My six-year-old FINALLY lost her FIRST tooth. She's almost seven and all of her friends started losing teeth a year ago or more. We knew from a trip to the orthodontist last year that it would be awhile as an x-ray showed her adult teeth no where near the surface. So, we waited. And waited. AND WAITED!
While we were at the beach the first week of August, Finley realized she had a loose tooth. It was the most exciting thing. She told everyone. She kept wiggling it (which grossed me out). But still, it took another six weeks for it to come out. She was pretty good at just leaving it alone but at bedtime, I'd catch her up on the counter in the bathroom looking at her tooth in the mirror. My father offered to pull it out and of course this made Finley scream and run in the other direction. (But that's what grandpas do!)
I wasn't home last night when the tooth finally came out but my husband texted me a picture right away. She was beyond excited. Rather than put the tooth under her pillow, she put it under a painted shell on her dresser. This morning she came running into our room screaming, "Wake-up! The tooth fairy left me a dime!" I assure you, my readers, that it was NOT a dime, but a dollar coin. But what I thought was so great, was that even though she clearly got her coins mixed-up, whatever the tooth fairy left was obviously enough for her.
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See, I'd been asking around the past month, doing some research on the going rate for tooth fairy loot. I honestly don't remember what I got, but I'm guessing it was a quarter. Someone told my husband five dollars. WHAT? That's quite a precedent. Times that by about 20 teeth and you're out $100! And why does a tooth have such a high price tag? Who says the price has to increase just because it's 2012? Why do we feel the need to "over-reward" our kids?
In the end, I went with a suggestion from a good friend whose husband also happens to be a dentist. I bought a roll of dollar coins from the bank so that I'm always prepared if a tooth should fall out. It's a nice, big coin. And it's worth a dollar which, I think, is just enough.
