What's the Going Rate for the Tooth Fairy?

K.,
I'll never forget when my daughter came home from school and told me her friends mom gave her a gift certificate to Walmart, a $10 bill, and a Hannah Montanna toothbrush!!! Crazy.
My kids get the same thing I got. A dollar, quarter, dime, nickel, and penny, one of each.
Everyone got a kick out of my daughters reply to the question "what did the tooth fairy bring you?" Simple and sweet, she says " A dollar forty one".

I just saw this post and had to respond. I have twins, and they each would get 25 cents per tooth, and $2 for molars. The tooth fairy was often late, though, so I would write a note. A friend of theirs would get $20 dollars - and a big chocolate bar (which i thought was silly for the tooth fairy to promote tooth decay!). Since her tooth fairy was named "Bonnie", so I told my girls that there is more than one tooth fairy. So Anna and Hannah were their tooth fairies (I wasn't about to hire "Bonnie"!). I had to come up with different hand writing for each. It was fun while it lasted

LOL, I loved "the toothfairy retired" comment... brilliant! I've gotta use that on my kids!
I think the golden dollar was the most popular with my kids.. I think we gave my daughter $5 when she had to have one pulled out....
My other recommendation is fairy dust... I would sprinkle a little glitter on their pillow. I think it's crayola that has a very convenient and "no mess" container that you just open - shake and close.... I've had this one container and used it for all 3 kids... I hide it in one of my dresser drawers so they've never seen it.
Have fun! you'll have to "retire" before you know it too!!

DON'T give in to Tooth Inflation! At that age, money is just a concept (they tend to think a nickel is worth more than a dime because it's bigger). Losing the tooth (and joining the ranks of Big Kids Who Have Lost Teeth) is enough of a thrill; you don't have to impose adult concept of "One-Upping the Joneses"! LOL. $5 for a tooth is simply ridiculous. But you could also go the creative route: inexpensive little trinkets--my daughter at that age was really into little plastic animals from the dollar store and she loved collecting and playing with them. Or a glow-in-the-dark bracelet (the Tooth Fair does come in the night, after all!). Be creative and make your own special unique idea, to make her feel special and let her friends say, "Wow, you got THAT?! All I got was a coin!" Creativity and special wrapping paper trump cold hard cash every time.

A friend of mine with older children gave foreign money - they collected it from travels or asked friends who traveled to bring back change. Since you can't exchange coins travelers always have a few coins after trips. The story makes sense - the tooth fairy works the entire world and they would look at a map to figure out where the money came from and learn about that country. I am hoarding foreign coins as I type.

Good question. We haven't had this yet but I read through your response anyway. Just so you know, the $1.00 tooth fairy will be the fairy we hire.
Jeeze $20.00 is outrageous. They didn't earn $20.00 for loosing a dang tooth. And on top of that it makes us normal moms feel like shmucks.
Can I afford $20.00...Sure I could, but theres a principal involed.
Dang Jones!!!!! We will not conform.

We gave our daughters $1, but what really made the most impact is the note from the tooth fairy admiring the tooth, congratulating the excellent care given to the tooth and encouraging continued good brushing. My 24yo daughter told me recently that those notes really made a difference in her tooth brushing and kept her going with good tooth care. She said she still remembers those notes when she's brushing!

I just wanted to add my plan. :)

My little guy is just two so no need for the tooth fairy yet, but I've already started planning for it.
I've been collecting foreign coins. You can get them very easily and cheaply off ebay, or ask your local bank if they happen to have any collected. Often the coins belong to countries that don't even exist in the same way anymore so the coins are mostly worthless. (For example, I have a handful of coins from Czechoslovakia.) Many other countries are moving to the Euro so their old coins have no real value either. It's very easy to get a handful of coins off ebay for around 1.00, including shipping.
My hope is that this takes the focus off the amount of money his friends are getting and instead we can focus on the fact that the tooth fairy must deliver to kids all over the world and sometimes finds a special kid to share foreign coins with. :)

We had the same struggle, especially since we live in an area where a lot of people seem to have a lot more money than we do! Many of my daughter's friends get $5/tooth, which I think is a little nuts--one gets $20!! We told our daughter that each set of parents notifies the tooth fairy what they think is appropriate for their own child and the tooth fairy follows the parents' wishes. We started at $1/tooth and sometimes added a note from the tooth fairy (for a first tooth or something else special) or put in stickers or something else. Last year, we went up to $2/tooth. I think we're sticking there. I've been talking to other moms in the neighborhood to try to find a common point we can all do (which is part of why we increased ours). Maybe talk to the parents of your child's friends and see what they're doing. Good luck!

