national tooth fairy day

Today is National Tooth Fairy Day in America. Okay, there is really no such thing as National Tooth Fairy Day. But somebody somewhere decided to call February 28th National Tooth Fairy Day, so we will go with it. (Full disclosure - Somebody somewhere else is calling August 22nd National Tooth Fairy Day. Until Congress makes it official, this special day is just a myth and a debate seems a silly waste of time!!!)

Americans are always standing ready to cash in on any idea that might make them millionaires, so there is every Tooth Fairy product on the Internet that you can possibly imagine. Well, if you are a normal American, you can probably come up with fifty more money-making ideas revolving around the Tooth Fairy. The pillow (shown above) can be personalized and purchased at http://www.freetoothfairyletter.com/products/princess.htm. You can also purchase a personalized letter for your child at that website. There are endless websites that offer Tooth Fairy pillows and personalized letters!!!

There is even a Tooth Fairy Barbie. (See right.) I think she is very pretty. But then I have become a Barbie fan ever since a friend of mine revealed that she secretly collects Barbies. I was astounded because this friend is very intellectual and feminist in appearance, complete with unfettered clothing choices and a short, let-the-gray-show haircut. She is almost a curmudgeon, but not quite. So the thought of a Barbie collection is just bizarre, which is probably why she doesn't mention it to just anyone. (I consider myself blessed to be trusted with the secret and will certainly not reveal her name here. But I can't wait to tell her about the Tooth Fairy Barbie. I know she doesn't have one!)

When I was growing up, my Mother was working on her doctoral dissertation, which compared the development of religious beliefs with the more widely accepted child development stages of Piaget, Erikson and Freud. Mother believed that teaching children about invisible, magical people (Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, Santa), then revealing that they were fabrications, could possibly contribute to the questioning of the existence of God. So we were never taught to believe in the Tooth Fairy, but we were told that if we lost a tooth and placed it under our pillow, that we would find a quarter there in the morning!!! When my son was growing up, I did the same thing. But he insisted on believing in the Tooth Fairy anyway. So I played along.

The Tooth Fairy does seem to be an American invention. Other countries have different traditions for what to do when a child loses a tooth. In Japan, for instance, the custom is for children to throw upper teeth straight up in the air. The hope is that the new teeth will grow in straight as a result. In other Asian countries, upper teeth are thrown up on the roof of the house while the child shouts a wish for the tooth to be replaced with the tooth of a mouse. (Mice teeth continue to grow throughout the life of the mouse.)

There is a movie in production right now titled "Tooth Fairy" which will feature Dwayne Johnson as a professional hockey player who is sentenced (not sure by whom) to serve as a Tooth Fairy for a week. I predict that it will not do that well at the box offixe, but there is no accounting for the taste of the American movie-going public. But I bet it will be funny. Other folks slated to star in this movie include Julie Andrews, Billy Crystal and Ashley Judd.

Well, I hope you still have all of your own teeth. I have only lost one to date (not including my wisdom teeth and one that was pulled to make way for the braces to do their work in straightening out a heck of an overbite!)