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VIDEOTooth Fairy Economics
What's the going rate for a missing molar?
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In my house, the going rate for baby teeth is a miserly buck a tooth. Through kindergarten, my now 7-year-old twins didn’t really react to the fact that some kids got a lot more than them. But once the math curriculum started to kick in and the ejection rate of baby teeth increased, Tooth Fairy Economics became a big topic of conversation on the playground.
“Courtney got $10 when she lost her tooth,” noted my daughter. “Why did I only get $1?” I told her and her twin brother that different tooth fairies visited different houses, and ours only paid $1. “Look at all the wonderful things $1 buys at your cafeteria,” I pointed out. “Popsicles and animal crackers.”
My appeal to her love of treats worked and the subject was soon forgotten.
What I didn’t tell her was that her dad and I want to instill a work ethic, that you have to earn money, that it didn’t grow on trees or fall out of parents’ wallets. We worry about breeding an attitude of entitlement, which can erupt so easily in a community where the high-school kids drive better cars than the teachers.
The low pay also is a wistful urge to keep our children childlike, to not up the ante, ratchet up the expectations, at the ripe old age of 7.
Our children are hardly deprived. We made our daughter sweat it out for a year before buying her one of those pricey American Girl dolls, and she anticipated its purchase with delight, poring over the catalogues when they came in the mail, carefully considering which one she’d love the most.
When the twins get $20 or $100, it’ll be for something they proactively earn -- be it amazing grades or exceptional help around the house. Meanwhile, I checked in with Courtney’s mom to find out the thinking behind the $10 and found a philosophy that made as much sense, if not more, than my own.
“Most of the kids in the neighborhood get $20, but we didn’t want to go that high, so we gave her $10 and she was so excited to get it,” Courtney’s mom said. “The caveat was that she open a checking account with that money. Now she has $80 in there and we are teaching her to be a saver."
Not a bad thing to instill, especially when the news serves up constant reminders about financial ruin. The flailing economy undoubtedly will impact Tooth Fairy Economics as well.
Perhaps hearing tales of excess, like this one a children’s photographer shared with me, will become a relic of our recent past:
“One little girl in my son’s first-grade class got $100 and a trip to the toy store for her first tooth and $20 for each one thereafter,” said this mother of three in Ridgewood, N.J., an upscale commuter town populated with many Wall Street families.
Sadly for that kid, shortly thereafter came news that her trader father had been laid off.
Sue Hunt, a family therapist in Ridgewood, has detected the first ticks of rescaling expectations.
“I am beginning to see a more reflective parental attitude,” said Hunt. “I am seeing an awareness that they may not always have what they’ve had and I think children are picking up on this, too.”
Whether household-budgeting adjustments will include cutting back on Tooth Fairy expenditures remains to be seen. But whatever happens, in good times and bad, the Tooth Fairy is, in effect, our children’s first employer.
May she be a benevolent -- and thoughtful -- provider.
Minyanville polled some parents and came up with these going rates for the Tooth Fairy.
Donald -- a dad in Florida
$1 coin per tooth. Special "gold" dollar coins that came out a few years back. Tooth fairy needs to stop by the bank and pick up a bunch from time to time.
Kelly -- a mom in suburban Connecticut
We haven't lost any teeth here yet, but I think we'd pay out about $1 for each of her teeth. We're pretty cheap...
Lisa -- a New York mom
I started with pennies, then added quarters, then a couple of dollar bills, and most recently gave my child a small pouch filled with some old half-dollar coins when he lost his front teeth!
What's the Tooth Fairy policy in your home? Weigh in on The Exchange.
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