The Toenail Fairy

Sometimes the best parenting advice can come from the strangest places. Take this idea, which came from a friend of mine, whose life was at the opposite side of the spectrum from Dad. He was more fervently in search of Miss Flavor of The Week zone of the spectrum. (Sorry Tom, if you read this. I calls 'em as I sees 'em). When Weston was about three-years-old, his big toe got shut in the car door in a very unfortunate accident. Within a week or so, it became clear from the blackened appearance of the nail, that it was going to fall off. The nail took its own sweet time singing its swan song, but there came the fateful day when, hanging by a minuscule thread of skin, that puppy was about to go. Weston was very alarmed by this, particularly since it appeared that a little surgical intervention (via some nail scissors) was going to be required to dispense with the dangling, blackened mess. As luck would have it, we were armed with my bachelor friend's suggestion: the Toenail Fairy. Weston was too young to care about money, so instead of bringing money, we promised him that the Toenail Fairy brought LEGOs. Goodbye anxiety, hello anticipation!

Some years later we trotted out the Fingernail Fairy when Garrett's finger got shut in a door and he subsequently developed an infection (yes, let's all just dwell on that for a moment) under his nail bed. By some miracle, he managed to keep the fingernail despite the large amount of La Jolla Shores Beach sand that became lodged underneath during our vacation in San Diego. He was so sad about not getting LEGOs from the Fingernail Fairy, that we took pity on him and allowed him to put a trimming from the injured nail under his pillow once it became clear that the nail was staying put. There should be a designated fairy for every body part one might lose!