HALLIE EPHRON: It’s been ages since I was the tooth fairy, but a poll from Delta Dental caught my eye, reporting that the average tooth fairy payout has increased 349% since 1998.
Yikes! Talk about inflation... Nowadays, on average, a lost tooth nets nearly... SIX DOLLARS?? And “on average” means that half of the tooth fairies out there are shoveling out more than that. For a tooth!!
I don't remember what my tooth fairy delivered, but I do remember my father threatening to tie a string to that damned tooth and tie the other end of the string to the knob of an open bathroom door, and slam that door to yank out the tooth that I was very disgustingly playing with while it hung from a thread. ICK.
Losing teeth was a big deal for my kids. My daughter Molly was bereft when she literally lost her first tooth in a neighbor’s snow bank and had to put a note explaining it under her pillow instead of the actual tooth.
The trauma of it had us reading the wonderful ONE MORNING IN MAINE children's book to her, all about a little girl who loses her tooth while digging for clams. So traumatic.
After that Molly always left a note for the tooth fairy, hoping that flattery would make the tooth fairy more generous. I don't think it worked.
When I asked Molly today about her memories of the tooth fairy, she said, “My tooth fairy was very cheap.”
Which is exactly, to the word, what her sister Naomi said. “Cheap!” And by way of piling on, Naomi added. “One time we were in Switzerland and the tooth fairy thought I’d be excited to get foreign coins but it amounted to about 12 cents. I couldn’t even buy chocolates.”
I asked her what her kids (my grands) get for a tooth and her answer was, “They get a dollar and they’re happy with that.” I did not say what I was thinking, but it rhymes with bleep.
Did you survive the trauma of losing your first tooth? Do you have memories of the tooth fairy? Did you leave a note under your pillow? And what did the tooth fairy usually leave you?
I vaguely remember putting a tooth under the pillow for the Tooth Fairy [no trauma associated with tooth loss] . . . I think we got a quarter. I am certain that the Tooth Fairy gave our grandbaby a dollar when she visited here last summer [and Mia was excited about that] . . . .
ReplyDeleteA quarter was what Iprobably got, too - but you could get a whole lot of chewing gum with a quarter in those days.
DeleteProbably a dollar. Never left a note.
ReplyDeleteFunny! I'm not sure what we got - a dime? A quarter? I think my kids (now in their mid-thirties) got fifty cents, but I'd have to ask them.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest lost his first tooth at age five and a half in a nightclub in West Africa. We were living in Mali but on vacation in Ivory Coast. We'd stopped into this club for a cool drink in the early afternoon. No other customers were there, and the boys were having fun running around the dance floor when Allan said he'd lost his tooth. The owner came out and helped us look - and found it!
I love that the owner helped... and that you FOUND it!
DeleteWow. I only got a dime. Not sure if that means I'm old (I am) or my tooth fairy was cheap!
ReplyDeleteI think I got a quarter, but I can't really remember. Once the tooth fairy left a little magic wand, a glittery star glued to a gold-painted popsicle stick. (My mother was very creative.)
ReplyDeleteWhat a sweet tooth fairy!
DeleteI do remember putting my tooth under the pillow, no note. I got a quarter.
ReplyDeleteI discovered the tooth fairy as a parent of a young child. I don’t remember what we gave for a tooth but with a tight budget we were certainly cheap
ReplyDeleteDanielle
Our tooth fairy was cheap. Probably a quarter. Though I remember my kids cashed in with wisdom teeth extraction: Ben and Jerry's, frozen cheesecake, DVDs. We eventually sacrificed the baby teeth for science projects, soaking them in a variety of liquids and weighing them. Gatorade and Coca Cola did the most damage.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea -- to soak the teeth, Margaret!
DeleteI love the science projects! Very clever. And I'll bet it's something they remember.
DeleteThe tooth fairy left me a nickel! Of course back then even a nickel was worth something. Then I got an idea to rake in a bit more cash. We had soft rubber curlers that my mother would put in my hair on Saturday nights. It was really a waste of time since my hair never held a curl back then. But each pink curler had 2 little tip, which I bit off and placed under my pillow. I was shocked that the tooth fairy never fell for that. Years later I mentioned it to my mother and she said she had always wondered what had happened to those curlers.
