When we were kids, we left our lost teeth under our pillows and got a whopping......twenty-five cents per tooth. My mom would get into it and write notes from the tooth fairy, and once my aunt even painted tiny footprints onto the paper.
Now, as a grown-up, it's funny to approach it from the other side. My friends say they sneak in, terrified that they'll wake up their kids--it's hard to root around and find a single tooth under a sleeping child's pillow. My friend once forgot to leave money (she totally blanked!) so she had to tell her teary child the next morning that the tooth fairy must have been delayed en route. Another friend's daughter lost a tooth late one evening, so he had to race to the deli at midnight to quickly break a $20.
And what's the going rate? My friend's daughter was confused to find a crisp dollar bill under her pillow, explaining that the other kids at her private school get a staggering $40 per tooth. (That's $800 per mouth!) To escape the tooth-fairy rat-race, a NYT writer had the brilliant idea to leave his daughters foreign currency and teach them about the world.
What about leaving a $2 bill? My brother used to always leave restaurant tips with them; they feel rare and cool, but are easily available at the bank. Or how about rad folded money? :)
My mom recently told me about the episode of "This American Life" that talks about the tooth fairy--have you heard it? Ira Glass chats with a girl named Rebecca, who became convinced that her friend's dad, Ronnie Loeberfeld, was the tooth fairy. Every time she saw him, she was totally starstruck.
What about you? How much did the tooth fairy leave you when you were little? How much do you leave your children? Is it fun to moonlight as the tooth fairy?I'd love to hear your tooth-fairy thoughts:) xo
P.S. More Motherhood Monday posts...
(Photo by Heide Benser/New York Times)
As a child I received a quarter for regular teeth - bigger teeth were worth more..2 quarters. Going rate now is a dollar a tooth...yikes..As a tooth fairy to my 2 older girls..we failed..often forgot and made up stories...I get a second chance with my 4 year old..so hopefully can do better! It's fun!
ReplyDeleteI want to go back in time and start believeing in these things again. It's so much more comforting.
ReplyDelete/Avy
http://mymotherfuckedmickjagger.blogspot.com
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what a cute post! i used to get 4 quarters. one time i saw the stack of them on my nightstand in the dark and i thought they were oreos instead of money--i got SO excited! how disappointing when i found out it was a boring ol' dollar. :) at age 6, i would have much preferred cookies!
ReplyDeleteIn Japan there's no such thing as a tooth fairy. The tradition with lost teeth is, you make a wish and throw top teeth over the roof and bottom teeth under the house :)
ReplyDeleteI don't remember how much we got under our pillows as kids but just recently my daughter lost her first tooth and we left 2 or 3 dollars in all kinds of change...it just seemed to be more exciting that way. Heads up, though, for when your child loses their first tooth...it is exciting when it is loose, then suddenly devastating when it falls out. For us parents, I mean. It is a bittersweet milestone, my friends.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, now that you mention it, I'm not exactly sure how much my sister and I received. What an interesting article, though! xoxo
ReplyDeleteSo funny you say that because we got both foreign currency and $2 bills! We kept them in porcelain boxes that were hand-painted by my grandfather.
ReplyDeleteMy parents didn't allow me to believe in the tooth fairy. I think they thought it was silly to pay me for my teeth. Or maybe they thought I'd yank my teeth out when I wanted a few quarters. Or something.
ReplyDeleteOnce, when I was teaching creative writing to a third grade class, I had a student ask me about the tooth fairy and why she hadn't come for her most recent tooth. I told her she should ask her mom, since moms are in close contact with the tooth fairy, but I wondered if her parents had decided to quit doing it before she lost all her baby teeth. That seemed unfair to me. If the tooth fairy comes for the first few teeth, shouldn't she come for all of them?
Love the foreign currency idea! I think when the tooth fairy hit my house, she left me whatever pocket change my parents had at the time--it didn't seem like there was ever a set amount.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly I got a $1 but in the form of quarters. Once I thought I got short changed by the toothfairy when I only found 50 cents. I found the other two quarters under my bed a few days later when I was looking for something else!
ReplyDeleteThere wasn't a set amount from the tooth fairy for our child. Instead, we would give little gifts and sometimes a bit of money. We explained that there were lots of tooth fairies, and what you received just depended on which one was assigned for that particular tooth loss.
ReplyDeleteHe bought it until he was nine and then he declared that "Mom is the better tooth fairy". Apparently, Dad's gifts of science magazines was a dead give-away! :D
I always left a gold dollar coin for each tooth. I made sure that I had a stack of them around when needed. My kids were thrilled to get a coin that they didn't see every day.
ReplyDeleteHere in Belgium, we put the milk teeth in a small wooden box (with a screw-on cap) under the pillow. That way, it's much easier to find the tooth. How in the world would you ever find a loose tooth under a pillow? I would be afraid it would get lost. In any case, here is a link to a website that sells the boxes in question: http://www.lesdentsdelait.com/boutique/Catalogue/1/boites-a-dents-de-lait. They charge around €10 per box, which is a lot (I paid under €5 for mine in a shop). Also, in French-speaking countries, there is no tooth fairy. Rather, a little mouse (le petit souris) comes to take the teeth away! I'm not sure why.
ReplyDeleteFinally, it is definitely NOT the custom to give a lot of money per tooth. Perhaps 1 or 2 euros or even a token gift, such as a little Playmobile figure.
We used to get Kennedy half dollars and thought they were the coolest thing ever!
ReplyDeleteWhen we were living in the U.S. we left our daughter the gold dollar coins that were newly minted. They were fresh and sparkly new. Now we live in Canada and we leave Toonies. They are 2-toned, two-dollar coins. I guess teeth are worth more in Canadian dollars. ;)
Great topic.
I've also heard of giving dollar coins, which I think is a good amont of $$, and it's special.
ReplyDeleteWe are a few years away from tooth fairy land, but I think I am going to take Robert McCloskey's One Morning in Maine approach and go with a simple chocolate ice cream cone.
ReplyDeleteI think I got a quarter each for the first four baby teeth, then it went up to 50 cents each. I might have gotten a whole dollar for molars. I can't remember now. I do recall getting less than my classmates and trying to negotiate for a "raise" with my parents, though!
ReplyDeleteI would fact-check that kid with the $40/tooth friends. Really?! That said, I have heard of kids in my daughter's Kindergarten class getting $20, which I think is outrageous!
ReplyDeleteI give my daughter a silver dollar for her teeth. I've also carried on my mom's tradition of leaving notes 'from the Tooth Fairy.' Our tooth fairy is named Denta Blanca (which means 'white tooth') and she writes in rhymed couplets. I'm always very proud of myself after I write the notes, and I'm so thrilled that my kid still firmly believes that Denta Blanca is real!
When we were kids, the tooth fairy brought us $5 per tooth! Even then I knew that was a lot. I can remember telling my mom, "By the time I lose all my baby teeth, I will have $100!"
ReplyDeleteI got a quarter for each tooth as well. Except when my two front teeth fell out (taking a bite out of an apple took them both out at the same time) then I received a whopping two dollars :P. I think that's a reasonable exchange rate, especially if you have multiple kids! Imagine that 40$ per tooth rate in a household of five kids!
