Who came up with the tooth fairy anyways, this is ridiculous.
My kid has been talking about it because some classmates have lost teeth recently. It got me thinking the whole thing is bonkers. We're supposed to sneak in and put money under their pillow? How TF do we do this without waking them up? And HOW MUCH? Has the tooth fairy kept up with inflation?
My kids haven't lost any teeth yet. Looking for input and fun stories from parents with kids who have lost teeth!
My daughter lost her first tooth at age 6. We made the swap while she was sleeping, no problem. When I woke her up for school the next morning, I asked her about the tooth fairy, and she excitedly found the money under her pillow. She spent about ten seconds being excited before she looked at me straight in the eye and said suspiciously, “Mom, are you the tooth fairy?” Busted, lol. We still reward her when she loses a tooth because it’s fun. It took her another year to come to terms with Santa, though.
Tooth fairy is actually what broke the “magical beings that are actually parents” for me too. Luckily my kid is only 2 and I don’t have to worry about any of these yet, but I’m really leaning towards not bothering with the lies as long as my kid isn’t one that would enjoy spoiling it for everyone else.
My Daughter has lost 8 teeth so far(she is 7) and we give her a toonie($2) per tooth. However, when she lost two in one day(she was really nervous about losing the second one so I said "the more teeth under the pillow the better the bounty from the fairy" we gave her $5).
She is a light sleeper, so we worried, but kids even the light sleepers sleep through things like quietly reaching under their pillow. If they do start to wake up, just give them a kiss and say you wanted a midnight kiss.
For one tooth we forgot and she woke up at 4:45 in the morning and checked to find her tooth there and we calmed her down and said she must be at the end of the tooth fairys loop tonight, and she would be fine but she had to go back to sleep so the tooth fairy could do it! Then when I was tucking her back in I quickly swapped the tooth for the coin and she didnt even notice until she woke up.
Also always have the coin/money on hand. My wife usually carries the cash and we were camping without my wife and my daughter lost her tooth, thank goodness my parents were there and had cash!
When I was a kid and learned about the tooth fairy, I figured it was a way to make money, so I used to put mints that looked like a tic-tac almost tooth like under my pillow to trick the tooth fairy lol
Our oldest kid doesn’t believe in the tooth fairy. We didn’t push him to be a skeptic he just is that way. He still wants the money put under his pillow so we oblige in that part of the tradition at least. Our younger two haven’t lost any teeth so don’t how we will handle it for them.
I don't have any fun stories, but I will say our tooth fairy gives $2 bills for each tooth. It's fun, different and still very spendable. (And you can still get them from any bank) I've heard of parents giving anywhere between $1 to $10, and even one doing $20 (don't be the parent giving twenties)
My children are really sound sleepers, so we've never had a problem making the swap. I will say that you should make sure the child's tooth is in a ziplock bag or something easy to find in the dark. And also that they have a bunch of baby teeth so don't do anything for the first that you can't sustain.
We have a little door-hanging tooth pocket. (Example Link below) This lets us avoid the pillow entirely.
As for inflation, our tooth fairy gives funny denominations. Gold $1 coins, $2 bills, etc. sometimes with tooth fairy related stickers on them, to mark their specialness.
if your kid is like me (and there are probably some) maybe they will pretend to be asleep even if they wake up when you slip it under. i always knew it was the parents, i just wanted the money.