I just now realized that some of my friends have kids who have not yet lost teeth!

[conuly]

So allow me to give my number one piece of advice. Even if you take no other parenting advice in your life, take this:

IF you intend to exchange teeth for money or another reward but do NOT intend to do a straightforward swap where your child hands you a tooth and you hand them cash, do yourself a favor: no matter who you claim is taking the tooth, no matter what your child is getting, do not tell your child to put the tooth under the pillow. You're only making trouble for yourself if you do.

Have them hang it from a basket on the outside doorknob, or put it under a bowl on the kitchen table, or tuck it into their coat pocket or schoolbag - whatever they do, do not have them put the tooth under their pillow before bed.

Think about it, and you can thank me later.

This is the article that reminded me.

Edit: In retrospect, it's kinda weird that we all just accept that human children lose teeth.

Also, I told Eva about this article, and apparently she thought her tooth fairy income was about average and I was forced to explain that giving her the cash in the form of dollar coins doesn't mean we weren't chintzing out. The kiddos definitely got their money on the low end of the scale here.

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

This is timely, THANK YOU!

[conuly]

Timely like she just lost a tooth, or just like it's gonna happen? I forget when it starts, lol!

[crystalpyramid]

We had a dental visit last month where they did an x-ray of her mouth and you could see all the big teeth looming but not quite ready to come in, so you caught us in time! She'd been complaining about her teeth hurting in the fall, but we're pretty sure it was just from teeth growing and moving around underneath. I think it's supposed to start around 5 or 6, depending on the kid, so we've probably got another 6 months.

[conuly]

!!!!!!!!!!!

If you like Munsch he has a picture book about a loose tooth.

But I warn you, there are two types of parents. There are the ones who like Love You Forever and hate everything else he ever wrote, and there are the ones who hate Love You Forever. Most of the latter group enjoys his other picture books, or would if they didn't hate LYF too much to risk reading the others.

[crystalpyramid]

We like Jonathan Cleaned Up Then He Heard a Sound, and Purple Green and Yellow, and Love You Forever looks clingy and creepy, so I think we should be good? (Although sometimes the absurdity weirds me out and doesn't seem like it aged well like in Murmel Murmel.)

[senmut]

I recall quarters for mine.

[brokenallbroken]

Me too. Inflation, I guess.

[cellio]

Same.

[reynardo]

In a glass on the washing machine, with a letter to the tooth fairy.

Note - be sure to destroy the note utterly once you've read it or the kid will undoubtedly find it and challenge you.

Second note: if kidlet is close to tooth-losing, keep an eye on the "special place" - the little blighter might sneak it out there and not tell you, thus gaining more evidence that the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist.

[conuly]

Oh, that was never a problem with us, because we never did the whole Tooth Fairy Is Literally Real thing - just like with Santa, we were very clear from the start that it was a fun game we all like to play, not really really.

[archersangel]

i mostly got like 50 cents or a dollar.
i got a $5 once because lost 3 at one time. they were loose & my mom had me eat corn on the cob out get them out in a hurry.

[conuly]

I got $20 or $40 once, when I had four adult teeth pulled for orthodontia reasons. Roots and all! My mother brought them in to show a coworker who'd scoffed at the idea that she'd take off work for such a thing.

[elisi]

do not tell your child to put the tooth under the pillow. You're only making trouble for yourself if you do.
LOL! Ah, this brings back memories... (Where the BLOODY HELL has that tooth gone?!?)

Mind you, my husband told the children that there was an Evil Toothfairy as well as a good one. The evil one puts all the teeth in her mouth so she has MILLIONS of teeth, and if you wake up when she comes she'll bite your head off. :) He'd also write little notes to them from the toothfairy, in pink ink on tiny bits of paper rolled up and tied with dental floss.

[melita66]

We're through that stage, thankfully. I had twins, so I would give the lost-tooth twin a dollar coin and the other twin a quarter. Or did both get a dollar coin and the lost-tooth one get 1.25? I dunno. When they didn't keep track of their money, I certainly did recycle some of the coins.

[mount_oregano]

We put ours in a big envelope under our pillow. The cash also came in an envelope. As adults, after my mother died, we found the teeth in my mother's jewelry box, where they had spent decades as treasured mementos.

[summercomfort]

lol Miss Rutabaga has lost 8 teeth! She gets "tooth vouchers" which start at $3 and increase in value every Christmas and birthday, to encourage saving. XD;;;

[thekumquat]

Yeah.
It's worth warning kids that tooth fairies don't come by every night and may only come a couple times a week. Ours has also been known to leave passive-aggressive notes saying the room was so messy it was too dangerous to enter.

It took Quatlet until age 14 to go 'but don't fairies fly?'

We soon learned to put the tooth in an envelope, so you have a fighting chance of finding the sodding thing in the night...

[andrewducker]

Definitely in time for Sophia, who turns 5 in a month!