How Much Does Your Tooth Fairy Leave? Question #67
ByWe’ve had an extra little boy staying with us off and on all summer. He’s great to have around, he fits right in with our sons, he eats whatever I put in front of him and he says “Yum, Laura – that was good”. Yes, he can stay anytime.
The other night as I was reading to the boys as they were winding down for bed (The Great Turkey Walk…ever read it? EXCELLENT book!!)…anyway…the other night while I was reading to the boys suddenly our young house guest sat straight up in bed and presented us all with his freshly lost tooth! The book was quickly set aside, Kleenexes were fetched, and the gaping hole in the mouth was proudly displayed. There was much tooth loss celebration all around.
Everyone finally settled back down and I picked the book back up again to start reading. Our house guest, however, sort of just sat there holding his tooth in his hand with a puzzled look on his face as if to say, “Um, what am I supposed to do with this now?” I’m sure if he was at his own house, he would have put it right under his pillow and laid down to dream of the soon-t0-be monetary exchange for his hard earned tooth pulling endeavors. But what’s a kid to do at someone else’s house? Would the tooth fairy even know where to find him since he was in a completely different house in a completely different town?
I stopped reading and suggested that he go ahead and put the tooth under his pillow. He shrugged, nodded and stuck it under the pillow, then lay down to listen to the book.
I continued to read, but suddenly in the back of my mind I began to contemplate what should be done. We were happy to be the tooth fairy for him…but um…when the tooth fairy comes to our house, she is incredibly, totally and absolutely stingy. A tight wad. Barely leaves a thing. Guessing that we may be the cheapest tooth fairy on the planet, I began to grow a little concerned that our friend may be less than excited in the morning when he stuck his hand under the pillow and in exchange for his tooth, he found…a quarter?! Is that IT? After he’d gone through so many years of wearing that tooth and brushing it and chewing with it and smiling with it? Seriously, a quarter?
It was too late to call his mom to ask what she would have done. Plus, I didn’t really want our kids to have any idea that the tooth fairy could actually bring more than a quarter for a lost tooth. As far as they know, the tooth fairy only owns quarters.
We have four kids, which is a total of 80 lost teeth. We’re happy to give them more money for things such as mowing a lawn, but just for losing a tooth? We (um, the tooth fairy part of we) plan to be boring and cheap and continue to always and forever leave a quarter. Our kids never complain. Money is money.
I had no need for worry. Our guest happily presented his quarter the next morning (either he was just being polite, or he was truly happy to have it). But it did cause me to wonder:
How much does the tooth fairy leave for lost teeth at your house? Are we the cheapest tooth fairy people on the planet?
Um, my kids may need to avoid talking to your kids about this subject for obvious reasons.
We’ve only had to pay out 3 times so far, but we decided 50 cent pieces. The price isn’t too steep, and the kids find them to be quite a novelty since they don’t see that type of coin very often.
[Reply]
I’m with you at a quarter each. But I like the idea of small trinkets and/or toothbrushes instead.
[Reply]
My step-daughter lost a tooth one summer when she was with us. This was prior to our “all cash” budget so we had NO MONEY in the house and forgot to go out! She got a nickel because that was what we managed to find in the car. LOL She didn’t seem to mind!
[Reply]
Well with twins, I am the cheap wad around here! Luckily the girls are losing them at different rates! One has lost 5, and the other2….couldn’t be more opposite. Although they each lost one on the same night…saved the Tooth Fairy a trip :)
I usually leave a note(printed from the computer), and a dollar. I am not opposed to a quarter! One tooth I left them an assortment of change that equaled $1, and made them count it out, good practice! I haveleft small soaps, etc. Hubby tried to slip a $5 under the las lost tooth! I stopped that in an awful hurry! Since I am the one never with cash, that would have been a bad standard to live up to X2!!!!
They are after all just little bitty, most times yucky teeth! I agree…mowing the lawn and pitching in deserves the $5 spots ;)
[Reply]
We’re only slightly less stingy around here…two quarters.
[Reply]
Go ahead and call me a spoil sport, but our children do not believe in the tooth fairy (or the Easter Bunny for that matter). My husband lovingly keeps all of their baby teeth in tic tac containers in his top drawer. Sometimes they go back through and count them or just take them out and look at how small they were compared to the big teeth they now have. It works for us and they have never felt as if they were missing something.
[Reply]
We have left gold dollars, dragon tears, crystals, will think about a new toothbrush- thanks for the suggestion!
[Reply]
Gold dollar coin here as well. My boys know who the real tooth fairy is and have lost all of their teeth anyway. My daughter has only lost 6 so far and she’s almost 9.
Anyway, I used to get a quarter when I was a kid. I also remember getting dimes too.