My kids get one shiny quarter for each tooth they lose. They really like shiny coins!!! Their cousins get $5, but that's just silly. It's a tooth, not allowance. It's supposed to be a silly game. If it cost me real money or made me run tons of errands, it wouldn't be fun for me. Also, my kids get a weekly allowance so they're not waiting for teeth to fall out to build up their savings. LOL

They also get a personalized letter from the tooth fairy. (Our's knows how to print, too!) I add a clipart fairy to the bottom of the page. Email me if you want it. It's super cute and they LOVE that she writes them a note, like Santa.

K.,
I just read all your resonses and wanted to add one thing. As soon as your daughter looses her tooth go to your bedroom and hide YOUR pillows. That way when you go to get in be at night you will wonder what happened to your pillows...thus remembering to call up the tooth fairy to do her job. I can't tell you how many times our tooth fairy forgot to come....FYI I always use a dollar coin as well and if they write me a letter I type on back. There is even a tooth fairy website that will help you with that. Good Luck J.

I work in a bank, and a kid came in with his tooth fairy loot. The mom had taken a $1 bill,and painted it with clear sparkle nail polish - so cute!

Hi K., I'm sure you're going to get tons of suggestions from $1 to $10 or maybe even more. Here's my take on the Tooth Fairy; she is a wonderful character that leaves a token for a childs tooth. Kids don't have any real knowledge of money, so I gave my children gold dollar coins for their teeth (that they could swap with me for a "paper dollar" if they wanted or save in their banks). Some may call this cheap, but really do you want the whole tooth fairy thing to turn into a money-making enterprise for your child? I didn't. Have fun with it! That's what Fairy tales are for. Best wishes.

You've gotten tons of feedback, but I thought you might like to know about the super-cute tooth holders I found at www.chasingfireflies.com. I got a little pewter truck that says "Overnight Delivery" on the side, and we say it's the tooth fairy's truck. My son drives it around on his dresser and then puts his tooth in it and parks it on his headboard. This saves us so much digging around for the tooth! He gets a rolled up dollar in the back of this little truck, but I think he got $2 for his front teeth. Chasing Fireflies has lots of other keepsake tooth fairy boxes I've never seen anywhere else; it's worth a look. They have some that are little fairy booxes and others with animals on them. Have fun!

Hi K.,
I gave mine $5 for the first tooth(the first tooth is special)and $1 for each additional tooth until they turned 8 after that the tooth fairy retired.

Our kids get/got dollars, one got the sacagewea gold coin, one the Susan B Anthony and one the Ike dollar that we have had saved. It makes it lots of fun.

Also did you know. . . that if you leave a glass of water near the bed, on the night the fairy comes, she leaves fairy dust in it? And our house has 3 different colored fairies that come. One is red, one green and one blue. of course it is that child's favorite color, lol

just put food coloring and maybe some sparkles. It is lots of fun!

That's a personal decision so do what you think it's worth. For a child that young I'd do 50 cents, enough to buy a candy bar and then laugh when they figure out how to chew it with no tooth, lol.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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I plan to give $2. That is, the hard to find $2 bills which are hard to find except when you go ask for them at the banks! Those are quite special and might become a novelty. I also plan to have the 'Tooth Fairy' write the date on them and them store them away! Good luck!

Our fairy's poor, so she gives out .50 cents and 1 or 2 mighty beanz.

OMG’sh, you got some hilarious answers – thank you for posting your question. I have gotten such a good laugh this morning. I have friends who do the $20.00 per tooth and I find that ludicrous. At my house, he might get more for the last one (he hasn’t lost any yet) but I don’t think I want to start high and then have to work backwards. A dollar is very reasonable!

Hi K., you have already gotten wonderful ideas. I love the $ 1.41 too - but don't forget the half dollar coin in it :-)
I picked up a roll of half dollar coins at the bank and so far, have given out only those (my kids lost six non-molars so far). They think it is magic fairy money since those half dollar coins are not around much - and I hadn't known until then how big they are! For the molars, I plan to give out shiny dollar coins. My kids are only six and they think they own a fortune! My kids went on a sleepover once and one of them lost a tooth there and got two dollar bills from the tooth fairy in Sunnyvale (it is not our tooth fairy) - it was certainly not as special. For the kids it seems, coins are much more magic and interesting than bills. And if they collect them in a little satchel, they love to shake them around.

