Boo lost her first tooth today at school. If she had lost her tooth at home I was fully prepared to glue it back into place and send her off to school…….the kids get a free homework pass if they lose a tooth in class.
Me: So you cried when you lost it? Did it hurt?
Boo: I cried because I was happy. I was waiting and waiting and waiting for it to get out.
Me: We’ll tape it in your baby book.
Boo: You can’t….the tooth fairy takes it.
Me: He’ll leave it behind if you leave a note.
Boo: Why do you keep saying “HE”?!
I searched online and found that last year the average was $3.00 a tooth. That’s crazy. I used to get 25 cents. Boo is getting 25 cents. I told her that if any of her friends tell her that they got more than 25 cents it’s because their parents subsidized the tooth fairy payment.
(Update: Mr. LBB thinks we should give her a dollar because of inflation…..if we can find a dollar.)
Boo: Hushpuppy would only get 25 cents…..*
Me: …..and some catfood.
Boo: Do you think she ever had to eat her pets?
Me: I don’t think so.
Boo: Would we ever eat Diesel?
Me: No….it wouldn’t be worth the effort.
*That’s a reference to Beasts of the Southern Wild if you haven’t seen it. Boo bawled through the whole thing…..twice. I find myself referencing Hushpuppy about 5 times a day now in conversation.
******
Boo: Guess what….I found an eyelash on the soap in the shower. I made a wish.
Me: How did you know whose eyelash it was? What if that was my eyelash? You might have stolen my wish.
Boo: Well I blew it down the drain…..it’s gone now.
Me: What did you wish for?
Boo: I can’t tell you…..but if you tell me what you would have wished for I’ll tell you if it might come true.
Me: A unicorn.
Boo: Not getting it.
Too Funny…I LOVE your conversations!! =)
LOL – love the “not getting it” too. We decided on $1.00 for the tooth fairy – I went to the bank and got the $1 “gold” coins. She’s thrilled with them!!
We told the kid that the tooth fairy starts out with a certain amount of money each night – so if a ton of kids lose teeth, they only get a little bit of money. If only a few do, they get more. That way we are covered if we only have a quarter, or a dollar or whatever on us on the nights we have to pay up. Lol
Awesome! Love this.
Hilarious! My daughter lost her first back in July she lost 2 in 12 hours. I went to the bank and got $20 worth of gold dollars, she absolutely loves them. Only 1 per tooth but she’s down 6 already.
I thought I was the only one to google how much the going rate is for a tooth these days. My son swallowed his first lost tooth. He wanted us to “look” for it. I told him I could get him some gloves and he could try to find it himself. He said ” give me the gloves”, I stopped him there. The price I give has varied but I make it fun by doing money origami. The tooth fairy has left boots and a shirt behind. So if you see a half naked tooth fairy flying around he probably came from our house. Apparently the tooth fairy isn’t a good driver. When I sprinkled “fairy dust” on the dresser my son just said the fairy was driving his Matchbox cars and crashed. Kids are funny.
Priceless.
You and Boo have such adult conversations it cracks me up. How doe she know so much about everything? I made some small envelopes decorated with a “tooth fairy” image and I was telling my friend about them. I told her that the parents can put some coins in the envelope and she says “coins? I gave my granddaughter $5.00” Boy, times have changed. Mr. LBB must be right about inflation. I used to get $.25 too.
Love the dialogue. She’s a thinker!!
And I watched “Beasts” last week…. I wasn’t sure if I really liked it, but the more I thought about it, the more I loved it. Is Boo saying “I’m the Man!”?? And I can just hear (read?) you saying “Ain’t nobody like a pity party havin’ ass woman.” 🙂
Ours gives golden dollars….and the tooth goes in a glass of water and it turns glittery colors….wrote about it on my blog…makes finding the tooth a whole lot easier!
I used to get .25, then my mom married my step-dad and they got $1. WooHoo. My kids get $5 for the first tooth or any tooth pulled by a dentist. All others are $2 and I try to use interesting money they don’t see all the time. Like $2 bills, Susan B Anthonys, silver dollars, etc.
My son has left a “please leave my tooth” note for every tooth. He doesn’t want her (ours is a her) to take it. When he lost his first tooth he informed me that the tooth fairy also leaves a toothbrush in addition to the $$$. um, that was a tough scramble at 8pm. My husband thought $50 should be the rate for the 1st tooth. Instead he gets $5, sometimes a $1 coin and an oral hygene related item like a toothbrush or floss. The toothbrush/floss item is always the most popular.
We give $5 for the first tooth and after that we gave $1 but our daughter was very disappointed that there wasn’t much for her to buy with $1. Now we give $3 and she saves it and buys a small toy when she looses the next tooth.
