Kids across the country are gap-tooth smiling all the way to their piggy banks. That's because they are getting paid big bucks for baby teeth. Thatâs right parents â "tooth fairy" costs are going up. Gone are the days when an intrepid elementary schooler would be excited at finding a shiny quarter or even a crisp dollar under the pillow. Back in those days, losing a molar might earn a dollar, max.
Today, as consumers know, quarters and dollars alone canât buy anything immediately. But with costs rising, how does the tooth fairy keep her organization out of bankruptcy? Perhaps there's a markup for aftermarket baby teeth sales?
Be prepared.
Because teeth fall out on their own schedules, parents and caregivers need to have small bills, cool child-specific cards, fidgets, or even tooth-related supplies on hand in case the tooth fairy team canât make it for any reason.
My own family was once caught unprepared, and the tooth fairy âdidnât make it.â My oldest was sad but also put it out to the universe that an LOL would make her feel so much better!
Most certainly by magic, the tooth fairyâs team heard her, and in place of money she had a brand-new toy and a letter of explanation. We thought that got expensive!
The ante's been upped.
Real estate executive Steve Cohen recently scrambled to find small bills but only found a $20 when his oldest daughter, Lily, lost her first tooth.
âI didnât have anything else. I panicked,â admitted Cohen, 55, according to the New York Post. Now he has to manage the expectations of his younger daughter Scarlett, whoâs waiting to lose her first tooth and put those now-anticipated $20s toward saving for a Buzz Lightyear toy and a trampoline.
The bar may have been set higher for this family, but theyâre far from alone in that reality.
In 1998, Delta Dental valued a lost tooth in the inception of the Original Tooth Fairy Poll at $1.30. According to its polling history, in 2022, the average gift was $5.36 per tooth, which is 66 cents (14%) higher than the previous peak at $4.70 in 2021, and well more than $1 (33%) more per tooth since 2020 ($4.03).
Luckily, expert advice exists.
Psychotherapist Lesley Koeppel warns that although itâs an exciting milestone, âYou donât want to give this impression that you just get money for no real reason,â she said, according to the Post. She encouraged parents to teach kids about the one-third rule: keeping a third, saving a third, and donating a third to charity.
Considering inflation, the rising cost of tooth fairy payouts makes sense.
Even though the rising cost may give parents â and tooth fairies â pause, the distance that initial $20 would stretch became real to Cohen when Lily generously offered to use her tooth fairy money to treat her parents to coffee and snacks at Starbucks. It wasnât enough to cover the tab at Starbucks, and her parents had to cover the rest.
Remember the days when that dollar from the tooth fairy would get us a drink, a bag of chips, a popsicle, and some candy? Not anymore.
