The Lockdown Diaries

[ursus arctos]

It's a beautiful day here (mid 60s (F) and clear) and the weather seems to have drawn a number of people out on the streets. Taking a short walk on Broadway this afternoon, pedestrian traffic would have been high for a normal weekday afternoon,.with a handful of people still maskless (those being a noticeably wide birth by others).

[jdsx]

Day 40. Tuesday 28th April. 40 days and 40 nights, as long as Jesus supposedly spent in the wilderness, though it must be conceded that he probably didn't have access to Netflix and Ocado.

Have very much enjoyed your posts on here, Balders, particularly this one....

[jdsx]

When I got off the call at about 8:30pm I found that the kids were still awake and my daughter was wildly excited because she'd lost her first top tooth (third tooth overall) and was writing a letter to the tooth fairy. After they went to bed, I printed out a tooth fairy letterhead and wrote a response. Found a little jar to put a pound coin in and filled it with some sparkly stars salvaged from a gift bag from a couple of Christmases ago for good measure. Made the kids two certificates for spotting 100 rainbows each at the same time.

After a couple of nights where the tooth fairy had, inexpicably, failed to turn up as expected, a deal was eventually agreed whereby the tooth fairy was required (not sure how the negotiations went, tbh) to double the initial pound coin 'offer' on each subsequent night. We never got beyond the tooth fairy having to stump up £2.....but it was very close to being £4 on a couple of occasions....

[scratchmonkey]

Just heard back from the hematologist/oncologist, in light of the symptoms that I'm reporting, they're going to get me in for a CT scan.

[elguapo4]

Hope everything goes well for you, Scratchmonkey

[Nocturnal Submission]

Our old neighbour was (well, still is but they moved) a children's dentist, and told us, on my son losing his first tooth as I enquired what the going rate was, that she had parents that would give $20 or even $100 for the first one to which her response was "you do know how many teeth they have, right?"
Mine get a buck. My son has managed to lose three teeth since we've been in lockdown, the tooth fairy has not yet got round to dealing with the last one. I've noticed that the tooth fairy here is quite laid back as to when she deigns to actually show up and take the teeth.

We forgot on one occasion. Serious discussions were had the next day with our daughter about tardy tooth fairies. I think we told her that lots of children must have had a tooth fall out during the previous day and that her tooth fairy would definitely get round to her that night.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Hope everything goes well for you, Scratchmonkey

Seconded.

[Patrick Thistle]

My nephew lost his first tooth. My brother was camping in the garden with him that night. Turns out the tooth fairy brought money but left the tooth. I've advised that under recent legislation the tooth fairy is now compelled to leave the first tooth as a memento. It's a very recent procedural change which is why my neice's tooth gother taken. My brother says he is going to come to me for useful information like this.

He also told me that another child in my nephew's class lost a tooth last week. When he was told about the tooth fairy he had an absolute meltdown that this stranger was going to come within 2 metres of him and could have coronavirus. It took his parents ages to calm him down and he was terrified of going to bed.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Hope everything goes well for you, Scratchmonkey

This.

[DCI Harry Batt]

When he was told about the tooth fairy he had an absolute meltdown that this stranger was going to come within 2 metres of him and could have coronavirus. It took his parents ages to calm him down and he was terrified of going to bed.

I'm saying nothing.

[Balderdasha]

My daughter knows that the tooth fairy is really us (likewise Santa and the Easter bunny), but she enjoys the theatre of it all. I might be less comfortable with the pretence if she actually believed any of it.

[Sporting]

My daughter knows that the tooth fairy is really us (likewise Santa and the Easter bunny), but she enjoys the theatre of it all. I might be less comfortable with the pretence if she actually believed any of it.

Why is that? Surely these white lies are a part of the magic of childhood?

[DCI Harry Batt]

My daughter knows that the tooth fairy is really us (likewise Santa and the Easter bunny), but she enjoys the theatre of it all. I might be less comfortable with the pretence if she actually believed any of it.

Glad to hear it.

[Patrick Thistle]

I did freak out my niblings a couple of years ago when I told them about a little boy who went to sleep with his head under the pillow and the tooth fairies took away ALL his teeth.

I almost had my "talking to the children unsupervised" rights curtailed after that. Tbf they weren't massively scared because they know I say things that probably aren't true. But they were morbidly fascinated by it so asked their Mum if it was true. She was horrified and told Mrs Thistle who told me off.

[Balderdasha]

Why is that? Surely these white lies are a part of the magic of childhood?

It's not like I've told her it's us. We do everything possible to maintain the facade (including fake captured photos of Santa in our lounge) but she has a brain. I worked out that Santa didn't exist when I was 4 because reindeer clearly couldn't fly. She was a similar age.

[HORN]

The hair clippers just arrived. It's fair to say the clippee (me) is less nervous than the clipper who is hiding upstairs.

[via vicaria]

We should encourage the sharing of quarantine haircut results. It'd make nervous clippers feel better about the task being asked of them.

(I've only seen one truly awful one, and the man was out shopping without a care in the world (nor a hat), so good for him)

[pebblethefish]

(including fake captured photos of Santa in our lounge) .

I know you probably didn't mean it like this, but it sounds like you photographed yourselves lying in wait at the bottom of the chimney and mugging Santa with a big net. Which, in fairness, sounds like the sort of plan me and my brother would have come up with when we were kids.

[ursus arctos]

Isn't that what she meant?

I will be disappointed if not.

My brother and I were raised without any belief in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. Minimal lip service was paid to each as a cultural convention, but there was never any attempt to disguise the truth. ursus minor has had even less of an indoctrination in this respect.

[Balderdasha]

Haha. No, my daughter came up with a plan to leave a phone in the lounge with a motion sensor to take a photo of anyone who moved there in the night. So we did two photoshopped photos of Santa leaving presents under our tree (there's a website that will do it for you) and told her that her plan had worked. She loved the photos but still knows it's us.

[San Bernardhinault]

I think the tooth fairy may have visited me twice, with 10p each time. There was never any pretence about it. Santa at least was a regular fixture, but as long as I've been aware, I knew Santa was my mum.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I don't remember a tooth fairy, although I may have had some recompense for teeth, I'm not sure. I could ask my brother. Or my dad I suppose.

We obviously knew there was no grizzly old weirdo invited to sneak into our bedrooms when we were asleep.

[Gangster Octopus]

I must've led a very sheltered life...

[Fussbudget]

We got visited by the little mouse, which I guess is marginally less creepy.

What do you do with the kids' milk teeth when you replace them with coins, just bin them or keep them somewhere? Mine always used to have disappeared by morning but somehow my parents must have kept them, because I've a got a little box in the loft with all of them (I mean, I'm assuming they're mine and not some random teeth of unknown provenance.)

[S. aureus]

I keep them. Except for the one my son lost somewhere in the car and was never found.