PS I love the oral hygene stuff idea!!
My daughter is 5 1/2 and looking forward to losing her first tooth so I’ve thought about how much to leave– $3 does seem a little excessive. I used to get a 50-cent piece (which was SUPER cool), and think I might do the same for my daughter. There’s been an awful lot of speculation around our house about the height of the tooth fairy and if she/he does, in fact, have wings. 🙂
We had a tooth mouse in South Africa.
I gave my dd $5 for her first tooth and give .50 for the others. I haven’t done much because she spent several weeks with my parents last summer and lost 4teeth there.
Oh, and I started watching Beasts with my kids but shut it off 15min into the film. They were too upset after the fire started, he hit her, and then he fell sick.
I got a dollar. Actually, for our first few teeth we got a silver dollar…I’m pretty sure I still have all the silver dollars that I was given.
These conversations are fantastic!
Our price per tooth has always varied depending on how the tooth was lost, fell out or pulled by dentist, How long the wait was for the tooth fairy to remember to leave money , I am terrible about that, and what I actually have on me at any given time! I never seem to have cash and they always seem to loose them late at night. One time they got a small toy along with the money since they had to wait for it. but usually it is between 1-5 with the average being 3. LOL
Like Audrey, we also had a little mouse (Canada). I’m surprised I wasn’t freaked cause I hate mice!! Left a piece of cheese under the pillow and got a penny. But then I’m a LOT older than most of you. Ask your mom, Ashley, it would be the same era! LOL!
My goodness, your conversations with Boo just crack me up. I really love them.
The tooth fairy gives our daughter one of those gold dollar coins. She loves that. 🙂
My friend who has 4 children, went to bed one night and after sleeping a few hours woke up suddenly remembering she for got to be the tooth fairy for her youngest. She, half awake went downstairs, into her purse grabbed $1. out of her purse and put it under her youngest daughters pillow, put the tooth in her robe pocket and went back to bed. The next morning, in the middle of breakfast (all 4 kids sitting at the table) the youngest remembers about the tooth fairy and runs to her room. Screams with delight and comes back to the breakfast table waving a $100. bill, boasting about all the things shes going to buy. While the rest of the family stares dumbfounded at the $100. bill. Talk about being in a pickle! LOL
Four quarters and a pack of sugar-free gum when you lose a tooth at our house – just the way it was when I was a kid.
We toss baby teeth in the trash (after a high-five) and our kids are all fine with it 🙂 http://oneradianthome.com/on-the-merits-of-throwing-away-baby-teeth/
You two have some awesome conversations. I’m with you on the quarter thing. Quarters look so much bigger when you’re little. Of course a dollar looks huge but four quarters weighs so much…I’d go with four quarters!
My daughter used to get a dollar for every lost tooth (she is 27 years old now) and was upset when she lost one at her grandmothers house (who is 96 years old now) and only got 50 cents. I told her that the tooth fairies in Union County might not have the same pay scale as in Dauphin County. She then asked…Okay I want to know what outfit the “toy snatcher” wears (if she left toys out, the Toy Snatcher would take them and she had to earn them back. I pretty much know what the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus wear but I’ve never seen Toy Snatchers outfit. She never asked what the tooth fairy wore.
hilarious!!
my daughter also lost her first tooth last week and while preparing it for tucking under her pillow (washing the blood away), it fell down the drain so… i told her to wait for the next one to fall and get a present from the tooth-fairy.
My parents gave a dollar – I’m 27 and my oldest sibling is 33, so that tells you about when it started. Maybe $3 would be reasonable now?? Still sounds really high to me.
My parents also didn’t do the whole “tooth-under-a-pillow” thing – tried it with my brother and it was a disaster. So we always had to put our tooth into a cup of water before we went to bed and in the morning there would be a dollar in the cup from the tooth fairy 🙂
Oh, I should mention I’m from Canada, so loonies + water = ok, might be a different story with your weird dollar bills 😉
our kids get a dollar – usually. once, the tooth fairy was unprepared for one of my daughter’s teeth to go and scrounged up all the change she could find. it was either that or a $10 bill. So her aunts and uncles were laughing the next day when she proudly exclaimed that the tooth fairy left her 87 cents!
now my youngest is losing the last of his teeth, and he wrote a note pleading for a ‘spell’ instead of money. He asked for a specific spell/potion, I kept the note. Sadly, he got a dollar.
Hilarious!!!!
I have loved reading the reader responses just as much as your post, Ashley. What great ideas and stories. My children are all grown now but it was fun times while it lasted.