How to Tell Your Child There is No Toothfairy

Whether your children woke up as you were sneaking in or they have become old and smart enough to know better, there comes a time to tell your children that there really is no tooth fairy, and you’ve been shoving the dollar bills under their pillow for the past couple of years.

Instructions

1. Prevent this discussion in the first place by not implementing the tooth fairy myth at all. This way, your child will not have their hopes up and be let down or confused when the truth comes out. You can explain a reward chart for every tooth that comes out--the more they lose, the higher the amount.

2. Keep the ruse going. Instead of just being upfront about the tooth fairy, you can continue to keep the spirit alive by telling your child that the tooth fairy has retired or hired you to distribute the money and collect the teeth.

3. Tell it straight out. Some kids may take it hard, but you can just tell them the bare truth. Try not to be too blunt, but say something along the lines of it is a fun tradition, but the tooth fairy does exist; she's just a good way of going through the times as you lose your teeth.

4. Have them discover you. The next time they lose a tooth, be loud about putting the money under their pillow, to a point where they actually wake up. Then pretend like you were caught in the act and 'fess up that there really is no tooth fairy, and you were playing a fun trick.

5. Phase it out. After the first couple of teeth, you can slowly phase it out until they begin to question it and can accept that it is not real. Just beware that they begin questioning other traditions like the Easter bunny and Santa Claus.

6. Dress up. If you have the supplies, you can actually dress up as the tooth fairy yourself and pretend that you were the tooth fairy all along. This way, the child will not have to take the news as hard, and you can make fun out of the whole thing.