ReplyDeleteMy tooth fairy didn't do money, he just left little presents. A doll house made of paper, for example, or a little book. But it all paled in comparison to when the tooth fairy left me a little brown bear who would go on to become my most prized possession of all time and my constant companion until I lost him at 16. I still miss his little face. I'd give up a molar to have him back! :)
ReplyDeleteMy sisters and I got normally between a quarter and a dollar growing up. However, on a few occasions, the tooth fairy forgot to come, so we'd wake up to $5. At this point, we already knew it was our parents. I babysit a lot though, and all my kids get a minimum of $10. Crazy!
ReplyDeleteMy little brother (6) just lost his first tooth last week and my parents gave him $6 for his age, and halfed it for his second tooth. Each time he looses one he gets to go to the dollar store and buy that many toys!
ReplyDeleteLove this! My Mom saved all of my letters to the Tooth Fairy... and even though she usually have us a silver dollar, one time I took it upon myself to let the tooth fairy know what I thought.
ReplyDelete"Dear Tooth Fairy,
This one hurt a lot. Please keep that in mind, financially."
While I butchered the spelling in the note, I'm impressed by my lil person business savvy.
If parents are giving $40, they should force the kids to put it into an orthodontist piggy bank!
My mother used to have us put the old tooth in a paper envelope with a message or little drawing for the tooth fairy. She kept some of them as keepsakes. I didn't realize until now that it must have made it MUCH easier to find the discarded tooth!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I received 25 cents per tooth when I was little. My daughter gets a dollar or two per tooth, which seemed a lot to me at first, but not compared to $40! Crazy!
ReplyDeleteShe sleeps like a rock, so no danger of waking her. (We once climbed all over her bed while she slept in it to hang 100 balloons from her ceiling for a birthday surprise! Talk about a heavy sleeper...)
She's seven, and I can sense that the time is running out on the tooth fairy, santa, etc., so we are just enjoying it while the magic lasts. :)
We got 50cent pieces under our pillows. I use to leave silver dollars for my daughter. I think $2 bills are fun as well.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of foreign money! Before I left Europe after living there for a few months, I collected all my change from around my flat and brought it home...I figured I'd have a good use for it someday! This seems perfect! (That is if I don't lose it between now, getting engaged, getting married, getting pregnant, raising kids, etc ;-)
ReplyDeletea dollar coin or silver dollars are awesome ideas!!
ReplyDeleteI can't remember exactly, but back in the 80s it was a quarter for small teeth and I think either 50 cents or a whopping dollar for a big one. I had a cute little pillow with a pocket in it that I put my tooth in. Now I know how much easier I made it on my parents not having to root around under my pillow. I think I'll make one of those for my son come to think of it. :-) A very cute post, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteOur girls get a silver or gold dollar per tooth. It's special, something they don't ever see us carry, and makes a lovely story. It is difficult to make sure we have enough on hand. A couple weeks ago, one of my daughters lost 3 teeth in 3 days!
ReplyDeleteWe always got a Kennedy 1/2 dollar because it was special. I still have mine because I never spent them! :) I like the idea of a $2 bill. Neat!
ReplyDeleteI always got one dollar from my parents. One day, thought, I lost a tooth at my aunt's house. She didn't have kids of her own, so she always loved to spoil us (definitely the "cool aunt") and I woke up to find a $20 bill on the nightstand.
ReplyDeleteI never did the under-the-pillow thing. I had a little tiny tooth pillow, shaped like a heart with a teensy pocket in it just big enough for a tooth or a folded up dollar bill. I don't know whether it was because I was a restless sleeper or if it was just easier for my mom to switch it out that way, but I loved my lost-tooth pillow!
The kids I babysit live in your neighborhood and one of the moms made up a long story about the jurisdiction of tooth fairies. The Bleecker Street tooth fairy is named Piper, she is 17 and has lots of cousins that live and work in New York as well. One night Piper didn't get a chance to come do her tooth fairy duties and she left a note the next night saying it had been a really busy night in the neighborhood! I love that, she is such a creative and fun mom. Maybe Piper is Toby's tooth fairy too!
ReplyDeleteMy parents used to leave me one of those big half-dollar coins (the ones with JFK on them). It was cool because I'd never seen one before I started losing my teeth, so it sort of added a bit of magic to the experience. Every time I see one now it reminds me of the tooth fairy, haha.
ReplyDeleteWe got a .50 cent piece. We loved them because they were so big they felt like "more."
ReplyDeleteI once found a box full of them snooping around my dads dresser and thought..."Oh man...Daddy has lost a lot of teeth!!"
HAHA!
we didn't get anything from the tooth fairy. i didn't even know about her until one summer, my cousin visited alone from texas and he lost a tooth. my aunt explained to my mom that she needed to leave money under his pillow that night. i felt totally gypped!
ReplyDeleteWe left our's in a cup filled with water on the counter. Apparently my mom wasn't quiet enough to reach under our pillows. We got fifty cent pieces.
ReplyDeleteI had a little porcellain box, no money at all. (o;
ReplyDeleteI like folding money into shirts: http://www.basteln-gestalten.de/geld-falten
Oh my mother was a terrible tooth fairy. Always forgetting. But I do recall two different occasions: 1. finding a stick of gum and a quarter. Mom said the tooth fairy must be rewarding me for brushing with the gum. (I thought it was funny that the tooth fairy liked the same flavor as my dad) and 2. waking up as my scantly lingerie clad mother tried to sneak some change under my pillow. (we never spoke of the latter)
ReplyDeleteMy mom used to leave $1 per tooth. I think I got $5 for the first one though. One time when I was on vacation with the family I nannied for, the child lost their tooth but the parents didn't have any cash. I saved the night though.
ReplyDeleteMy parents left random useful presents. I didn't truly believe in the tooth fairy, but waking up to a purple umbrella under my pillow was pretty magical. :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband collected foriegn coins from his grandparents/parents as a child and we still have them. We've always planned (when we have kids) on giving our children the foriegn coins and just telling them that the tooth fairy goes all around the world so she just gives you whatever she has from her last stop. She's a busy gal! No time to get her currency exchanged!
ReplyDeleteI recently heard a great tip: leave a trail of glitter from the window sill to the pillow.
ReplyDeleteWe used to get 20p per tooth, then 50p per molar, and £1 under our cereal bowl in the morning if the tooth fairy forgot! We'd wrap our teeth in a tissue and leave it under the pillow so it was easier to find.
ReplyDeleteMy son was given a tiny silver tooth pot as a christening gift, so hopefully there won't be any rooting around under the pillow when he comes to lose his teeth! such a clever idea!
I grew up in Germany, where the tooth fairly myth doesn't exist (or at least it didn't in the early 80s), so no cash for me.
ReplyDeleteThat $40 must be a New York thing!
My grandma was my tooth fairy and somehow I never suspected her, despite the fact that the tooth fairy only visited me at her house. I would call her with the news and have a sleep over at her house with every tooth I lost. She always left me a 50 cent piece, which was special and magical since they no longer make them.
