Just how much does the Tooth Fairy pay these days?

The past week in my house has seen my 5-year-old come out with the following:

“Owww my tooth hurts.”

“No, don’t touch it.”

“Argh, don’t give me an apple it might fall out.”

(and the one I’ve been waiting for)

“Well my cousin got $13 for her tooth.”

Thirteen dollars! So of course I sent an obligatory message to check my niece did in fact get this random, and in my mind extravagant, amount for her tooth. Yep, confirmed. $13. What the hell, thanks a lot sister-in-law. Thanks a lot.

There I was, perplexed, what exactly is the going rate for the Tooth Fairy these days?

I decided to partake in some old fashioned school yard research. At school drop off one morning last week I enquired with other kids in my son’s class about how much they got for their first tooth. The answers ranged from $2 to $20.

A week later I’m still stuck. His tooth is hanging on by a thread, literally, and I’m still undecided how much our Tooth Fairy will give. After I found out my sister-in-law set the stupidly high standard of $13 I was even more confused (seriously, I love you, but $13, that is a random amount I would have to keep on standby just in case).

I probed a little further and asked the bestie what she gave her daughter. $5. Seemed reasonable, I think I can handle $5. Besides, it’s likely to be the only denomination handy in my wallet anyway.

There’s also apparently some weird rule you get more for the first tooth, or molars, or both, I’m not entirely sure. Why isn’t there a Tooth Fairy handbook? While we’re on it, why do some Santas wrap and others don’t? Okay sorry, that’s a whole other story – back to the Tooth Fairy.

Do I start with $5 and then can I revert to a coin? Is that fair? What’s a lot of money these days? 

Has this Tooth Fairy issue always been, an issue? I don’t remember bragging at school but then again $1 isn’t a lot to brag about.

Will he be happy with $5? He better be. Am I going to face this dilemma with every tooth he loses? Do I need to hit up the bank for some cash? Quite frankly I never have any on me and I’m getting to the point where I think it would be easier to leave my key card and PIN in exchange for the tooth.

The more I thought about it, the more I considered a different way to approach this. What about the dentist? Yep, the dentist. After all he’s lost a tooth a check up makes sense. It’s been decided, the Tooth Fairy will be leaving an appointment card under his pillow. I can only imagine how much he’d love that.

Okay fine, I’ll put it with $5, or $10. No, a coin is fine, $2 it is.

I give up. This is too hard. Can someone else decide?

How much do you give your child for a lost tooth?

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