth is, there isn't really a tooth fairy. I'm the tooth fairy." WHAT WAS I THINKING?
The dam opened and the tears and cries of woe were heart wrenching. What did I just do? Can this be repaired? After what seemed like an eternity of heartbreak (it was probably two minutes) I panicked again and recanted my story. "I'm SO sorry sweetie. I don't know what I was thinking. I couldn't think of why the tooth fairy forgot to come and so I made that up. It's not true. It's not true at all! There really is a tooth fairy. He / she must have forgotten and I panicked. I was only playing tooth fairy this one time. I'm sure it will never happen again." The tears began to dry up and with some hesitation, he believed me. Maybe he was relieved or maybe I just interpreted it that way.
We walked to school and I pulled over his Kindergarten teacher, Miss McCallie. She was the most precious teacher in the whole world and sadly we later lost her to breast cancer. But Miss McCallie could fix anything! I told her of my parenting blunder, she agreed it was a whopper and told me she would make the day extra special for him. And of course, she did.
I then went home to call my son's godmother Althea. I could always count on her for sympathy for my parental blunders and mishaps. But this time, I didn't get any sympathy! I messed up for sure! Then I called my Dad who has also been a great support when I screwed up in the parenting department and even he responded with an "Oh no!" and went on to explain how important childhood fantasies are (he's a psycho-analyst). Well, sometimes there's no getting around it. We screw up and it is what it is!
Thankfully the tooth fairy remembered to come that night and things seemed to be okay the next day. Now that my kids are older, we laugh about it. I only hope I didn't cause any permanent psychological damage! Oh my!
I'll save the disastrous story of when he was eight and I was in a huge rush and had him pump the gas for me later. FYI - there's a reason there are signs that say you must be 16 to pump gas!
Ahhh. . . parenting. . . not for the faint at heart.
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