ReplyDeleteI think the foreign currency idea is neat too. $40!??! People are crazy.
PS--I put them under the pillow in an envelope. (I thought those were the rules). That might make it easier to find than a lone tooth.
I'm a school nurse and have had to write a few "official" letters to the toothfairy when little kids' lose a tooth while eating and swallow it, or one girl lost hers in a snowbank when she fell in it. It's pretty cute! I also get to draw cute tooth comics on our tiny blank tooth envelopes! Usually I draw a tooth escaping from behind bars or parachuting out of a mouth, both times saying "I'm outta here!"
ReplyDeleteOur tooth fairy pays big for the 1st tooth - $20 - so the kid has enough to actually buy a toy. Subsequent teeth are not as valuable so they pay $2 - $3. (My kids don't get an allowance, so its pretty much the only cash they have.) The tooth fairy has failed to come a time or two as well. She is a busy lady, so we understand and just leave the tooth for another night. One of my kids decided to save her first few teeth and not give them to the fairy. Apparently there is an expiration date on them because at some point she changed her mind but the fairy didn't take them no matter how long they were under her pillow. I overheard her telling her little sister later that she better use them up quick!
ReplyDeleteSusan
I got 25 cents. Mr. Sandwich and his sisters got $10--but their parents never gave them cash at any other time. I am serious.
ReplyDeleteMy plan, to avoid keeping pace with whatever other parents decide to do, is to tell Baguette that the tooth fairy leaves money, but the amount is random. Sometimes it's 25 cents, sometimes it's $5. You never know what the tooth fairy is going to leave. Surprise!
I think I used to get a dollar? I don't remember very well, mostly because my mom used to leave me a little present and that was the main thing! Not something huge, just a little treat. Once it was a little bluebird figurine, and once a crazy black beret covered in gold sequins, I think with a little note. I didn't fall for the tooth fairy thing for long so I think this only made it for about 2/3 teeth anyway.
ReplyDeleteOur first tooth lost, we left $5 in silver half dollars. Later, we realized how expensive that would get! Now, we get gold $1 coins and cap it at $3 total. The gold coins are special and beloved by our 6-year-old daughter. We are currently awaiting 2 wiggly teeth to fall out these days. I, too, am always afraid of getting caught in the act! :)
ReplyDeleteSo funny! My brother and I got foreign currency and I plan on doing the same with my son. It's such a great way to learn about the world. And, as you know, the tooth fairy has to go to all the kids in the ENTIRE WORLD that lost a tooth, and sometimes she gets mixed-up about where she is and leaves currency from the wrong country. ;-)
ReplyDeleteFor the first tooth that I lost, the 'tooth fairy' gave me $2 and a little bag of jelly beans! I was so excited! x
ReplyDeleteKate {Something Fabulous}
http://thesomethingfabulous.blogspot.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy parents would leave foreign currency for me and older American currency for my brother. My mom would stockpile them up for whenever we lost a tooth. We also had a Tooth Pillow. It was a small pillow with a pocket in front that we would leave at the foot of our beds. So much easier for my mom to get to!
ReplyDeleteThere was one time when I received an actual gift instead of money. We were at Disneyworld when I lost my tooth in a meatball. The tooth accidentally was taken away by our waiter and I was so worried that the tooth fairy wouldn't come without a tooth! Instead, my mom made a scavenger hunt for me to find the present the tooth fairy left me.
I grew up in the 80s and I got a buck for each tooth, right under my pillow. It was amazing every. single. time.
ReplyDeleteThe more well-off families I babysat for in college, however, were giving 5s, 10s, and 20s! Unreal.
ps: great topic, jo!
ReplyDeleteGrowing up the tooth fairy used to leave a quarter and a book. (Can you tell my mom is a teacher?) They weren't always new books either. Sometimes the tooth fairy left books that she clearly had loved reading. It felt magical as a child and a tradition I plan on carrying on with my own daughter.
ReplyDeleteI'm 29, and growing up, my tooth fairy gave me a silver dollar--a silver dollar AND a fifty cent piece if it was a molar.
ReplyDeleteAs a parent, I leave $5 for most teeth, $10 if it's a molar. I have left $20 for a first tooth lost, but usually it's just $5. I figure this gives the kids enough so that they can put half away in their piggy banks, and still have enough to get themselves a little treat of some kind to show for their tooth fairy money.
Here in Spain we don't have a fairy but a little mouse, El Ratoncito Pérez, it would be something like The Little Mouse Smith. That story about $40 a tooth, whoa, it sounds insane, as you say $800 the whole mouth, haha, my husband just said "hey, this little girl will have some money for braces"! I got $1 to $3. And I felt a very lucky kiddo.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! xoxo
The first thing I thought when I saw the blog post title was, What, it's not 25 cents anymore? Haha. $40 for one tooth seems excessive, though. Somehow I feel like that diminishes some of the novelty.
ReplyDeleteI also was left a silver dollar or a $2 bill. I'm collecting them already for my one year old! I love the foreign currency idea as well. I have a bit of money from countries before most of Europe converted to the Euro.
ReplyDeleteI would get four quarters per tooth. But instead of putting my tooth under my pillow, my mom would have me put it in a glass of water on the dresser. When I woke up the tooth would be gone and inside the glass would be the four quarters in blue water! My mom said that the water turned blue because my tooth fairy's dress was blue and the dye from it colored the water. I always thought it was so cool that I knew what color my tooth fairy's dress was. My mom is a clever lady =)
ReplyDeleteIn Sweden you put your tooth in a glas of water at your nightstand, then the Tooth Fairy picks it up and replace it with a coin. When I grew up it was either 5 or 10 swedish crowns which is almost like 50 cents to a dollar... Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteI used to get a quarter for each normal tooth but $1 for my front teeth and molars. By the time I lost my last tooth I had it figured out because my mom forgot to leave the money!
ReplyDeleteThat was funny and touching at the same time, I really enjoyed reading it, picturing that stressed out mum rushing to the Deli at midnight...In Austria (where I am from) we don't follow this tradition so much - or maybe my parents just didn't follow it...? But I am looking forward to the day that I will have to be the tooth fairy to my kids - after reading your post even more so!
ReplyDeletewww.theflamboyante.com
That last story reminds me of myself at around age 7 or 8...my friend was over playing and told me that her mom was the tooth fairy. I took that to mean literally that "her mom" was the tooth fairy and, in excitement, ran to tell my mom the great news. She responded to my friend, "How wonderful that your mom is the tooth fairy!!" My mom says that my friend just looked at her like she was crazy, but never explained what she really meant! I think I believed for about another year or so that my friend's mom was the tooth fairy!
ReplyDeleteFor my daughter, the 'tooth fairy' gives out the gold dollar coins along with a special note and drawing.
40$? Wow, when I was a kid I got 50 Francs (about 1€) :p
ReplyDeleteI used to get silver dollars or hello kitty prizes
ReplyDeleteI actually blogged about this topic a few months ago:
ReplyDeletehttp://megancstroup.blogspot.com/2012/03/cheapskate-tooth-fairy.html
Our tooth fairy was practically non-existent. My sister literally found three pennies under her pillow once! I remember being jealous of my classmates who got gifts, like crayons or books.