Well, the story goes that she leaves a silver coin... but none of our currency is currently minted in silver anymore. :P

I'd go with twenty-five cents or a half-dollar, or a classic silver dollar for the first molar.

We give $1.00 per tooth, but the average for my son's class is around $5.00. I know many families who give $20.
Good Luck.ER

Instead of the dollar i like to give the gold dollar coins. The kids get so excited thinking the tooth fairy brought them gold :)

I saw your update that you are going to do the $1, which I think is reasonable. I just thought I'd add a thought I didn't see mentioned...We do a quarter because my son has two different books about tooth fairies, and both books say the tooth fairy leaves a quarter. One book is called, "No Tooth, No Quarter." The other is titled, "A Quarter from the Tooth Fairy." So I felt he would be expecting a quarter. I really like the $1.41 or a dollar coin, but at least for now our tooth fairy brings a quarter.

well when i was a kid it was 50 cents when my son lost his we gave him 20 not really a good choce i say no more than 5

Our daughter's tooth fairy gives $1 for each tooth. She always complains about what she gets vs. her friends, but we always tell her that "her" tooth fairy has alot of boys and girls she has to visit each night and needs to be sure that there's enough money to "buy" everyone's tooth. Not to mention, she has twin sisters that are very quickly approaching the "tooth-losing" age, and if this fairy were to give $5/tooth--this household would be broke much sooner than later. My hubby and I strongly believe that if you start out by teaching your kids that less is sometimes more, then we won't have to worry about coming up with more when we really have much less.

Dear K.,

when my children were small they received a quarter or a dollar for the front teeth. now that I have a granddaughter, she received $10.00 for the first front tooth - and that is because I didn't have any change. other teeth received $1 or $5 depending on how much was in my purse at the time. I never wanted to begin with $10 but like I said you have to go with what's in the purse at the time. I do like the silver dollar idea but they are hard to find.

Read "Dear Tooth Fairy"--an adorable book available at www.toysofdiscovery.com to see what happens when one child tries to trick the tooth fairy into leaving her $$$.

Here is the Flip Side of our Tooth Fairy Coin:
My children are 19 and 16, I gave them a shiny silver dollar coin; our eldest said she was very sad and disappointed when she learned the 'tooth fairy' (and especially 'Santa', another gift giving entity) were not real; our youngest said he 'kinda' knew all along they were not real, and after he lost his second tooth he tried bargaining with the 'tooth fairy' (I was the 'intermediary') about increasing the value of his used up and discarded body parts.

Thank you for this posting. My 5 year old granddaughter lives with us and I had not really thought about the tooth fairy, though she has asked when she will start loosing her teeth.
I e-mailed this to her mom so that we can decide what we will do, should she lose her teeth when she is with us or with her mom.
I love the foriegn coins (what a great geography lesson!), the half-dollar coin, the gold coin, the $2 bill, the sparkle polish on the dollar, and the $1.41 (what a neat idea!)
Thank you!
P.S. I received a dime for each tooth.

That's so cute she said that! You never know what will come out of kids mouths. When I was a kiddo i'd get somewhere around 50-75 cents, but the bigger the tooth the more I got. So glad she loves the tooth fairy!

A.

At my house it is $.25 a tooth. And then if the tooth fairy is late it would be like $.10 more or something. Depeneds on the loose change that i would have around at the time. Some times it would be a couple of dimes and then I would make my kids count the money.

It is a fun way for them to learn

"$5 for a tooth is simply ridiculous."

you may think that but I think it is worth it to give to my children. I am not trying to one up anyone. that is simply what I think is right to give. Of coures the first one they lose they get $10. But the money they get has to go into their banks. they do not get to spend it.

Omg! I saw your response and I just could not stop laughing. My daughter lost her tooth yesterday as well and I was so tired that I actually forgot to deliver. Omg! She woke up saying the tooth fairy forgot. Lol!! I am going to have to write that letter. Lol!!

I like the $1 painted in clear sparkle nail polish idea!

