What’s Your Tooth Fairy’s Payout?
Girlie Girl is about to lose her very first tooth! Needless to say, she is very excited and scared at the same time. Since this is my very first experience with this situation, I have no idea what the Tooth Fairy should leave.
Is the first tooth worth more than the rest? Whatever I give her for the first one, will she expect the same for all the others? How much did your kids get from the Tooth Fairy?
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About the author: Owner and founder of An Island Life. Sharing my life as a mother to 3 wonderful daughters, working as a flight attendant, and living a blessed life in Hawaii. |
Ahhhh… the toothfairy. If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t allow her in my house! LOL! My kids got a dollar! And I thought that was sufficient. Apparently I am waaaaaay behind in the times though! I hear about kids getting $5, $10 and $20 — PER tooth! One child, when I was teaching elementary school came in and had gotten an expensive video game left under his pillow! I thought “Good grief – she’s the TOOTH fairy – not Santa Claus!”….
I will say this … if you TELL her the tooth fairy leaves something SPECIAL for the first tooth, then she will NOT expect as much for each one after. But if you just give her whatever, and don’t say a thing… of course she will expect that again! It’s all in how YOU handle it.
we did a dollar for every year the tooth had been in existence…i.e. she was 6 when she lost her first one so she got 6 dollars. Unfortunately, she has been slow to lose teeth and is still losing them at 9 yrs of age!
When I was growing up, I heard stories about the tooth fairy. When I lost my tooth, I put it under my pillow but the tooth fairy missed it. I’ll make sure to give her proper directions when it’s my son’s turn.
Our Tooth Fairy leaves $1.00 when the kids pull their teeth. Two of our children had to get teeth pulled by the dentist when their baby teeth were just not falling out fast enough. Katherine had her 4 bottom teeth pulled and the TF left $5.00. I figured for the shot and pain an extra dollar would help!
The tooth fairy at our house leaves those little golden dollar coins. My son thinks they are just like pirate gold. He gets two with every tooth.
What a fun age!
Our tooth fairy leaves whatever she can scrounge up. There are special circumstances that merit a 100% fairy match by us, the parents:
1. She pulls it herself when she’s scared out of her mind and works on it for a long time to get ‘er done (showing bravery and dedication to her mission).
2. She opens up her mouth at the dentist for an extraction and injection.
3. It’s the first tooth.
4. It’s the last tooth.
We recently experienced the last tooth, and the tooth fairy presented her with a neat little container filled with all of the teeth she’d lost, and she thought that was the coolest thing ever.
One down – one to go.
I’m not much help in this department, but I’m definitely interested in hearing other’s comments so I’ll be ready when our time comes. Apparently inflation has really taken it’s toll on the TF…we only got a quarter when I was of tooth-losing age! (And we thought we were rich) Let us know how your Tooth Fairy mission goes!
I’m absolutely embarrassed to tell you this, but our boys received $5 per tooth from the TF. I know. I fell into the trap. I was so excited about GD losing his first tooth that I got carried away. And didn’t mention that the first tooth was special. So, he came to expect $5 per tooth from that point on. And of course, I had to be fair to MK … so, $5 a tooth it was. And MK still has some teeth left …
I like the gold coin suggestion. It’s shiny, pretty and somehow means more than simply receiving paper money. If I had to do it over again, I’d go with the gold coin idea.
wow. peanut is just getting her teeth, so we won’t have to deal with her losing them for a while… but inflation is something else! when i was losing my teeth in the early 80s, i got a QUARTER each. not $20 or a video game!!
dang…. must be nice to be a kid nowadays!
the “tooth fairy” made the mistake of giving our first daughter ten bux on her first tooth. oops!
with three kids, the tooth fairy goes to the bank and pick’s up one or two shiny Sacajawea’s or two shiny half dollar coins. they find it facinating!!
=)
I would say a dollar for the first one and if you want to raise it later go for it! But I think that a dollar is plenty!
I always got a dollar, but I had a lot of my teeth pulled by the dentist and then I would get $2 because my parents said “the tooth fairy must have known how much work that was and how brave you were”
but otherwise just a dollar
I wanted to do a Sacagawea coin for her first one, but DH felt that she should be able to spend all the money she gets. So it’s always been a paper dollar for each tooth. But I did write her a letter from the tooth fairy for the first one.
We’ve still got about 12 more to go…right? I-teeth & 2 sets of molars.
Teeth in our family are very slow coming in and coming out. My aunt would have her first son’s teeth pulled and he got $5 per tooth, for her second son she just waited and I think he got a quarter (she’s been treating her kids like that all the time though…she’s a B!)
In our house, Tooth fairy leaves $1 for the first tooth and for molars; for all others she leaves $.75.
When the first teeth were lost around here, the kids got $1. Then one day dd lost a tooth the evening before we went to Disney World. So she decided to take it with her. She put it under her pillow and Tinkerbell left her a $5 Disney dollar!! From that point on, she’s always saved her teeth for Disney trips. So has ds now that he’s lost teeth. Of course, sometimes they forget to take them. I happen to have two teeth on a dish on my desk. We have no idea who they belong to. So that saved me $10!
In my husband’s family they have their own tooth fairy tradition. Instead of spending money they leave Mercury Dimes (available at any coin shop), which they call Fairy dimes. It’s a good way to get a coin collection going and sort of adds to the magic.
I definitely think whatever you leave the first time is what will be expected the next! I would say just a buck or two would be sufficient…with a maximum of $5.00 if you want to be especially generous. I am really suprised at these people who say they have heard of people leaving $20.00 or video games, etc. That is crazy (in my opinion).
This brings up an idea for me though..I need to ask on my blog about what the going rate for a babysitter is. (my son who is 12 is going to start babysitting occasionally and someone asked him what he charges….)