In our house, the tooth fairy leaves gold dollar coins. I didn't even know they existed until someone else mentioned them to me, so they seem a bit special while being reasonable. I do think, however, the kids are still trying to figure out when they will get toys like some of their other friends (...never).
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid I would get a buck from the tooth fairy. I really like the idea of a $2 Bill, or even a silver dollar would be a cool tradition.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1950s Tooth Fairy left a quarter
ReplyDeleteA dollar a tooth in today's economy sounds right.
If the kid doesn't find money/parent forgot, then while looking for the money, let it slip out of your hand. Oh Look what I found!
We got silver dollars, too! It felt so special. I had a pretty little silk pillow with a tiny pocket to put my tooth in, which saved my parents from having to fumble around under my head while I was sleeping. I sleep like a rock, but there are limits...
ReplyDeleteI got £1 or 50 pence per tooth. When I lost my first tooth I tested the tooth fairy by hiding it in the pocket of my pyjamas and my mum had to wait for two days to get me to reveal my secret hiding place :)
ReplyDeleteIf we ever have children, I'd tell them that the tooth fairy picks up teeth from the bathroom (beside their toothbrush).
we always got shiny quarters from the tooth fairy. my husband's brother and his wife gave "golden dollars" to their kids, so any time we get a dollar coin, we save it for the tooth fairy to distribute when our kids start to lose teeth.
ReplyDeleteWay back when, we used to get quarters!
ReplyDeleteBut now I don't give money, I give treasures, which is much more magical and fairy-like. These items don't cost much, but take a little more thought. Bird feathers, a special ring or a little box with a flower in it. Little boys like these too! I have to remember to save things so I have something when the tooth comes out.
My dad is a dentist. That leads to some fairly interesting toothfairy connections. When I was growing up my dad would pretend to call the toothfairy on the phone, because of course as a dentist he had her number. He would go into elaborate detail on the phone about how my tooth was an extra special one and to be sure and visit our house. He would make up funny things to discuss with her about his office and patients he had seen. It was amazing I was in total toothfairy belief. We would usually get 5 or so dollars but the toothfairy phone call was always a highlight.
ReplyDeletethe tooth fairy used to leave me a golden dollar coin :)
ReplyDeleteOuch! $800 per mouth? We all need a rich tooth fairy.
ReplyDeleteI am Guatemalan so I got nothing, instead it was my mother who got a new pair of earrings made from my teeth. When I was a kid her earrings use to fascinate me, now they kind of creep me out a bit. Thanks for your post.
ReplyDeleteOMgosh! So happy you blogged about this! I am a first grade teacher and the children in my class come in bragging about the money they get from the tooth fairy! I had one little girl come in with a $20 bill. I think that is sort of outrageous if you ask me. What about $1.00 and a cute, little note?! Little kids love the notes from the tooth fairy even more than the money anyways! =)
ReplyDeleteChar xo
www.itsacharmlife.blogspot.com
40$, that's insane ! But I do love the other country's currency idea ! I'm in Canada and we gave 1$ coin to my son for his first one.
ReplyDeleteWe got a quarter per tooth too (I'm 23, to give you a sense of timeline)! $40 is ridiculous. I love the idea of older coins or coins from other countries...tell this kids the tooth fairy gets confused about time and place! My parents had bought me a little tooth-shaped pillow with a little pouch in it to hold the tooth though, so that made it easier to locate under my pillow I suppose! A cool DIY would be to decorate an old ring box or something for the same purpose.
ReplyDeleteIsn't $1 dollar the normal fee? Or was that for poor kids like me? Haha!
ReplyDeleteMy nephews in Germany get 3 Euro for the first tooth and 1 for subsequent. The idea that the first gets special attention might be a way to angle it. I got $1. Clearly I needed to negotiate... Prippy Handbook's note is hilarious!
ReplyDeleteJust for fun I used a inflation calculator and found out that something that was 25 cents in 1976 would be exactly $1 today. There it is!
ReplyDeleteIaia.
When I was little, I woke up to my older brother stuffing dollar bills under my pillow. He knew I had lost my tooth and wanted to play tooth fairy. : )
ReplyDeletewe always got $.50 pieces. i loved them. still do.
ReplyDeleteI always got 4 quarters for a lost tooth, never a dollar bill, always coins. And I would decorate an envelope for the tooth fairy, put the tooth in, lick the envelope to seal it tight, and slide it under my pillow. Somehow, amazingly, in the morning, the tooth would be gone and the quarters would be sealed inside. Same envelope, same decorations, everything. I'm going to call my mom now to find out how she did it....
ReplyDeleteI always got foreign money, which I always thought was way more exciting than regular money, or sometimes unusual American currency, like a $2 bill or a JFK half-dollar coin. I was always thrilled, and, as an NYC private school girl, since I wasn't converting currency values at that age I would never get competitive when other children discussed how much money the tooth fairy left them. It was a pretty magical, and educational, experience and I would definitely recommend it!
ReplyDeleteloving this topic! I totally caught my mom looking for my tooth. She had forgotten and it was probably at 5:00 in the morning. My little sister just lost a tooth last week and she was writing up a list of all the things she wanted. I guess she was getting the tooth fairy confused with Santa? My mom ended up giving her a bunch of Chinese Money and she LOVED it. It was perfect. I like the foreign $ idea. I remember getting a pack of gum once or twice, too.
ReplyDeleteAs a child, the tooth fairy called petite souris used to leave me and my siblings presents (stocking filler sized). Much more fun than money if you ask me. It could be anything from a toy car, a hair band or a book.
ReplyDeleteFor some unknown reason, my dad loves to pull teeth. (No, he is not a dentist.) I remember telling him about my first loose tooth. He asked if he could see it, and as soon as I wiggled it for him he popped his fingers in my mouth and pulled it out. I got a $1 bill under my pillow, which was so exciting, but I tried not to let my dad know when my teeth were loose. Once, I accidentally let it slip, and I immediately knew that I had to run away. I ran up the stairs with my dad running behind me. He tackled me and pulled the tooth. The next morning, I found $4 under my pillow--apparently the "tooth fairy" knew that it had been a more traumatizing tooth loss than most.
ReplyDeleteWe just hit this milestone this year. I have friends that give $25 a tooth! We settled on $1, a personal note and a gold Sacagewea dollar - or as our daughter calls it "gold". The note was the biggest hit - she even brought it to pre-school to show everyone!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.maxxsilly.com/2012/01/when-thooth-fairy-stops-by.html
when i was losing teeth in the late eighties/early nineties, i think i got a dollar a few times, then five dollars for large molars, which i thought was completely fantastic. (i cannot believe that people are giving $40.) if i had kids and was acting the part of the tooth fairy, i love the idea of giving gold coins or fun types of currency to make it feel whimsical, like the tooth fairy seems!
