First Tooth

First Tooth

My son came up to me  yesterday and was very excited. He smiled and with his finger began to wiggle one of his lower teeth. It was his first loose tooth.

“Well,” I said, “You’re becoming a big boy!”

He asked if it was going to hurt when the tooth falls out. I told him that I didn’t remember, but I didn’t think it would. Then he said something that really shocked me.

“Eli at our school had a tooth fall out and he got five dollars from the tooth fairy.”

I was shocked at the amount and wasn’t sure if he was just saying stuff or if he even knew how much five dollars was? I told him that our tooth fairy was on a budget and it all depended on whether he was a good boy or not.  He gave me a disappointed look. I guess I use that line a lot about buying things and don’t realize it. Anyway, it got me thinking what the proper amount for a first tooth was.  

I was watching the “Tonight Show” a while back and Heidi Klum was on. She said that she gave her little girl twenty dollars for her tooth and mentioned that she knew other celebrities that gave $100. Toothfairy.org says two dollars is the proper amount. A couple of other sites ranged from 1 to 5 dollars. I think the going price when I was a kid was a quarter.

I went to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics website and used their inflation calculator based on the going rate of a quarter in 1966. That was when I was five years old.

So, the going rate, according to the government, adjusted for inflation, is $1.68 and I think I can live with that. Being the big spender I am, I might even bump it up to a buck seventy five!