[Reply]
Our tooth fairy gets pretty creative sometimes. She has left a singing toothbrush (you know, the kind that they can only hear if it’s in their mouths), a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts (for a tooth lost a midnight, leaving the TF scrambling for whatever goodies she could find at 1 a.m.) and a new hairbrush (to help us through the “my hair doesn’t NEED to be brushed” phase)
[Reply]
I’m almost 30, but when I was a kid the tooth fairly left either a quarter or 50 cents, I can’t remember which. What I DO remember is being with may dad (my folks were divorced) when I lost a tooth once, and he asked me how much I normally got for it. I cheerfully said, “A dollar!” Sure enough, the next day I had a dollar! I was so pleased with my slyness. *shakes head*
[Reply]
I think we have the same Tooth Fairy. She leaves quarters at this house too. =)
[Reply]
My kids don’t believe there is a “real” tooth fairy or easter bunny or santa clause. They know that it is just mom and dad playing the part for fun. We only have 1 child who has lost teeth so far. We don’t give her the same thing every time. She has gotten lip gloss, a new pencil, and a dollar. Her favorite part is to write a note to the tooth fairy and get a note in return. With her first lost tooth she was given notes with clues taking her to different places in the house to find a lip gloss.
[Reply]
At least your tooth fairy leaves SOMETHING. Recently Matthew lost a tooth and the tooth fairy forgot to come (she had just had a baby and was sleep deprived). Matthew was super sweet though and didn’t even mention it for a week when he pulled it out from underneath his pillow and asked me to call the tooth fairy. I felt terrible! To make it worse though I still forgot and when my hubby was changing Matthew’s sheets a week or so later, he found the tooth and threw it away. Yes, we get the worlds’s worst parents award!
[Reply]
Our kids dont believe in the tooth fairy(or santa or easter etc) We also dont do halloween. We keep lost teeth in a little pouch in their memory totes, with a picture of their smile.
God bless
[Reply]
Ok. We are definitely paying too much. We gave $5 for the first tooth and $1 for each after that. I took a similar poll of my friends on Facebook to find that I was *cheap*! Some had actually given $20 – $25 for the first tooth! I was SHOCKED!!!
I think a single quarter is a good idea, but now that we’ve started with a buck, I think it”l have to continue.
However, I must share that the last tooth that was lost didn’t get turned into the tooth fairy… my son chose to keep it. Go figure! :)
[Reply]
The first lost tooth nets the child $2, but each subsequent tooth only earns $.50. The first tooth that is lost is also usually accompanied by a letter saying how much they are really growing up!
[Reply]
The tooth fairy at our house leaves a dollar and a sprinkle of glitter on the front porch. Sometimes the tooth fairy takes several days to arrive though :)
[Reply]
We do two quarters (I was going to only do 2 for the first and then 1 after that, but I caved ;-)) and we sprinkle them with fairy dust (iridescent glitter) :-)
[Reply]
The female tooth fairy leaves a quarter, but she’s often rather absent-minded and forgets, if you can even imagine the horror of that! So the male tooth fairy has taken over and he leaves (gasp!) a whole dollar! That female tooth fairy needs a night planner before they’re in the poor house!
[Reply]
I’m with some of the others, we don’t do the tooth fairy, or the Easter Bunny, or Santa Clause, or Halloween. We did do the tooth fairy at one time, and she left between $2-$5. Depending on what was on hand. Sometimes she left bags of change. But we don’t do all of the that anymore.
[Reply]
Our children don’t believe in the tooth fairy. Or the Easter bunny. Or Santa Claus. We explained the fable/myth at one point. Now we just congratulate them when a tooth falls out.
[Reply]
We do $5 for the first tooth and a golden dollar for each one after. I have seven kids and I don’t think it’s too much – but I like to make a big deal about little things! I also don’t give out allowances and only pay for special chores. I’m certainly not opposed to a quarter – I’m just stingy in other ways! As for Santa, the Easter Bunny, etc…I don’t know – I enjoy the stories and the fun that goes along with it. I think part of childhood is creating those special memories as long as they don’t become materialistic, consumer-fests! Since I don’t buy my kids a lot of extras during the year, I like to save presents for those special days.
[Reply]
carmen Reply:
July 25th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
We want our kids to know that we believe in God and that he is real. If
they believe in the tooth fairy, santa, or the Easter bunny and as they
grow up learn that these aren’t real, will it cause them to doubt the
reality of God? We would never want that. This is why we have chosen
to tell them early on that all of these are pretend. We do pretend to
be these things but the kids know that it is just mom and dad leaving
gifts.
[Reply]
Michelle Hogan Reply:
July 26th, 2010 at 6:13 am
That makes total sense! I have always maintained a belief in the “spirit” of Santa, for example
and by the time the kids are around 7, they usually realize the pretend factor too. But I always say that St. Nicholas was real – and he did real, kind, giving things and that’s what I hope to bring to Christmas. Not just – “Oh, Santa thinks I’m awesome, so he’ll leave me 47 toys I want!”