ReplyDeleteWhen my sister and I reached tooth-losing age, my mom took us to the craft store and bought us each a little tiny wooden box to put our teeth in. We colored them, I think with markers, but possibly paint, and personalized them. Then, we would put our lost tooth in the box and the box under our pillow for the tooth fairy. I imagine that made it easier for my mom to find when she stealthily reached under the pillow... I usually got a dollar, which was a lot of money back then, and sometimes, with special teeth (i.e. the first one, the first molar, the last one I think), the tooth fairy would let me keep them and I'd save them in the little box. Honestly, it's probably still somewhere in my parents' house, complete with my saved baby teeth. :)
ReplyDelete(PS: I also donated one of my lost teeth to science. In 3rd grade, when we were learning about dental hygene, I gave one to my teacher so we could do an experiment to see how long it took a tooth to dissolve sitting in a cup of soda. If watching a tooth gradually disappear doesn't make a kid brush their teeth, nothing will!)
I've forgotten to do my tooth fairy duties on two occasions! Bad mama!! The explanation was the the tooth fairy must have been extremely busy that night. $1 per tooth in our house (for the small teeth, but maybe the tooth fairy will be more generous when the bigger teeth start coming out!). $40 is crazy!
ReplyDeleteI'm 16 now, but when I lost teeth my parents would give me a dollar per tooth. One time, though, I wrote a note to the tooth fairy asking for twenty dollars to buy my family gifts. I woke up the next morning with a twenty dollar bill underneath my pillow. I was thrilled the tooth fairy had complied with my request! I picked out and purchased a pair of small earrings for my mom, and she still wears them! It's such a sweet memory to be reminded of.
ReplyDelete$40 a tooth?!?!?! crazy!! The tooth fairy always used to leave me a £1 coin under my pillow and I would do exactly the same for my kids today.
ReplyDeleteI used to get 25 pence for a small tooth, increasing to 50 pence for a 'major loss'!
ReplyDeleteOne time, I decided to test out the validity of the Tooth Fairy. I left a written note out with my tooth asking the TF to sign and authenticate herself! To my amazement, the next morning, the note was duly signed..in silver fairy ink...Jezebel! So, you see, the tooth fairy does exist...!
When I was little, I got a quarter per year old I was. So when I was five, I got $1.25, & at age 8 I got $2. I like the idea of foreign coins (loooove loonies when I was little), but then I would be disappointed when it wouldn't work anywhere! I think I'll do $2 bills or half-dollar coins or something, just to make it special. But $40 is outrageous!
ReplyDeleteHow sweet! We used to get 50 cent pieces, and Susan B. Anthony dollars.
ReplyDeleteI got a 50p piece (I'm only 21 so not like from the 50s!) but one time I was at my Nanna's house, and she left me a whole £1! needless to say, I was ecstatic :D
ReplyDeletewe would get different amounts based on how "good" the tooth was as a building material. that was the reason the tooth fairies wanted teeth to build with like bricks. and each person had their own tooth fairy and there were rich ones and not so rich ones which explained the discrepancy between households. i generally got a quarter for normal teeth, a half dollar coin for ones with no cavities or stains, and $2 bills for molars.
ReplyDeleteThis post is especially relevant for me. My oldest lost her first two teeth in the past few weeks. We gave her $5 for her first tooth (which I thought was too much but her close friend got the same so I didn't want to make it too confusing). She got $2 for her second tooth and I think we'll go down to $1 from here on. My parents sent her a special tooth pillow and when she's sleeping I sprinkle iridescent glitter on her pillow and in her hair which I think is her favorite part of all. She thinks it's fairy dust.
ReplyDeleteHi Jo - in the UK in the 80s, going rate was 20p a tooth. I can still remember the excitement of finding the coin. Happy days. Great topic!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory of the tooth fairy is when I woke up the next morning and my whole bed was covered with coins. My parents told me her bag must have broken so I got to keep it all! It made me so happy and I can remember it so vividly!
ReplyDeletemy parents gave me kennedy half dollars--felt a little more special than a quarter and not so ridiculously much.
ReplyDeleteThere is no such thing as the tooth fairy in Germany. I lost my teeth just so and it never occurred to me that I could be rewarded for it :-)
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's tooth fairy is called Pearl Sparklewhite. She leaves a 2 pound coin (we're in the UK) which is a large, impressive coin and you don't see many of them around. Whenever I get one in my change I store it in a high cupboard so I don't get caught out without one! Pearl ALWAYS leaves a tiny note. I type on the computer in teeny 5 point pink type. It gets folded up and put into the pocket of the little tooth pillow we have in exchange for the tooth. We've only been caught out twice. Once when the printer ran out of ink and I nearly went blind trying to write a fairy-sized letter by hand and also when we were on holiday in Italy and we had to have an emergency visit by Piccolo (Pearl's Italian cousin). These family rituals are such fun. I get a huge kick out of my daughter's excitement whenever Pearl has been to call.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were awesome and did $1 per tooth when we were very little. When I had my wisdom teeth taken out at 16, my mom was sweet and took me to lunch once I could eat "real" food again.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was losing teeth the going rate was a quarter... but sometime about a month after I lost my last tooth, my parents decided to give the younger siblings books. You know, the cheap paperbacks you could get on sale at Borders or wherever for just a couple dollars. They loved them! And I was so upset that all my teeth were gone and I never got books for them!
ReplyDeleteMy dad was the tooth fairy... he used to leave elaborate notes sometimes, if he couldn't find the tooth or something. We all knew it was him but we pretended not to :-)
My mom had us leave our tooth in a special treasure chest, which was placed on our desks, so she didn't have to root underneath our sleeping heads for the tooth. We received a $2 bill for our first tooth (I still have that bill!) and a quarter for each subsequent tooth
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, my dad and my mom told me that a little mouse was going to visit me during the night so I looked for him all they long... I thought that every hole in my house was his home! so innocent!
ReplyDeleteThe money is just symbolic. I like the fantasy of a silly story!
xo
Lau
fallinlove.com.ar
I once got a check from my Dad for $50... he explained to me that " the tooth fairy ran out of money by the time she got to our house"... so he borrowed her the money till the next tooth fell out... for other teeth I would get $10 or $20. My mom also got me a special box to put my tooth in so there was no trickiness of reaching under a pillow :) I cant wait for the day to play tooth fairy and santa!
ReplyDeletei only got $1 for my teeth! i like the idea of leaving a $2 or a gold dollar coin! however ... relating this to your last post .. once i opened one of my mom's junk drawers and found a wooden jewelry box with all of my siblings' and my baby teeth in it! SO WEIRD!
ReplyDeleteI got a dollar from my folks and i'll give some variation of a dollar (i got a dime/quarter combo once). Tooth fairy rates ate not subject to inflation and she doesn't give cost of living raises ;)
ReplyDeleteMy parents did something totally different! when i lost my first tooth i got a charm bracelet with one charm on it (a roller skate) and then for every tooth i lost after I got another charm. it was so sweet! though i'm pretty sure i never actually wore the bracelet....
ReplyDeleteJust had an article on this in one of our australian newspapers. I used to get $1 or $2 but now parents are accounting for 'inflation' and pay on average $5 a tooth. I am blown away to hear $40 a tooth?!?!? Completely unnecessary I think. Any shiny coin will do it :P
ReplyDeleteI got $1 for each tooth, and most of my friends I've talked to still give out $1 to their kids. (I think giving out $40/tooth is beyond ridiculous.)
