To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Dad sparks debate after sharing controversial way he gets daughter to tidy her bedroom

Dad sparks debate after sharing controversial way he gets daughter to tidy her bedroom

Genius or manipulative, you decide...

It’s a tale as old at time — getting kids to clean their rooms is a near impossible task.

So it's no wonder parents are getting more imaginative when it coming up with ways to make the chore easier.

You’d assume anything that works would be met with huge praise by the online parenting community - but it seems that isn’t the case today.

Taking to Reddit, one savvy dad shared his method - which was by sending a letter to his ‘messy daughter’ from ‘the tooth fairy’.

Some people thought the letter was genius.
Reddit/@haggardnarwhal

He penned his 11-year-old a letter hailing from ‘The Office of the Tooth Fairy, 100 Castle Lane, Fairyland’.

The letter included: “I apologise for the delay in retrieving your teeth. I must be frank. The state of your room prevented us from performing a midnight retrieval.

“The first retrieval almost ended in tragedy as one of our agents’ shoes got stuck to something icky on the floor.

“Attempt number two went even worse with our agent tripping up on entry and spraining her left dorsal wing. Luckily the large yellow dog was snoring and did not hear the fall.”

The letter continues: “With these events in mind we were forced to perform a very rare daytime retrieval, which as you can see was a success, but not desired.”

The letter goes on to explain that it is in the nature of a tooth fairy to operate at night as they are sustained by moonlight. And whilst durnial (daytime) tooth fairies do exist - they are grumpy.


“Your diurnal tooth fairy was Greta,” the letter explains. “Due to performing a daytime retrieval, opted to pay your fee in change.”

The letter signs off with: “We do hope this exchange can be performed in the usual manner next time you have teeth to get rid of.

“We also know that you have a choice when it comes to tooth disposal, and we appreciate the opportunity to help you meet this need.

“Kind regards, The Tooth Fairy.”

Many commenters rushed to praise the dad for his idea, with one writing: “This is gorgeous. She will remember receiving this letter her entire life.”

The method has left parents divided.
Reddit/@haggardnarwhal

Another chimed in: “This is fantastic!! I have a messy kid who I straight up forgot to get the last tooth from. She had to remind me to remind the tooth fairy…. going to use my own version of this with the next one, thank you for the idea!”

Though while there was praise, others criticised his method.

One person said: “This is over the top and any kid young enough to believe in the tooth fairy still would not understand this sort of humour.”

Another added: “Interesting way to try to manipulate and lie to your children to get them to do what you want.”

A third person chimed: "I'm of the radical opinion that not everything needs to be a transaction or a life lesson. Let your daughter have something special without adding shame and guilt to the mix."

Featured Image Credit: Louis Turner/Getty Images/Reddit

Topics: Parenting, Real Life, Reddit