Frightening Friday-The Nose Fairy

Photo courtesy of Krista76 via flickr

Remember that game you played with your kiddos when they were young? You grabbed their nose and held your thumb in such a way where it "looked" like you actually stole the poor child's nose. "Got your nose!" you would exclaim--to which they either laughed...or freaked the hell out.

Little did you know at the time--the Nose Fairy is real. He's the dark horse of the family and the Tooth Fairy's less talked about cousin. The degenerate sneaks into little children's houses at night while they're sleeping. Creeping into their room, he climbs up onto the bed, perches on their pillow and just when they begin to wake, he rips their noses off their faces.
"Got your nose!" he shrieks. And then, he goes running off into the night.

Horrifying, isn't it?

The Nose Fairy can't help it. He's a kleptomaniac, of sorts. The affliction runs in the family but the Tooth Fairy has learned to be patient and wait for her prizes.

Yeah, my brain is kind of twisted. It's how it is in there sometimes.

Tangled Tuesday - Dental Floss, Wands, and the Tooth Fairy

Photo courtesy of Enokson via Flickr

I've been lucky to have good teeth. I'll be 51 this July and yet to suffer a cavity. Part of that is due to growing up with a mom who was a dental assistant. Mom was diligent about dental health. She used to tell me the Tooth Fairy only traded coins for baby teeth with no cavities. I was unsure what the Tooth Fairy did with cavity-filled baby teeth. Maybe she smacked the poor child on the head with her wand. Maybe she took a selfie with the poor, dead tooth, and then flew off laughing. Regardless, I lived in mortal fear that the Tooth Fairy would pass me over.

Anyways, back to the present. My dentist loves that I brush after every meal. But I have a confession--I hate dental floss. I don't hate flossing, I floss every day. I hate the way the little plastic floss dispensers are designed.

You know when you're trying to break off a piece by using that stupid little metal cutter? It never breaks off nicely like it's supposed to, it shreds. So, you pull out a little more floss, hoping to get a clean cut. And it shreds again. So you pull out a little more...and a little more. Until you end up with literally yards of the stuff in the sink. Congratulations! You've wasted six whole dollars, and have nothing but an empty plastic container to show for it. Technically, you could set the floss aside, and cut off pieces with a pair of scissors. But that's not the way it's supposed to work. The floss is designed to snap off by using the little metal cutter. Using scissors would be admitting defeat. In a rage, you throw the plastic container (and the spent floss) into the garbage. Forget the floss, who needs it? Dental health is over-rated. The Tooth Fairy already has all your baby teeth, doing god-knows-what with them.

Curse you, floss--and the little plastic dispenser you came in. I should ditch dispenser floss and buy the wands. But I won't. Wands are for Tooth Fairies--and she's the one who got me into trouble in the first place.

#Paranormal Wednesday-The Tooth Fairy

My older daughter's baby teeth

You know the drill, moms and dads (no pun intended). Tooth Fairy Rules state that when a child loses a baby tooth, the child places it under their pillow. The Tooth Fairy will then visit as the child sleeps and replace the lost tooth with a small payment. I kept my kiddo's teeth and glued them in a shadow box. My girls used to think it was cool that the Tooth Fairy allowed mom to keep their teeth (due to a special agreement she had with faeries). Now, they feel mom was a bit macabre. The teeth are smiling, so I really don't see the problem.

During the Middle Ages, there were many superstitions surrounding children's teeth. In England, children were told to burn their baby teeth in order to save them from hardship in the afterlife. Children who chose not to do so, would spend eternity searching for those teeth. In the Norse Viking culture, children's teeth (and anything belonging to children) were said to bring good luck in battle. Warriors hung children's teeth on a string around their necks. In medieval Europe, it was thought that if a witch were to get hold of one of your teeth, it would give them total power over you.

The folklore surrounding an actual tooth "Fairy" didn't emerge until 1927 when, The Tooth Fairy: Three-Act Playlet for Children by Esther Watkins Arnold was published. By 1984, 74 percent of people surveyed believed the Tooth Fairy to be female, 12 percent believed the Tooth Fairy to be neither male nor female, and 8 percent believed the Tooth Fairy could be either male or female. In addition to a small payment in relation to the tooth loss ($3.70 per tooth on average) some families leave a note with the payment, praising the child for good dental habits. More children report a positive reaction to the myth even after they discover that the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist.

While we're talking Tooth Fairies....I highly recommend The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce. Not for children, this is a Jungian, darker take on the myth and not for the faint-at-heart. Happy reading!