ReplyDeleteFor one tooth when I was young, the tooth fairy kept forgetting for probably 2 weeks! When she finally got around to it, I got a sweet little note with tiny handwriting saying she had gotten caught up in a storm in the midwest. :)
and, like one other commenter said, my mom kept all our baby teeth, too. So weird!
As a kid, the tooth fairy left a random assortment of coins on a trail of glitter underneath and around my pillow. I can remember just how magical it felt to wake up to in the morning!
ReplyDeleteThe tooth fairy leaves the Sacagawea dollar. The girls get so excited about it.
ReplyDeletelove this post!
ReplyDeletemy daughter just turned 5 and lost her first tooth she was soooooooooo excited.
All we had in the house was a 20.00 bill...thinking she doesn't know anything about money and could switch it out later...we gave it to her.
Apparently she does know what a 20 dollar bill looks like...so she got to keep it ;)
I do not have children, but my sister-in-law makes these cool tooth-fairy pillows that I would definitely use if I had kids. I still remember my tooth fairy pillow and I think there was only ever $1. But I love the idea of foreign currency.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to her pillows.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/mothandnan
Cheers,
Amanda
As a kid I got anywhere from a dollar to five dollars for every tooth. But when I lost my last tooth (by this point I knew who the tooth fairy really was) my mom got me a gorgeous china doll! I feel so spoiled thinking about it now, but I think it was a sweet way to end that chapter of my childhood. :)
ReplyDeleteI got $0.25 a tooth. I think it was for the first four teeth then after that it stopped. But, I can't believe $40/tooth. That's a bit much!
ReplyDeleteThe Girl Collected
My daughter is almost done with college, but when she lost her first tooth all I had was a $20. So since it was her first..what the h#ck. The next day she stood on her side of the block and yelled to the little boy across the street who had also lost a tooth that day, "How much did you get?" He yells back, "Fifty-cents, how much did you get?" She responds with, "Twenty dollars" The look on that kids face was worth every buck!!
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have a set amount, I think it was just whatever my parents had in their wallets! Usually a $5, but I do remember some $20's! But the most memorable was the lottery scratchers my mom would leave from the tooth fairy!
ReplyDeleteI think the memorable things are best, because I don't remember what I bought with those $20s.
love your blog!
I'm a dental hygienist and when I ask what the 'going rate' for the tooth fairy is I usually hear about $5 per tooth. It cracks me up. I was excited to get coins. For a painful molar I got a silver dollar :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child in the 60's I got 10 cents which was a fortune. Now $2.00 seem pretty appropriate.
ReplyDeleteThe key is a tooth fairy pillow! My sister and I both had these - they have a little pocket that the child puts the tooth in and then the parent can put the money in. No digging under the pillow and risking wake up!
ReplyDeleteMy sister and I always got a $2 bill, and we thought it was really cool as kids.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little I got $1 for each tooth. Then, when I lost my 10th tooth I got a Beanie Baby {which I adored}. Bit milestone teeth brought in 'bigger' rewards. It was really fun!
ReplyDeleteI used to get $1 - $2. Here in Australia the smallest note is a $5, and the $1 and $2 coins are gold, so it was always nice to get the gold coins.
ReplyDeleteI think when I have kids they'll still only get a dollar or two - anything more than this just seems silly. It's just supposed to be a sweet tradition to help ease the scariness of losing teeth, not a source of income!
WOW, $40/tooth?! That's insane! My younger sister, after one night's visit from the tooth fairy when she was little, told my parents this elaborate story detailing her visit from her, including what she was wearing, what they talked about, etc. My parents said it was one of the funniest things they had ever heard! We also got $2 bills for ours. :)
ReplyDeleteI get my son coins from ebay, anything under $5, I try to pick coins that are rare and cool looking. My son is always so happy. I've also used dollar coins!
ReplyDeleteI think I got a dollar for each tooth. Inflation's a bitch, but $40 a tooth? That's setting the bar way too high.
ReplyDeleteI love This American Life. Its one of my favorite NPR shows next to Radiolab.
For my first tooth lost, I was thrilled and delighted to receive a Beanie Baby! I was enamored with it. For all my other teeth, I'd usually get $1 or sometimes a $2 bill. I felt so rich as a little girl!
ReplyDeleteWhen I lost my first tooth, I got a silver link bracelet. For each tooth after that, I found a silver charm under my pillow to add to the bracelet. I'm 23 now, and I still love that charm bracelet. I though it was such a sweet idea by my mom. She also left silver dollars or half dollars, which seemed cooler than dollar bills or quarters at the time. I still have a note from the tooth fairy too, with her footprints on the bottom. :)
ReplyDeleteI live in an alternative universe, where $1 is fine to get from the tooth fairy:). I cannot imagine why anyone would give $40...? Seriously? I guess they don't buy into the whole "simple life" philosophy. My kids were so excited with 8 dimes, or 10 nickels.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter just lost a tooth today, so this is a good reminder that the tooth fairy needs to come tonight. We give two quarters. According to the Tooth Fairy Index, http://www.theoriginaltoothfairypoll.com/, the American average is $2.10.
ReplyDeleteI used to get a dollar for each tooth, and when I had four teeth pulled when I was 7 I got $20 each, the experience was fairly traumatic... The best part was definitely the little tooth fairy boxes that I collected over the years. My grandmother would find them at antique stores, and it started a tradition. They're pretty special!
ReplyDeleteI used to get a dollar for each tooth, and when I had four teeth pulled when I was 7 I got $20 each, the experience was fairly traumatic... The best part was definitely the little tooth fairy boxes that I collected over the years. My grandmother would find them at antique stores, and it started a tradition. They're pretty special!
ReplyDeleteI'm going to cop to it-- in the early 90s my mom used to give my brother & I $5s, $10s & $20s when we lost teeth-- Always 1 bill. I think we'd get the smallest bill she had on her at the time (& we didn't often get cash from her at that age, so we always felt RICH beyond our wildest imagination). I love the gold dollar & $2 bill idea though. I still think those are special. ;-)
ReplyDeleteThis is too funny! I think I got $5 for my first tooth, and then $1 for each after. By the time I was in 3rd or 4th grade I suspected my mom, so one night after I lost a tooth I stayed up after going to bed so I could catch her in the act! She made up some funny excuse, but that was the end of the tooth fairy for me haha.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but reminiscing my childhood and how my mother wonderfully told me stories about tooth fairies. And i have to admit that my mom is very convincing. lol.
ReplyDeleteMy mom gave my brother and I a stuffed tooth with a pocket to place our lost teeth in, probably to make reaching under our pillows to find a tooth an easier task! I can't even IMAGINE how hard it would be search for a baby tooth under a pillow! In the morning we'd wake up to a $1 bill stuffed in the pocket :) I felt so rich!
ReplyDeleteMy sister and me never got any money from the tooth fairy. Instead, our mother would leave small gifts -- a piece of fruit or candy (kind of scandalous for the tooth fairy, come to think of it), a magazine, once even a cool new tooth brush, I think. :)
ReplyDeleteMy parents spared themselves the trouble of taking away the teeth, though, and just left a present under our pillows or on the window sill the night after we lost a tooth, saying the toothfairy would know, of course!
