Well, this is just sad. Tooth Fairy payouts are down. Presumably number of proffered teeth remains roughly constant.
A recent survey found that the national going rate has seen a 40-cent decline this year: From $3 to $2.60. What’s worse? A full 10% of kids are reaching under their pillows … and coming up empty. Compare that to last year when just 6% of kids found no reason to flash that toothless grin.
When Our Kid (shortly about to decamp to Rice, and, for those who asked, Baker College) first started losing her teeth, we kept them in mason jar out of sight. I suggested to Beloved Wife that we save them until they had all fallen out, have them mounted in an Impressive and Timelessly Stylish necklace (along with two made into matching earrings), and then give it to The Kid for high school graduation. Beloved Wife did not react well, and I have never seen the teeth since, although my dentist told me it would not have worked anyway, because the amount of moisture or something in the baby teeth would cause them to dissolve over time. She added that about once every two or three years, some father – never mother – asked her that.
If I were more organized, I would put up a poll on whether it would be touching and excellent to receive your baby teeth on a necklace with matching little baby teeth earrings as a high school graduation present from your doting parents. As it is, I will open up comments for this one. Also tell me what you think the proper Tooth Fairy rate should be. You might even branch out into what we can do to stimulate the Tooth Fairy Yield Curve.