That went better then I hoped for...

I went to the store with my eleven year old daughter today and she was telling me about the two dollars she had gotten from the tooth fairy.

Now I must say that my wife and I have been contemplating about how to tell our little girl that there is no such thing as the tooth fairy. She will be going into the middle school this coming up year and we don’t want her to be the only one to not know the truth.

We also understood that telling her this would probably lead us to the question of Santa Claus.
This is why when she brought up the subject I had to take the opportunity of it being only the two of us to tell her.

“Sweetie,” I said, “I have something to tell you about the tooth fairy.” Without missing a beat she says to me “She isn’t real is she?”

Well that caught me off guard. So I told her “how long have you known?”

“For a while.” She said

“How did you guess?” I asked

“I could never understand how a little fairy could get the money into the film container”

(we have always used a film canister for the kids teeth because it was easier to switch the

containers)

“Besides I don’t know where the tooth fairy would get money for teeth anyway.”

To me these were both very logical questions. Not to mention that it was making it much easier for me to break the news to her.

“Are you sad?” I asked her.

“Not really,” she said, “does this mean that Santa Claus is not real too?”

I really wasn’t ready for that question

“Will you cry if I said he‘s made up?” I asked her.

“No.” she said, “I was wondering how he made the game boys.”

“Well that’s a good question.” I said

“And the Easter Bunny,” she said,

“Yeah him too.” I said.

“I guess I don’t have to worry about a large bunny whose feet were hurting from jumping around and hiding eggs.”

I have to admit that this was going much better than I thought it would. She had already had her doubts, and she wasn’t upset about any of it.

“I just have to ask one thing though.” I told her

“What?” she asked

“That you don’t tell your brother,” I said, “I think he is old enough to know but..”

“He’ll blab it to everyone right?” she finished my thought.

I have always thought my little girl to be a genius, but this little moment confirmed it for me.

I have often wondered just how she would react. I had the feeling she would be alright with it, but never did it occur to me how well she would take it.

Now the only thing I have to wait for is the time to come when I have to explain it to my son.