Is this dad's Tooth Fairy warning letter a bit too much?
Henry Warren's parenting technique has been widely praised on Twitter....
Dad-of-3 Henry Warren has taken to Twitter to reveal how the Tooth Fairy gave his young son a telling off.
Henry confessed that his son was not so good at brushing his teeth, and when his tooth fell out, you could really tell, and Dad was none-too-impressed with the condition it was left in.
“Our son is dreadful at brushing his teeth,” he wrote. “Turns out the Tooth Fairy has had enough.”
So, in a letter from the desk of ‘Barry T Tooth Fairy’, the ‘Tooth Fairy’ told the little boy, named Sam, why it was unacceptable for his tooth to be decayed.
It said:
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“Dear Mr Warren, This letter is to inform you that I have now taken receipt of your tooth and it is being duly processed in our system. You will have noticed there has been a delay in your payment for the tooth.
"Mr Warren, I have to inform you that this is due to the condition in which we found said tooth. We expect a certain amount of wear and tear on the teeth we appraise.
"However in this case your tooth had to be referred up to the committee for further analysis.
"We believe this is due to the lack of care and attention by yourself. We have detected more than trace amounts of Fanta, and residual amounts of both cereal and chocolate which have not been removed by appropriate brushing technique.”
The formal warning did include a £1 coin, too, and the ‘Tooth Fairy’ that if anymore teeth were found in the same state, there’d be no more money to pop under his pillow.
“Mr Warren,” the letter concluded. “We will accept the tooth on this occasion but we need your assurances that the condition of your next tooth will be significantly better or we will withhold payment.
“Sincerely yours, Barry T Tooth Fairy.”
We’ve gotta say, everyone on Twitter seems to love the letter, and have said that Henry’s parenting technique is level ‘expert’.
And here at MFM HQ we are curious to hear how little Sam responded to the letter and if Henry’s noticed an improvement in tooth-brushing since sending it.
That said, the team here were a little divided on how we felt about a letter like this.
A few of us weren’t so into the idea of letting a (spoiler alert) fictional character tell off your kids. In this case, because, though often challenging (to say the least) it is our jobs to make sure they’re brushing their teeth properly.
On the other hand, some of us loved this letter, thinking it was fair, and that giving him the £1 and a second chance made it all the more genius.
Each to their own, right?
Honestly, this reminds us of a story we wrote recently about a mum who used a 'no show' note from the Easter Bunny as a way to follow through on a punishment for her misbehaving children.
It was, to be fair, a tad more harsh... but we felt pretty mixed about that one, too.
Have your say
How do you feel about fictional character like the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Santa ‘telling off’ your little ones?
Perhaps you think this is a great way to get across that, to get a treat like some cash or an Easter Egg, you have to do what you’re told and behave?
The jury’s out – so let us know how you feel about it on Facebook and Twitter!
Images: Twitter/Henry Warren
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