ReplyDeleteBy the time my children came along the TF was leaving a quarter! I remember one time my daughter had lost a tooth and for some unknown reason put it in a glass of water on her dresser. Maybe she wanted it nice and clean before she left it for the TF; I don't know. But Mr. Tidy, her father, came along and took the glass to the kitchen and proceed to send the water and the tooth down the drain! Daughter was outraged. Mr. Tidy reached into his wallet and told her he would make it right. "How much does the tooth fairy usually leave?" he asked her. Before she could answer I chimed in from the side lines. "Tell him five dollars" I said. He gave me a dirty look but did give her some folding money so all ended well.
Great story!
DeleteThe note is priceless Hallie, so glad you kept it! Our grandkids are both losing teeth like mad. What's funny to me is the big chiclets that grow in to replace them:).
ReplyDeleteYeah for awhile those little mouths seem jam-packed with teeth.
DeleteLaughing so hard at "rhymes with bleep".
ReplyDeleteOur kids mostly got quarters, except once. Holly is my caboose child, and by the time she was losing teeth I'd been in the child-rearing business already for a long time, and I was pretty over some parts. Plus, I was working two jobs, including a mail order publishing business at home. The Tooth Fairy kept forgetting to leave money, shame on her, so after three (!) nights of not paying attention, "she" wrote out a long, circular note in fairy handwriting, explaining why the delay. And leaving two dollars for it, as well. Holly was delighted, and learned a lesson about delayed gratification. Or so I tell myself. We still have the note somewhere, I suspect.
Karen, we too left many notes from the toothfairy, and Santa Claus. In the case of the fairy, it was usually that we forgot, or on several occasions had no money to contribute - when paid, there was no interest included! As for Santa - that poor fellow had distribution problems...
DeleteFrom one forgetful mom to another, high five, Margo!
DeleteAt one point I cleaned out my little treasures box and found a baggie of loose baby teeth. Whose? No clue. They got pitched.
DeleteI love that your tooth fairy wrote a note, too! It's a big responsibility being a tooth fairy.
DeleteA quarter. And I was thrilled with that!
ReplyDeleteWhoa! At a nearly 350% increase in tooth fairy payout I'm surprised the IRS hasn't added a TF line in the income portion of federal tax filings. ;)
ReplyDeleteI have no memories of the Tooth Fairy, though I do remember playing with loose teeth as they tottered on the brink of actually coming out. In Canada we now have a coin for $1 (a "loonie" 'coz of the loon pictured on one side) and a coin for $2 (a "toonie" 'coz it rhymes with loonie). I'd bet that up here the TF couldn't get away with anything less than a loonie under the pillow and possibly even a toonie, but I have no direct experience.
ReplyDeleteI knew about the loonie but not the toonie - here in the US we rarely see coins of any kind any more. My grands were baffled when I showed them 50 cents and a dollar and two-dollar coins.
DeleteI got a quarter of baby teeth and a dollar each for the teeth I had to have removed by the dentist prior to getting braces and my wisdom teeth. The same for my kids.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book is The Tooth Fairy by Anita Feagle published in 1962. It shows the things the tooth fairy does with all the teeth.
Going to have to find that book.
DeleteI think we got a nickle, maybe up to a dime, when I stopped being a child. My kids got a quarter, up to a Loonie ($1) at the end – born 1979-1990. I asked my daughter and her first kid got a Toonie $2- a coin, and the 2nd one still has his teeth. One time I asked this question at work and was shocked when (c2010) kids were getting $5 – that would mean paper money! Do you in the US have coined money to pop $6 (according to the chart) under the child’s pillow? Will the kids soon be expecting an e-transfer?
ReplyDeleteMargo, the US does have silver dollars, but they aren't used very frequently. Not in my experience. After that, it's all paper.
DeleteSo does that spoil the tf experience - it was always a 'silver coin' - seemed to have magic about it, rather than a dollar bill?
DeleteI'm not sure my kids have ever seen a silver dollar, so I don't think so.
DeleteNo trauma for me. I think I got a quarter. My kids got a dollar.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew gets five dollars.
I got a quarter from the tooth fairy and was thrilled. When my daughter lost her teeth she got a loonie ($1) for each of her teeth. My mother made her a little pillow that was embroidered on the front and on the back was a small pocket that was embroidered with My Tooth. She put her tooth in the pocket and hung the pillow from its ribbon on the door of her room. The tooth fairy put the loonie in the pocket to replace the tooth.. When she lost both front teeth at the same time, she got $5 and was very pleased.
