The Tooth Fairy vs El Ratoncito Perez: My Bicultural Family Life

Hello Meltingpot Readers,

Yesterday at school, babygirl’s first tooth fell out. Yes, she’s almost seven-and-a-half. Yes, that’s rather late for a first tooth. Yes, all of my children are like this. And yes, as a bicultural household, we had the discussion last night as to who would collect the tooth, the Tooth Fairy or el Ratoncito Perez? I wrote about this dilemma six years ago when son #2 lost his tooth. It still makes me laugh. Enjoy!

I have a confession to make. The Tooth Fairy in our Kinky Gazpacho household is a bit absentminded. Sometimes she forgets to come. There have been occasions when it has taken the Tooth Fairy four nights before she showed up to pick up a precious tooth.

Lucky for el esposo and I, our children are extremely forgiving. In fact, they usually resort to the naughty or nice Santa play book and assume the reason the Tooth Fairy has been lax in her duties is because of something they’ve done wrong. I don’t exactly deny their assumptions because it usually gets them to correct any deviant behavior they’ve been displaying without any reminders from me. It’s a win-win situation.

BAD PARENTS

Well, the other day, my seven-year old lost his first top tooth. It had been wobbly and dangling for ages and it finally popped out in the middle of a pillow fight with his brother. Needless to say, the excitement for the Tooth Fairy to come was high, as evidenced by his delicate placing of the tooth under his pillow and placing himself flush against the wall as far away from said tooth as possible. “So the Tooth Fairy doesn’t have to move my heavy head when she comes,” my son explained in all seriousness. (Please note: my kids are ‘dentally immature’ and at seven and a half, this is only his second lost tooth.)

So, el esposo and I both smiled at this cute child and promised ourselves with a shared look over his head that the Tooth Fairy would absolutely come that night.

But we forgot! I’d like to say it was because something came up, but really, we’re just bad.

So the next night, el esposo and I knew we couldn’t mess up again. We couldn’t disappoint this hopeful child of ours. Once all of the children were fast asleep, I turned toel esposo and implored him not to forget to place the dollar under the child’s pillow.
“I don’t have a dollar,” el esposo said.
“I don’t either,” I said, panicking. I checked my phone for the time. It was after 10pm. It was freezing outside. And I already had my jammies on. I searched through all of my pockets, the bottom of my purse, but all I came up with was lint and an old piece of gum.
“Can we give him a dollar in pennies?” I asked, eyeing our jar of coins we’d been saving for over a year.
El esposo nixed that idea.
I opened my music box where I sometimes hide money for emergencies. It was filled with money. But it was all foreign bills and coins from my travels over the year.
“Can we give him a Euro?” I asked, half joking.
El esposo grabbed a coin from my stash. “He’s getting a Euro and we’ll tell him el Ratoncito Perez brought it from Spain.”
(Yes, in Spain the Tooth Fairy is a mouse who leaves gifts or money for children in exchange for their teeth .)
I didn’t know if my son would buy this, but I didn’t have any other options.

THE TOOTH FAIRY LEFT ME A EURO!
The next morning, this is what I heard: “The Tooth Fairy left me a Euro!”
He didn’t care that the money was from another country or that it might have been a Spanish mouse who left it. In fact, when he found out the Euro is worth more than a dollar, he was even more excited. He thought he was super lucky that this mouse came all the way from Spain to give him a Euro which was worth more than American dollar at the time. He promptly added the coin to his piggy bank and announced. “Now, I have money for when we go to Spain.” And then he started wiggling his other front tooth.

Ahh, the benefits of living in a bicultural household. If the Tooth Fairy can’t make it, call the Spanish mouse. I read this great article in the New York Times about alternative Tooth Fairy ideas that are oh, so meltingpot. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

What does the tooth fairy leave at your house? Or does a fancy little mouth take your children’s teeth? Please share in the comments.

Peace!