And yeah, my sis and I each had one of those tiny lidded jars made of wood to put the teeth in. I still have mine. :) I'm a little torn between "Yuck!" and "Cool!" now.
We always got a silver dollar. And then we traded it to dad for a regular dollar bill... so he was able to recycle the silver dollar!
ReplyDeleteWe don't give money; instead our tooth fairy brings in a little gift. My son's 8, and he half knows the tooth fairy doesn't exist, but doesn't want to end the fantasy. Or, as he put it: "I don't care if she's real or not, as long as she brings in the gifts".
ReplyDeleteThe other day I didn't have a gift ready, when his tooth suddenly came out, so I had to tell him that the tooth fairy is really busy overseas with other kids, so she's either making her way on the plane, or she's jet lagged.
When he finally got the gift, he asked to EMAIL her and say thank you.
50p to start with and I think it went up to a £1 later- it's a strange tradition isn't it!
ReplyDeleteIt gradually went up a bit as I got older. I think 50p then a £1. It was never more than that I don't think! So I think $1 or $2 is suitable. $40 is just mental for a child!
ReplyDeleteI am from South Africa and we used to believe in the tooth mouse.
ReplyDeleteWe would just leave our tooth on the side table and when we woke up there would be a little note written in squiggly hand writing, in part to disguise my parents hand writing and to imitate a mouth trying to hold a pencil!
We got also got a R1 coin which was really big and round and exciting. I later found all my teeth in an old Shield deodorant roll-on refill jar in my dad’s top drawer. I think it is sweet that he kept them. You would think he would have given up with 4 kids!
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ReplyDeleteI can't really remember how much money I received. I think it was usually a couple dollars or less. One time when I lost a tooth near my birthday while on vacation with a family friend the tooth fairy gave me close to $20! (I think I must have been home sick and they felt bad for me.)
ReplyDeleteI live in Scotland now, and when my daughter starts losing her teeth I think we will probably leave something like a £2 coin, since they are nice and heavy and seem kind of special. :)
We have only had one chance at this...and it didn't start out like I had envisioned. My daughter swallowed the first tooth she has ever lost, so she wrote a note to the tooth fairy explaining what had happened and asked her to bring her another tooth to replace the one she had lost. The tooth fairy left her one dollar bill and one quarter. George Washington is her favorite president so she was thrilled! She thought the tooth fairy MUST have known that. For the next teeth...I am going to be more creative...going to go with more interesting (love the foreign currency idea and I also want to try dollar bill origami) than more valuable. It will make for better memories in the end.
ReplyDeletehttp://ang-enuity.blogspot.com/
I think we used to get 2 quarters for a tooth. I remember when I had 3 loose teeth pulled by the dentist, I got a whopping $20 that night!!
ReplyDeleteBut my parents regularly forgot to leave money under our pillows the night we lost teeth, so it became a running joke in our family that our Tooth Fairy is always running late or getting lost.
I haven't read the other comments but speaking as a mom, the going rate for a tooth is $1-$5.00 . For 40 bucks those teeth better have a diamond in them or at least a gold filling... Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteCracking up over the fact that inflation has managed to affect --everything-- even the Tooth Fairy's gig. I love the idea of leaving a two dollar bill! And, like you, I used to get a quarter. :)
The tooth fairy leaves our kids ten gold coins (one dollar coins). The kids wake up to a magical pile of gold left under their pillows. It would still be magical, if you only left one or two!
ReplyDeleteOh! We have to call the "fairy hotline" to let the tooth fairy know to stop by. She always comes by on non-hectic nights when I'm not likely to forget to "help"!
My first tooth fetched $20. The rest of them were varying amounts, and I didn't really pay attention to how much it was. My kids got about that much for their first tooth lost, and they get $5 for each tooth they lose now. I think it's just enough for it to be special.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, our tooth fairy never took any of our teeth away, she left them for us to keep. My mom has a little jar with all of my baby teeth she collected.
My parents would often forget to be the toothfairy. One time, after leaving my tooth under my pillow for three nights in a row, my older sister took it upon herself to play toothfairy so I wouldn't be disappointed again. :)
ReplyDelete$40 for a tooth? That is just ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteI got a quarter per tooth as a kid. Going rate now (at least in the Boston suburbs) is $1-2 per tooth. I plan to get gold dollar coins and use those. It actually got a few to hide in Easter eggs (gold dollars, not teeth! lmao!) and stashed a few extras in my jewelry box to be ready for when my 6 yr old loses his first tooth. Poor kid doesn't have a wiggly one in sight and every other child in his class has already lost at least one!
The tooth fairy was SO good to me. I often got $20!!! And chocolate money. One time I tried to see if the tooth fairy was real by putting my tooth under my pillow (I thought without my parents knowing), and I still got the cash. It was awesome. I always figured the tooth fairly might be real... Santa no way!
ReplyDeleteCall me a cynic but as a kid I was always determined to catch my parents out on the Tooth Fairy/Santa/Easter Bunny 'scam'. When I lost my second or third tooth I decided to leave a note (read: threat) for the Tooth Fairy: 'either you leave me a white bicycle or I know you're a fraud'. Needless to say, the next morning I woke to a huge lecture from my parents about being rude and ungrateful. But that didn't matter FOR NOW I KNEW THE TRUTH.
ReplyDeleteTurns out it doesn't so much set you free, as leave you a few dollars short...
$1.00. That is the same amount I leave for my kids. The last baby tooth gets $5.00. One time I left a lego minifigure for my son, because he kept asking me if he thought the tooth fairy might do that.
ReplyDeletewhen i lost my baby teeth i got a dime! i gave my kids 25 cents. i think a dollar is good now but anymore is just ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteWe always got silver dollars - not exactly a big expense for mom (ahem), but totally special for me as a kid.
ReplyDeleteone thing i should've noted--i made tooth fairy pillows for my kids and it made it so much easier to find the tooth. also, if i forgot to leave money, i would somehow retrieve the tooth and put the money in the pillow pocket and tell them they needed to check again.
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids, but when I was little, I think the tooth fairy always left me a dollar. That was big money back then!
ReplyDeleteHey Joanna, I loved reading your personal tooth fairy story, as well as the experiences of those included in your post. I grew up in Germany, and there the tooth fairy only shows up for the very first lost tooth (she's a busy lady). Today it's common to leave a Euro piece underneath the child's pillow. When I lost my first tooth, we were on a camping trip in Italy and I received a beautiful sterling silver bracelet (probably purchased at one of the Italian stores nearby.) Waking up in our tent and finding this little treasure underneath my pillow is definitely one of my very favorite childhood memories. If I have children I want to carry on my mom's tradition.
ReplyDeleteThe tooth fairy left a big Eisenhower dollar coin under the pillow. She also wrote something in a Tooth Fairy Journal that was an on-going conversation until most of the teeth were exchanged. My son was very into it...my daughter not as much. I loved it!