ReplyDeleteLove the tooth fairy pillow... what a great idea.
DeleteOur tooth fairy is also "cheap." $1 a tooth. It is a tooth after all.
ReplyDeleteFor my first tooth I got a nice shiny dime, but by the last tooth I'm pretty sure it was a quarter. Which is big inflation for--what? a period of six years? Maybe when my sister's teeth came along two years after mine, my parents decided to up the price for all of them. I think our son (now 31) got one Swiss franc = about a dollar. I don't remember him complaining at the time.
ReplyDeleteFrom Celia: I'm laughing Hallie, I don't think I met the tooth fairy until I came to America, that is the United States of. I'm sure no one gave me money for my lost teeth when I was small, not to mention being at boarding school at the age of 7 and I'm sure the nuns weren't passing out money for lost teeth. I know we paid .25 per tooth to Olivia, she had a little case for the lost tooth. I have to admit I was a bit horrified when working a kids birthday party, this was during my catering days, to find that one of her gifts was a tiny silver box with a fairy on the lid, and, and wait for it. This small gift had been bought at Tiffany. No words, really.
ReplyDeleteWow. Now that's a gift for a family with disposable income.
DeleteLosing a tooth was always exciting, never traumatic! The tooth fairy tended to leave a quarter and some candy, usually Chuckles or another candy I can’t remember the name of, but it was a chocolate bar with fruit and nuts. No notes.
ReplyDeleteWhen the tooth fairy visited my brother’s oldest child one time, my brother didn’t realize my niece wasn’t fully asleep. The next day she told her parents “I think the tooth fairy has a hairy arm!”
DebRo
DebRo, too funny! A hairy-armed tooth fairy!
DeleteWasn’t the Tooth Fairy in the Santa Clause movies a man? If I recall correctly, he was a big, burly man who, I’m sure had hairy arms!
DeleteA hairy armed tooth fairy!!
DeleteDeb, was that fruit and nut candy sort of cube shaped? Thinking of one circa 1950s called “Chunky”. Oh, memories. Elisabeth
DeleteI don't remember the tooth fairy as a kid--I do remember losing teeth--myself and my siblings. My favorite memory is of my nephew--lost a tooth, put it under his pillow. My brother left for work very early in the morning; when I came in to watch the boys, I checked under his pillow as he was sleeping--no money! I grabbed a handful of change from my purse and when I returned, both he and his younger brother were awake. The tooth fairy had forgotten him, he said. His brother was watching, very concerned. As I sat down on the bed beside him, I slid my hand under the pillow and deposited the money. "Are you sure? Better check again." I will never forget the look of surprise and delight on his face or the look of excitement on his brother's face when he pulled out his hand with a little fist full of coins.
ReplyDeleteSo sweet! You were the tooth fairy's tooth fairy
DeleteA small friend, Francesca, was unimpressed by the five bucks she got for losing her first tooth. So she wrote the Tooth Fairy a letter
ReplyDeleteDearTooth Fairy,
Please return my tooth.
Hers is your money back
Love Francesca
Wow. Francesca is a savvy young lady, isn’t she? “I didn’t get the compensation I wanted so I’m going to take my business elsewhere.” — Pat S
DeleteHysterical, Ann!
DeleteCheekY!
DeleteSeems like we didn't know about the tooth fairy for our very first losses, daddy being British and all that, but soon found our. A dime or a quarter was a thrilling amount. We could definitely buy candy (not so great for teeth) at the drug store. One of my son's teeth came out while we were at a bluegrass festival near Mt. St. Helens. He was rough-housing and either swallowed it or it fell on the ground and was lost. Very traumatic! He had to write a note too, although I don't still have it. Then there was the time when the tooth fairy called him on Uncle Rich's phone to discuss her upcoming visit.
ReplyDeleteI don’t remember losing my very first tooth, but I definitely remember we got a quarter for it. The TF even wrapped the quarter in aluminum foil so it was shiny! A quarter was a big deal when my sister and I were of tooth-losing age. (I’m also old enough that I was paid .50/hour when I babysat and thought that was big money!) I don’t remember what my son got but it was definitely paper money. — Pat S
ReplyDeleteTooth fairy! Absolutely sacrosanct.And SO exciting. I think we got...a dime? A quarter? Certainly not a dollar... And we always used to try to stay awake and see her.