This is a very popular topic right now among my friends (a bunch of us have kids of similar age). The concensus was that $5 is given for the first tooth and $1 is given for each thereafter. Of course, we all do things differently and I think a couple of the Mom’s still leave quarters because they sound like more money
.
As a kid I used to get a quarter or two if it were big pain, etc. My husband goes way over the top with our daughter. The first time I think he gave her two dollars. That seems to be pretty standard now.
Hugs,
Holly
Glennis, our toothfairy (aka Mulletman), leaves $1 and a one of a kind, badly written poem.
I would say definitely whatever you give the first time she will expect the next times, etc. I like the idea of giving a fun coin like a 50 cent piece or a gold dollar coin (and who said you can’t spend the sacagewea dollars?)
I think we got quarters when we were kids, but then again quarters don’t buy much anymore…
My kids get $1.00 for every tooth they lose, no matter which one it is. Someone in my daughter class got a webkin….id be broke…my 6 year old lost 3 teeth in two weeks…which only earned her $3.00. And that is plenty.
I don’t remember how much I got for my first tooth, and my sister’s boys aren’t old enough yet to have visits from the Tooth Fairy. But my brother and sister in law gave my niece received $20 for her first tooth! I doubt that’s the going rate – I hope not! The Tooth Fairy would be flat broke!
jane, pinks & blues
Our tooth fairy left the dollar coins also.
(The only time she left a little more was when one of the baby teeth had roots and had to be removed through oral surgery.)
How sweet that Girlie Girl is losing her first tooth! Kids look so cute with a snaggly-tooth grin!
I would say $1 or $2 dollars. And, hey! Why not a new toothbrush? That could be fun…
Awww gosh they grow up fast. I think we are close to losing one here but not sure yet.
I think with the first tooth we will do 5.00 and then after 1.00.
My daughter lost her first two teeth just before Christmas last year. She got 25-cents per tooth. My husband felt like he was being stingy, but she’s still a kid. Money is a foreign concept to her. I argued that coins are “cooler” to a kid than dollar bills. And she was thrilled with the quarters under her pillow the next morning. No questions asked.
How exciting!
We don’t do money – our tooth fairy leaves little fairies… The first tooth was worth an umbrella. Really – my daughter had been wanting one for a long time.. so it made it special.
My other daughter is getting ready to loose hers too – I’m getting her a little tooth blanki called toothi. Sorry to advertise here, but I just think it’s such a cool thing: a little blanket looking thing with a pocket – she can put her next tooth in and it will be easier for the tooth fairy to leave the money in the little pocket!
Oh.. I just saw this on your store…
She will love it, it’ll make the first tooth so special!
http://islandbabyboutique.net/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=ToothFairyPillows
Well, I don’t have any kiddos yet, so I don’t know what the TF pays out these days. To me, it seems like the TF always carries coins and not paper money.
You must take a photo once the tooth is gone.
Abby’s lost 3 teeth in the past few months. We give $1.00 per tooth and she’s thrilled with that.
One thing I would recommend – a tooth fairy pillow or something similar to put the tooth in. Those things are tiny! It took hubby and I 10 minutes with a flashlight to locate the first tooth from where it had shifted from under her pillow the first time. I bought a tooth fairy pillow the next day and the other two were easy!
Congrats to Girlie Girl and I hope the tooth comes out soon!
My kids have been taught fact/fiction so they know it is a fictional thing but we play along. The TF finds great treasures at the dollar store and keeps a stash in hiding (you never know when it is going to happen) It is a better value than giving $ it has more of a thought to it. Whatever applies to the child s likes is kept an eye out for . rarely over a $1-2 of value. If it is an especially hard tooth to loose it is a comfort toy or a reward. Like “Wow Mom How did she know I wanted jacks!”?
When Marissa lost her teeth, the ToothFairy brought her $1. Josh has lost a few of his and he’s gotten $1 also. Now my neice, my SIL and BIL give her $5, and Josh has asked why she gets more than him. I have to think of something before his next tooth falls out. I like the idea of the golden dollar like Pirate money. I don’t remember how much the toothfairy left me, I’m sure it was only a dime or a quater at most.
The tooth fairy always left a $1 at my house. I have heard that others get $5, 10, 20 ~ I have heard the brunt of it from my boys, and told them sorry but our tooth fairy only carries one dollar bills in her pouch.
It started as a quarter and ended as a dollar. I am just hoping to find codeine under the pillow when I lose the wisdom teeth
For her first tooth we gave her a dollar plus she got to pick out something she wanted at Target;) Teeth after that are still a dollar, but no extras.
Our tooth fairy left a whole 25 cents for the first tooth! It gets expensive with 4 kids, so this tooth fairy is pretty frugal.
When our older two were young, a quarter. Then it became two and stayed that way. I think if you start out too much, you are setting presidence–and what if you can’t find more than four quarters lying around the house the night she loses her tooth and it’s 11pm!!?
The first tooth, my daughter got a toothbrush and the book Junie B Jones, Toothless Wonder. After that she got a silver dollar for each tooth. She is 12, still has a loose tooth. I had gotten the silver dollars from my grandfather when he passed away. She still has them all. I also thought about $2 bills. I have a bunch of those in a box too. The silver dollars were just easier to get to when she lost the second tooth. My sister now does the same thing. We have not done the tooth fairy thing since she learned there was no Santa, Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny from her second grade Christian School teacher….
First tooth is the most. Well, except if any ever have to be professionally pulled, those require higher amounts for the added suffering. . . .
Well Ashlyn got those Susan B Anthony dollars for regular teeth and $2 bills for molars. She busted my ex-hubby the first go around but he covered by saying that he was just making sure that the TF could get to it. LOL