So my kid has his first wiggly tooth. Back when I was on the receiving end, it was a quarter, but I'm guessing it has gone up by now. What are other parents giving these days?
Yeah, I'm thinking a dollar coin, or a two dollar bill at most, although that would involve a trip to the bank beforehand so it's not very likely. I hear that some people are paying $5, $10 or more, and that seems crazy to me. The kid is six years old, what is he going to do with $5 per tooth?
We give $1, but also give something else. For example, she may get a chapter book (either the Ivy & Bean or the Bad Kitty series was the last one she received from the TF) or art supplies. We keep the "something else" inexpensive - one chaper book or a set of washable markers - and it's an item that we would be buying for her anyway.
We started at a quarter when the first child was losing her first two-three teeth, but we've been at a dollar ever since. No way we'd ever give $5.
Tooth came out this morning. Child will get a buck, and maybe a little pack of Pokemon cards, although I don't want to set expectations too high for future teeth. Next question: what do we do with the tooth after the tooth fairy visits? Is it, like, biowaste? Does it need to go in the sharps disposal at the hospital? (it's pretty sharp.) Can we compost it? Should we flush it? Or does it just go in the trash? I don't want the kid to find it -- not like he goes digging through the trash, but if it's in the trash and he happens to see it, he may try to retrieve it to get another prize. If it goes in the compost or gets flushed, he won't find it. Am I overthinking this?
Save them all and give them to your child as a really creepy gift later in life. That's what my wife's parents did.
for these things the tradition is more important than the amount. i'd say a dollar, but it has to be a coin. here in france the debate is between 1€ and 2€. parents who give more are unreasonable and antisocial and their children would be better off in an orphanage. but it's not the tooth fairy here, it's the little mouse; i think it's the same in most latin countries and the folklore concerning mice in this respect is widespread: even though the germans have the zahnfee these days (a recent borrowing from anglo-american tradition if i'm not mistaken) frazer cites a german folkway which explains the connection: the tooth is thrown over the shoulder (onto the roof perhaps, a frequent element in milktooth customs*) while saying: mouse! mouse! take my bone tooth and give me your iron tooth! because one of the facts man has known for thousands of years and has only recently grown ignorant of is that rodent teeth are the very hardest, so hard that clearly some powerful magic is at work. we substitute a coin for the more mystical tooth=tooth exchange, but it's still a trade, and with the hardness and inalterability of a coin (especially a gold coin, but napoleons and sovereigns are 250€ or more on today's market) the same principle of imitative magic is present. throwing the tooth on the roof is often explained as a tribute to the moon (less often the sun) deity but it may find its explanation in the fact that thatched rooves are where the mice and rats make their homes (an explanation so tidy it is almost certainly wrong). in france pretty little ceramic, glass or pewter boxes for saving baby teeth in are common shower gifts.
Yeah, you are overthinking this. I doubt you could go through a can of garbage and find a tooth, much less your young child. And I don't think of a tooth as "biowaste" any more than I think of fingernail clippings as biowaste. I am surprised a bit, though, that you and spouse are both so unsentimental as to toss your first loose tooth so quickly. Kudos. I thought I was unsentimental, but you've got me beat. We kept our kids' teeth for maybe 5-6 years before I convinced my wife to pitch the teeth. My 13 year old lost the last baby tooth for the Val1 family and he threw the tooth away after I just handed him his dollar.
one hopes one would not find billreeves' young child nor any young child in a can of garbage. a good thing you brought up fingernail clippings: another of the habits 99,9999% of homo sapiens to ever walk the earth have scrupulously observed is the careful hoarding of teeth, nail clippings, cut hair... let one of your enemies get hold of those to do magic with and it's all over but the crying (mind your tears too). to paraphrase quickdraw mcgraw: ah'll do the ovethinnin' around here babalooie!
That tooth was gross. My wife refused to touch it. It had some blood or something still attached, I tried to wash it off but it was still there. We put it in a baggie for the under-the-pillow action last night, and I tossed it in the trash outside this morning -- my kid may peek in to the trash cans inside, but he's not going near the trash can outside -- it's smelly. Thanks for all the help from you other parents!