[Reply]
The first tooth is worth a $1. and several small prizes. {new toothbrush, stickers, and such} Then the next couple of teeth get a small amount of change or small prize. Then the Tooth Fairy realizes that someone else has lost their first tooth, and moves along to surprise them.
[Reply]
We don’t do “tooth fairy” but the kids, after losing a tooth, sell it to daddy for $1. Our 4 children earn money for mowing the yard and sweeping the driveway & any “extra” chores and don’t get money any other way, since being a part of a family is about sharing the responsibilities with joy…so while $1 might seem a bit high, it’s our way of celebrating their growing up!! :)
[Reply]
We don’t do “Tooth Fairy”. Mainly because we used to never have cash in the house (only used the debit card) and so had nothing to give. I’m glad now that my kids don’t expect anything. I have four, too, and it would get expensive!
[Reply]
You’re all going to ‘boo’ at me, but we leave a silver dollar. They are not allowed to keep it though; it goes directly into their savings account that Daddy maintains.
[Reply]
When I was of tooth-losing age, we got a shiny half-dollar for each tooth. They were extra special coins (who has half-dollar coins just laying around?) so we felt like we should save them as a collection. I think I finally cashed mine in when I was done losing teeth, but it made for something different.
[Reply]
My son just just recently started losing teeth. My sister-in-law saved all the 50 cent coins that she got from the tooth fairy. She gave them to us and now our son gets them. Second generation tooth fairy money!
[Reply]
Our 6-yr old is the only one of our littles who has lost any teeth yet… she must be on a fund-raising binge because she’s lost SEVEN so far… at $2 a whack! One dollar from her mommy, one dollar from her daddy. Yes, she smiles a lot when she loses teeth. :)
If you don’t mind, I think I may use your kids as an example someday… you know, the whole “SOME kids only get A QUARTER when THEY lose a tooth” routine, LOL!! (Just kidding!)
Growing up, it was a about 50-cents per lost tooth for my sister, brother and me. My hubby claims that inflation has driven up the cost of everything, so that explains the generous “tooth fairy” around our house. ;)
Kristy @ Homemaker’s Cottage
[Reply]
Our kids don’t believe in the tooth fairy, easter bunny, santa clause, etc. We figure Truth is Truth. Besides, why should all those guys get the credit for the hard work and money we spend to provide all the little surprises for our kids. Yeah, I know…we’re SO mean, but we try to always tell our kids the truth. We do, however, offer to “buy” our kids’ teeth for a quarter a piece. That must not be very appealing, since they always choose to keep them for their own collections. ;)
[Reply]
I only have 1 child but he got $5 for the first tooth and then he has gotten $1 for the rest. I have kept all his baby teeth so far in a little container and at least for now he seems to still believe in the tooth fairy.
I remember when I was growing up that I got .50 to $1 for mine.
[Reply]
When I was little, my brother and I got the great idea that we were going to save all our baby teeth and put them under our pillows all at the same time so that we could become rich all in one night! We stored them in little cups at the back of the kitchen cupboard. At some point while growing up, I forgot about my plan, and never redeemed my teeth. Then, one summer during college, my mom and I were completely cleaning out the kitchen cupboards, and at the very back of one of them… I found my teeth! I never got rich off of them, but my mom and I laughed for quite awhile!
[Reply]
Haha. We give $5 a tooth. I have been teased incessantly about this, but my children (I have 5, one that doesn’t have ANY teeth yet) don’t get a lot of extra money from other things, and it “helps” them to get rid of teeth that are barely hanging on. I don’t have to pay the $ all at once. Also, we do not do the tooth fairy (or any other mythical “person/thing”) in our home, so I just get to “buy” the teeth from my children when they fall out.
[Reply]
I was given quarters when I was little and thought I was so rich when I had three or four…haha.
I have not had the blessing of having children yet but I will say that adding that little bit of harmless fun of an imaginary tooth fairy or easter bunny does not hurt your children. I did not grow up believing they were real because my parents were honest and kept things focused on God. Just like having your imaginary friends at a tea party or playing with your trucks does not do any harm niether will this.
Can’t wait to have our own children so we can make the same fun memories with them.
[Reply]
My daughter got $15 for her first one!
[Reply]
We were unprepared for our son’s first tooth loss, and all we had was a $20 bill. We explained that it was probably just because the first tooth was extra special. Afterward, we polled all our friends and found that $5 per tooth is the average in our area, so that is what he gets now. I think you should just ask around to see what it is in your neighborhood. I know in some it’s $20 per tooth! Yikes! I think it’s awfully sweet that you played Tooth Fairy for your guest though. :)
[Reply]
I have always given my son a dollar or two, he is 7 now.
[Reply]