Tooth Fairy, Childhood, Children

Imagine this: a child has lost a tooth and begins to cry. The pain is uncomfortable and the strange feeling of soft, new gum is constantly covered by the tongue that wants to feel that special gooey feeling. The child will not eat. “It hurts” they say. The child will not smile. “It looks wierd” they say. Imagine a world where there was no tooth fairy, a world of sad children with gapped smiles. The tooth fairy takes every child’s childhood and makes it exciting and fascinating. Every country has their tradition, every family has their unique ways. The most popular tradition is  the American tradition: the child puts their tooth under the pillow and wakes to a generous few coins. In other countries other families do different things such as Spain: they don’t have a fairy, they have ‘Perez the mouse’ who collects teeth and replaces them with a gift, not always money. In Mongolia, children don’t have the tooth fairy or ‘Perez the mouse’. They put their tooth in some fat, and feed it to the dog! This is so the new teeth will grow to be strong like the dog’s teeth. All over the world, we have transformed the loss of teeth to a huge part of childhood, celebrating a part of growing up and changing. Pre modern children knew of the tooth fairy and other traditions through story-telling and books. The 21st century has created a whole new level for the tooth fairy. With the media, movies have been created about the tooth fairy, computer games and applications as well, that add to the celebration; children of the modern/ post modern era have ways to expand their period of youth, and enjoy every minute of it!