ReplyDeleteperhaps I got a quarter. I cannot recall if I got a quarter or a dollar from the tooth fairy. Diana
DeleteWe put our lost teeth in a small glass of water and left it on the kitchen windowsill. We did need to be patient a few times because the tooth fairy was very busy. It was exciting when our molars earned a quarter.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lost my two front upper teeth at school, they were placed in a "hot dog" money envelope and sent home with me. Some twenty, or so, years later, I was a working as a before school day care teacher for the YMCA, in the same school district, when one of my charges asked why his apple was bleeding. I thankfully found the tooth in the apple. I went to the office and discovered they still used those same "hot dog" money envelopes. 😀
Worst mom moments ever were forgetting the tooth fairy was supposed to come - repeatedly. Ugh! This proved to me that Elf on the Shelf would have killed me. When she did remember, the Hooligans got a big old one dollar coin (fancy, I know!) because the post office gave them as change in the stamp vending machine and I had no idea what to do with them.
ReplyDeleteThough I remember losing my tooth and I received money from the tooth fairy, I have no memory of how much money it was. Maybe a dollar? When I was a young child, I thought it was cool to have all of the coins - penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar and a dollar coin. Sometimes there was a dollar coin. And I once saw a $2 dollar bill. IN those days, a dollar bill was a big deal. In those days, I think it was possible to buy a donut or candy with a dollar bill at my neighborhood shop.
ReplyDeletePuzzled that your daughter ? granddaughter ? did not have enough money for chocolate in Switzerland. Unless it was a Joke? If true, how much did chocolate cost (a chocolate bar? a box of chocolate?) and what was the American dollar to Swiss franc? When I went to Europe, I was surprised by how much Swiss franc I was able to get in conversion from American dollars.
Diana
I think I got a quarter, and I think my daughter got a dollar. Granddaughter gets anywhere from $1 to $5, depending on what they have on hand. It's tough for the tooth fairy these days, I suspect, when no one carries cash anymore!
ReplyDeleteDebs, that was always the panic moment for Ross and me, as we scrounged around for quarters at 9pm!
DeleteMy most memorable tooth fairy moment was returning home from a four day visit to my childless aunt in another town. (This was a big deal for the 7 year old me in 1950s). I announced to my parents that “Tooth Fairies In New Britain pay ONE DOLLAR for a tooth, not a dime!” I had lost 2 or 3 while visiting. Thanks for topic, so that I remembered this now. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteAnd then there are the times when the tooth fairy forgets to take the tooth and leave the money! That calls for some clever storytelling!
ReplyDeleteI swallowed my first tooth. It came out while I was eating dinner, and I didn't even notice. I was upset, but we left a note and the tooth fairy still came.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I got a quarter. Maybe 50 cents. Nothing too extravagant or exciting.
I got a quarter as a kid, but it was shiny! Over the course of the tooth-fairy years for my own kids (1998-2009) inflation struck, and a quarter became 50 cents and eventually a dollar. Sorry, older two. Six dollars seems - excessive. I would put it at a buck twenty-five; that's still enough to buy a toy at Dollar Tree!
ReplyDeleteSort of off topic, but I had a friend whose whose boyfriend gave her a necklace made out of his baby teeth. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteOh, ick. Elisabeth
DeleteI'm guessing I got a dime or a quarter. I still have a horrifying picture of my mother coming at me with a kleenex to pull a loose tooth. She didn't believe in waiting for it to fall out. The tooth fairy visited our house. Unfortunately, the rat visited my husband's house; his dad was from Louisiana and the rat visited them. No fairies. So controversy erupted in our home over whether the tooth fairy or the rat would take away our son's teeth. In the end, the entity I named the tooth rat won the job.
ReplyDeleteI don't have any strong memories of losing my teeth as a kid, but I do vaguely remember getting a quarter per tooth, and it might have gone up to fifty cents towards the end of tooth losing. I'm sure my kids started at a dollar, and it did go up, but I think it was a few dollars. I do remember forgetting to make the exchange on one of my son's teeth before he woke up, and the tooth fairy got a note from him suggesting she should leave more because it was late.
ReplyDeleteBut we sure can smile big now!!
ReplyDelete