Friday, August 30, 2013
DWAYNE JOHNSON'S MONEY CLIP: According to the latest annual survey by Visa, children are receiving an average of $3.70 per-tooth from the Tooth Fairy in 2013, as compared with $3.00 last year. Ninety percent of families pay ransom for their children's teeth, with 33% going with a flat dollar, 6% giving $20 or more per tooth, and 2% reaching a flabbergasting $50+ threshold.
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I don't ever recalling getting other than $0.50 for a tooth, which admittedly was pretty good scratch in the mid-1970s. Except once: the day I lost my first tooth coincided with the day my Dad's salary doubled. I'm sure it helped secure college and whatnot for the rest of the family but for me that meant a crisp $5 bill. Boo-yah!
ReplyDeleteThe Little Earthling has never tried to collect on a lost tooth, always just chucking them in the trash before we notice. The Wee Earthling is just about to lose her first and I assume she expects a My Little Pony under her pillow or something.
$1. Max. I don't have children, but I do have VERY STRONG feelings about this.
ReplyDeleteWho the heck gets more than a quarter for a tooth?
ReplyDeleteI got a quarter in the late 80's/early 90's. Although no tooth fairy. I specifically remember the fight I had with my parents who did not want me placing teeth under my pillow (or change, whichever was less hygienic). I freaked out because then how would the tooth fairy know how to find them? So my parents offered me a quarter and promised it was the same rate that the tooth fairy paid.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd be interested in seeing is the mode and the standard deviation. Some quick head math says that that top 2% is shifting the mean quite a bit to the right.
My mom made me a pillow with a special pocket and a cross-stitch insert on it that said,
ReplyDeleteTooth fairy, tooth fair, please be kind
In this pocket, a tooth you'll find
Take it out, and leave for me
A nickel, a dime, or maybe three.
So that's what? 30¢ max? 5¢ minimum?
Kids these days....
Which has risen more comparatively, Tooth Fairy payouts or college tuition?
I've got two still losing teeth, and all they get is a quarter. Actually, the younger is holding one until she loses another wiggly one, to figure out what she gets.
ReplyDeleteMy kids get $5 for the first tooth, $1 for each subsequent tooth. Except when Daddy and Mommy screw up and independently place the loot, in which case the kid is told that the Tooth Fairy was so proud of him for shlepping his tooth back from NY that she slipped him an extra buck.
ReplyDeleteI usually got 25-50cents (where the heck is the cent sign on my keyboard?!? Does it no longer exist? how long has it been gone?), except when I lost a few teeth in a bad bike accident. I remember getting $5- probably for my pain and suffering. At the time, I'm sure it seemed great, but it hasn't really covered the 35+ years of expensive detail work I've had since then, not to mention the 35+ years I have to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteWhen my daughter starts to loose teeth, I think we'll do what Marsha does- $5 for first and $1 for every one after.
I'm pretty sure I received somewhere between $0.50 and $1.00 per tooth. However, one time I decided it would be fun to see what my parents would do if I put the tooth in a glass of water and told them that I hoped it would grow into a money tree. It worked. My Dad took a stick from the back yard, made flowers out of dollar bills, and put a few coins on the branches. I probably made over $2.50 on that tooth. It only worked once.
ReplyDeleteWe're similar to Marsha - $5 for the first tooth, $2 for each subsequent tooth, and a ridiculous letter from the Tooth Fairy to accompany each of them. It usually includes some terrible tooth puns and an attempt to conjure up a truly nightmarish image that will go right over the kids' heads. For a long time it had to do with the idea that the Tooth Fairy was buying children's teeth in order to glue them all over her 1989 Mazda 323 (for some reason the kids never put it together that that was my law school car), which is kind of a terrifying thing to picture. The last time we had a missing tooth, Spaceboy 2.0 was really into origami, so we also did some dollar-bill origami that he ended up keeping for a long time. I think that Spaceboy 1.0 likes the letters even more now that he's in on the secret--he gets that they're funny, instead of just weird.
ReplyDeleteWe've told our daughters that the Tooth Fairy (and there's a different fairy for each location) gathers all the kids' teeth and puts them in a pile behind Citizens Bank Park where the Phillie Phanatic watches over them.
ReplyDeleteWe do the ridiculous letter from the tooth fairy (different TF for each kid, mind you), but we've never given money - we give books or toys instead. Nary a complaint, particularly when it's a book.
ReplyDeleteIn Canada with our loonies and toonies, it still feels like change to leave $1 or $2 for a tooth, which was our going rate, depending on what money was around.
ReplyDeleteWe got the kids to leave their tooth in a glass of water, and when the tooth fairy dived in to get it, fairy dust from whatever dress she was wearing would turn the water that colour. Our kids would be just as excited (if not more) at the colour of the water as the money they would get.
Poor Ronnie Loeberfeld! (If that sounds mysterious to you, then you STILL haven't taken the 2 minutes you need to take to listen to this: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/188/kid-logic?act=0#play)
ReplyDeleteI was told the Tooth Fairy was building a house with the teeth she collected. We would leave notes requesting that the tooth be placed in a certain location in the house (windowsill, oven handle, etc.) $1/tooth. Fairy's handwriting looked suspiciously like Joan's, but she refuses to confirm to this day.
ReplyDelete