Hi K.,
I Know I'm a little late for the original discussion, but I thought I'd give you more to think about for the coming teeth. We went the foreign coins/bills route for our kids, along with a note explaining where the money was from. The advantages of this were great. Both of our kids loved corresponding with their tooth fairies, and it solved the money envy problem - how can $5 compare with $10,000 from Haiti or Ghana? In reality, the $10,000 cedis note from Ghana exchanged for about 60 cents, but my daughter loved the idea that it came from across the world and it was alot of money there.

Our children also had two different tooth fairies. My daughter's was THE tooth fairy with a name that was very long and unpronouncable. She wrote very flowery little girl letters and answered my daughter's questions to the best of her ability (some things couldn't be answered from our dimension to the her dimension, though% ^ ). When our son lost his first tooth, he was NOT excited about this frilly, girly toothfairy, so along came "Butch", the Toothfairy's kid brother, who was a toothfairy in training and wrote notes that sounded like a skater or surfer dude.

I found that size 6-8 letters in any font you think fits the "personality' of your child's tooth fairy works well. Just hide the letters in a file that your kids won't open on the computer. My son just lost his last baby tooth, so now we're on to more grown-up things. Both kids figured out the truth there at the end, but they had fun with the game the whole time, and they still have the letters saved in special boxes.

To the person who does not want to use gold coins because they do not say "In God We Trust". It does say that. It is on the rim of the coin. Check the coin between the "heads" and "tails". Sorry if this is so simplistic. Many people just don't look and believe every email sent to them :)

I always gave $5 per tooth.

I just saw your reply but never saw the original post. I loved the 1.41, super cute. I think another good idea is the gold coin, glittered dollar or painted coins and I think I would add in a cute toothbrush too. Something that they are into hopefully.

$1.00 but i like that gold dollar idea... i'm gonna use that for my little guy :-)

Thank you for posting this! I like the ideas of the notes and will definitely incorporate this for my own child when the day comes. To me it seems the novelty and special details of the tradition is more important than the amount of money.

I completely laughed out loud at how much money people are giving their kids these days in relation to when I was young. When I was old enough to know there was no tooth fairy but young enough to still enjoy the tradition, I bragged in front of my parents that the tooth fairy was going to leave me $5.00 (We usually got 2 50-cent pieces or a silver dollar.) My bragging got me 2 pennies under my pillow and a lesson learned.

Hi K., I think a dollar is a great amt. for teeth. I just think you should stay away from the new dollar coins. Did you know they don't have "In God We Trust" on them? I just don't think we should support that. Many people don't know it, so I just wanted to let you know. I had got some for my kids to collect and when I learned it wasn't on there, I quickly went out and spent them. I hope you agree!

What is the $1.41 all about? Thanks

I know I'm late responding but I've LOVED reading all the posts! My oldest son is 9 and he always got a regular old dollar bill for each tooth. I don't know that I've ever been able to plan ahead, it seems his were always surprises so we had a change drawer we made sure always had a dollar bill in it. I'm surprised he still believes at age nine, but he's only got a couple baby teeth left and could jut be playing along for the buck. For those people giving $20, he lost three teeth in one week a couple weeks ago! I'd rather pay him for good choices and helping out than something inevitable like losing teeth.

I'm so curious, what is the $1.41 idea?!

This has got to be one of the most fun posts I've read. I know it's late to respond, but I had to share what I accidentally did with my daughter. What I told her was, that the Tooth Fairy was very old, after all she'd been around since MY grandmother was a little girl, and she had so many kids to collect teeth from that it got confusing for her sometimes. So she got what ever I had in coins, but no more than $1.00. Except the first tooth that was $5.00 And it was not always on time either. Sometimes the Tooth Fairy was a few days late, and because my Mother would keep her overnights on occasion, sometimes she would go to the wrong house, or both houses, or neither house. My daughter never complained about how much she got, or when she finally got it, and always showed concern for the Tooth Fairy's well being.

I loved these responses and I'm sure lots more moms will read through this. My son is too young, but it's good to think about. When I was little we got a present for being a big kid for the first tooth, usually something we had wanted and wasn't too big, my mom always thought ahead, so if there was something we had been asking for for a while she would say we had to be big kids, then when we lost the first tooth we got that, to show we had grown up a little, I still remember that, mine was a barbie (back then they weren't so expensive). After that it was a dollar. That was until my parents found out my baby teeth wouldn't fall out on their own, my adult teeth came in in a way they blocked my baby teeth from coming out, I had every single one pulled. One trip to the dentist resulted in 5 pulled teeth at once, I got a cabbage patch doll and when my brother complained, he got to go to the next appt and see them pull 3 more, he didn't complain after that. I think you have to look at what you want it to mean and what the child has to go through. If it's going straight to the bank for savings, you could give more. Thanks for the post.