ReplyDeleteI got a loonie per tooth, but one day I walked in on my Dad exchanging the tooth for the loonie and instead of making up a story to cover his but he froze for a second, then started to flap his hands like tiny wings. That was pretty much it for me. ;)
ReplyDeleteIn Spain it's a mouse, the one that comes and takes the teeth, Ratoncito Pérez, he's called (Ratoncito is Little Mouse and Pérez a very common name in Spain). I remember hecused to let me little presents or a coin of 100 pesetas (that would be like one dollar), and once I wrote him a letter and he answered back!!!! Actually, it was my dad, of course, who thinks that imagination in kids is the most precious thing. And at the end of the letter he even draw a small piece of cheese (sure mice love cheese!!!). Years latervmy dad showed me both letters again and it was very cool to realise what he had done and also that he had kept them! I loooove my dad!
ReplyDeleteGold dollar coins at our house. The tooth fairy got some to keep on hand after the first tooth came out and the smallest denomination in the house was $5. $5 for the first tooth and $1 thereafter seemed reasonable. The gold dollar coin makes the money seem more special even though it is still just $1. She leaves notes too.
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-law (she's only 11y.o) once lost a tooth but didn't want the tooth fairy to have it. So instead she found something to resemble the tooth and put it under the pillow - the next day she woke up and checked under her pillow only to find a bill left by the tooth fairy! Yep, you gotta be careful - that's one though fairy! Ha ha ;)
ReplyDeleteMy parents never told me about the tooth fairy. They didn't like to tell us these stories (same for Sinterklaas who is like the Dutch Santa Claus) and make us believe something that's not real. Besides that, I absolutely didn't want to give my teeth up. I kept them all in a box and got hysterical when one was lost through the sink. My mom opened up the pipes underneath the sink in the middle of the night but couldn't find it anymore (she is so sweet).
ReplyDelete$40 is crazy for a tooth, I love the idea of foreign currency though!
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ReplyDeleteI think the amounts I received for my teeth increased commensurate with my age (and perhaps expectations), and ranged from a couple of quarters early on to around five dollars later.
ReplyDeleteRecently, my mother gave me my baby book which she found during a spring cleaning session. Inside the box which contained the book, I was surprised to find, among other things, an envelope containing all of my baby teeth and letters I had lovingly written to the tooth fairy! Keeping teeth seems a bit creepy, and my mother and I had a good laugh about it, but I was also so touched that my parents had thought to keep them for all these years.
My five-year-old daughter now has her first loose tooth, and I will endeavour to keep her teeth and letters too, creepy or not!
A 50 cent coin
ReplyDeleteMy daughter gets a buck and a book (she just started to read chapter books). After the first two times she lost her teeth and me rooting under her pillow, my cousin got her a tooth pillow. It's a yellow creature that has a little pocket sewn onto its back. She puts the tooth inside, and it gets exchanged for the buck. It's great b/c the tooth doesn't get lost.
ReplyDeletecg
I got a dollar for most of my teeth, and two dollars for my front teeth. Once in a while, I would get a little prize instead of money, like a new set of crayons or a plastic ring. I had a tooth shaped pillow with a little pocket in front for putting the tooth in, then the tooth fairy would replace the tooth with a dollar coin or a $2 bill. That would solve the problem of being able to find it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I had my wisdom teeth out at age 20, my mom gave me $5 in the tooth pillow and a chocolate shake (eaten with a spoon, of course) as a joke!
I love the idea of leaving foreign currency. I absolutely would have flipped for that when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew is losing his teeth right now and although he could be getting a quarter per tooth, he says he's saving up all of his teeth so he can get the money all at once! The prospect of having $10 is completely outrageous to him.
I was only four when I lost my first tooth (due to an incident involving trying to catch a sky-dancer doll, socks, and a wooden floor,) so my mom felt the need to make it a special experience.
ReplyDeleteThe morning after my tooth fell out, I woke up with a small little envelope with the letter "G" (for Gabriella) written in gold fairy dust (aka glitter.) In the envelope, there were not one but two tickets to Disneyland and two Disney dollars!
I should mention that there was also a trail of fairy dust leading from my pillow all the way to the front door.
My parents would leave me little metal figurines of fairies and my brother little glass animals. Even though other kids got dollars or quarters my mom told me that the tooth fairy gives different little trinkets to different people. I lost all my teeth early so it was nice to a have a little box of tooth fairy gifts. I'm 21 now and am glad have them to remember how magical it seemed.
ReplyDelete-Ella
I'm so happy you mentioned the $2 bill from your brother, growing up this is what my parents always left me, and it was such a special feeling seeing money so unique and different, but having is still be real money! I still have a teddy bear jar at home with a couple old $2 bills that I never had the heart to cash or spend :)
ReplyDeleteOnce I got a check (or what an 8 year old thought a check looked like) for $13.99 which was the exact amount of the Barbie I wanted. It was even signed the tooth fairy. I had a pretty good mom. :)
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ReplyDeleteThat was the mouse coming (here it's "the little mouse"'s job for people!), taking the tooth also like this but giving a gift like a "souvenir", little figurine, etc... The funny is that my mother is afraid of mouses. So once, in the dark, she made fall my bears and dolls: it didn't make noise and she didn't notice that. So in the morning she told me that it was the little mouse that heard noise and had a run, afraid. Then I thought that my mother was the guilty of the mouse's run, that she afraid the mouse, and I cried and was disapointed after her !... :))
ReplyDeleteThe very bad thing is that a day somebody told me, in front of my parents, in same time, that there were the little mouse and Santa Claus (I was 7): hard!!! :(
Marie
My mom used to leave us silver dollars with tiny hearts drawn on some of them with glitter. I still have a couple sitting in a change jar at home. Always loved them.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you know it, Joanna, but in France, we have no tooth fairy ! It's "the tiny mouse" who comes, take the teeth away and leaves 1 or 2 euros... Or small toys!
ReplyDeleteMy son gets 5 gold dollar coins. A tradition we(I) started with his first tooth. He loved the gold dollars, calling the coins "pirate money." He has kept every dollar the tooth fairy has ever left. He has a little leather pouch full of pirate gold.
ReplyDeletehadley has lost four teeth now - and has kept them all! when the first one fell out - she wrote the tooth fairy a letter explaining that she was keeping her teeth. we left her a little gift anyways - a tiny hand cranked music player. she has another three wigglers ready to come out any day - she will keep them, too :)
ReplyDeleteas I recall it was usually a $1 a tooth and then maybe $5 if it was pulled by the dentist haha
ReplyDeleteI think I'd feel inclined to put dollar coins under their pillow for teeth because young ones especially love gold coins. maybe folded money as they got older
When I was a child, I had a tooth shaped box with my named imprinted on it that I left on my nightstand or next to my pillow with my tooth in it. I usually received a folded up dollar in return :)
ReplyDeleteI think I got $5 for my first tooth and $1 for every tooth after that. Although, in retrospect - I'm the oldest child, so that was the first time my parents had to do that... so I wonder if that's all they had on hand and then did the math and realized that just wasn't going to work for them.... hm...
ReplyDeleteMy parents always put silver dollars under! I thought that's what everyone got! I still have them today
ReplyDelete