So, if one goes with all coins (including the half dollar), it could be:
dollar, 50 cent piece, quarter, dime, nickle, penny = $1.91
Or, one could throw in a 2 cent piece from Europe as well... for the foreign flair!

I really like that idea, and the 50 cent piece, and the note! I have a while to wait (only now getting teeth, not yet losing), so I have time to collect! This was a fun post to read - thanks!
M.

Thanks for posting this! I read every response and wish others would also before asking questions (like how many asked about the $1.41 that was covered in at least two prior posts). I plan to combine a few ideas I learned here....like putting glitter nail polish on a $2 bill and leaving "fairy dust" around. (I will use colored sugar in case my son tries to eat it. I would not want him eating glitter even if it IS non-toxic!) Maybe even a note if I think he would be into it.

Regarding the coin, here is an article from MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17501178/
The new coins ARE inscribed with “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum” (From Many, One). Many people do not look for it, as it is now on the edge (as Alice H pointed out). A few coins were MISTAKENLY put into circulation without the message because they were not discovered prior to their release. The Mint admitted their mistake.

okay, one more late entry:-) My daughter lost her first tooth last week during our drive up to NY. It had been loose for a couple of days and I had planned on getting to the bank for dollar coins (planning on $1/tooth). First it came out with major excitement, followed by wailing as she dropped it. We couldn't find it anywhere, and we had to write a note to the tooth fairy. I had a $2 bill in my wallet which my dad gave me awhile back and we told her that the first tooth is special and requires a special $2 bill. I did have a little satin jewely pouch with me to use as the vessel. All great fun!

I read through these responses with interest. My son is 23 and I think I gave him 50 cents. But I have a lot of stepgrandkids who may be visiting when the tooth fairy comes so these ideas are good.

However, it brought to mind an old family story you might enjoy. When my mom was a little girl in the 1930's, she got 25 cents. She had an older brother who would hold her down and pull teeth that didn't need pulling, using pliers. Then he would take her quarter and go to the store. Of course, she wasn't allowed to tell her parents for fear of him. If she kept her mouth shut, he would get her a piece of penny candy as a reward. I was sitting with them just before he died a few years ago and laughed with them at this story. Yes, he did apologize!!

That's hysterical! I did the same thing - I forgot one of my girls teeth, so I typed a note in fancy script that said I was away at an important meeting and couldnt break free. My girls' first were $5 and I started dropping the price from there, but used fancy cash and coins - $2 bill, gold dollar, bicentennial half dollars, etc. Its also teaching them some history and giving them some collecting interest - they have all their special money in a decorative box they made. :]

This is a very fun question. We give a $1 or a small gift I know we have given a Webkinz or something like that before but my daughter likes gifts. I will share my funny TF story. We forgot 3 days in a row and I felt terrible so I wrote this lovely letter in beautiful script from my computer with pictures of Fairies and the story was I was really sorry I had missed getting her tooth and her money but I was on vacation in Hawaii with my Fairy Friends. It was very creative and talked about brushing your teeth and the tooth looked good etc. Even my husband thought it was cute. I put it in a Fed Ex envelope and put it under her pillow. Well the funniest thing we were in church a month later or maybe the next time we lost a tooth and she mentions to the grandma about the tooth fairy and her trip to Hawaii. Well grandma looks at her and says what an imagination you have and my daughter looked at her deadpan and said "No really grandma!!!" I thought I was going to loose it right there it was so funny.

The notes are more memorable than you think!!!

there are all kinds of cute ideas.
we do the if you pull it yourself you get a dollar
if a family member pulls it you get 50 cents
if you go to the dentist you get a quarter and mc donalds, ect the next day or so for lunch.
i do the silver dollars or 1 dollar silver certificates
the half dollar
and i started the state quarter set also for the great grand children, they like the quarters the best as i also give them the collector book to go with it. then for birth days, christmases i also add to the collection. they look on their own for the quarters and call ahead and let me know what they still need,
have fun good luck J.

I think $3 to $5.00 from the moms I've talked to. Front tooth $5.00.