I think the tooth fairy that came here was too generous sometimes. I think it depends on your situation. Would $5 be a big deal to him? $10? I know some people still insist on just a quarter, but I always thought it was a nice time to slide them something special.

Oh, and if she forgets to come, just tell him that you forgot to leave the window unlocked.

Our daughter just lost her first tooth about a month ago (at age 5 1/2) and we did $2 for her first tooth, figuring we would do $1 for each one afterwards. I have friends who gave $50, though....they have a NICE tooth fairy! Our daughter doesn't know the difference between $2 and $50, though, so as long as she's oblivious, we'll let her be (also: we rarely have cash around when teeth randomly fall out right around bedtime anyway!)

We did $1/tooth. Some of my children's friends never had the "tooth fairy" come visit when they lost their teeth, so my children felt lucky she visited them!

Whatever you decide, be aware that kids talk - and they have 20 primary teeth.

The Tooth Fairy at my sister D's house delivers $10/tooth. The Tooth Fairy at my sister M's house delivers $1/tooth. When M's son's tooth was loose - practically hanging off of his gums - she told him to just yank it out. He said, "No way. We're going to aunt D's house tomorrow, and their Tooth Fairy gives waaaay more than ours does. I'm keeping it in 'till tomorrow night!"

I was thinking a quarter, but I understand things are different these days. DH mentioned to DS that the TF gave him a silver dollar for his first tooth back in the day. I might have one laying around somewhere.

$5 would be a very big deal to him. He's very into money. He likes to research the presidents on different coins and bills. He's got a $20 from his recent birthday that he often studies. He understands how many of which coins equals $1 or $5 or $10. Also, he likes to count and hand cash to vendors at the farmers market. He's so adorable. :)

Bee--love the locked window idea. We do, embarrassingly, still have brown paper up over the windows inside because I can't pick blinds or shades. It's only been a year. :-/

Lovetodream--I rarely have cash around either. And $50 ain't happenin'!!

Buehl--$1 sounds reasonable.

Thanks, all!

Oh, does the TF ever leave notes? Just cash?

I used to get a dime.

But that was half a million years ago, lol. TEN DOLLARS, though? Did it have a gold filling in it?

EAM--funny story! I thought about the issue of kids talking so I slyly asked DS what the other kids get. He didn't know. He DID know he was to place the tooth in the upper right-hand corner of his pillows. Why? Who knows!

Deedles--you gave me an idea. I think Nath would be happier with 10 dimes than a $1 bill. Hmmmm....

We used to get a dime, and our kids have all gotten dimes. It's still fun enough for them, so why mess with success?

I wouldn't want it to be a big deal, in terms of the amount of money...just a fun, mysterious treat.

Our tooth fairy leaves $3/tooth, and I keep a stash of ones for exactly this kind of thing! Our tooth fairy is also working her way through my childhood coin collection, which my kids don't know I had/have, and leaves a couple every time. The tooth fairy is very busy, you see, and can't always remember what country she's in. The coins are nothing more than the pocket change my dad brought home from his business trips when I was a kid, and luckily my kids don't know there's no such thing as lira and deutschmarks anymore!

Rhome--HI!! I dislike make everything about money. I don't want DS getting rich for doing what his mouth is supposed to do anyway. I also want it to be jus a fun part of childhood.

I am, however, willing to buy him a the least expensive Nook reader if he meets his reading goal for his school's Read-a-thon this month. His goal is 3,000 minutes. He's up to more than 2,200 so far! Pretty good for a 7 year old who reads at a 4th grade level!

Mayo--the foreign currency is a great idea! If only I hadn't given DS all my leftovers a few years ago. Should have thought ahead.....

Our TF leaves a dollar coin (the ones that look like gold) and a bit of fairy dust (glitter). My 7-year old DS said, "Mom, it just looks like glitter."

Miner--coincidence! DH just put a gold Susan B. Anthony dollar in place of the little tooth under the pillow. I wish I had some gold glitter to go with it!

My DD was thrilled with a crisp new paper money. I did $5 bills. And loved the note even more. We also took her to the bank to open a savings account in her name and she immediately replied to tooth fairy and said that she is not ''sqwandering money on candy but instead inwesting in the bank so not to worry about giving her $20 bills etc. as she will save it in the bank. Btw, sounds like DS is a precocious reader. My DD is too but she really prefers a physical book to ebooks on nook or kindle. Suggest seeing if he really likes the nook before 'investing'.

I was going to say the tooth fairy here does the gold dollars for the first tooth also, but I can assure you, as they start falling out like rain (which they will soon) I have occasionally been desperate (as in...child lost tooth at school, forgot to tell me when they got home, produced said tooth in a little baggie that had been crammed into book bag at bedtime.) Sigh. We don't use cash much, so it as occasionally been a scramble. So help me, once all I had was a twenty. This was just a random tooth, and the TF had never left more than a dollar. Child was so excited, I couldn't bring myself to show the note the TF had written saying that she had too many teeth that night, ran out of dollars, and to please have their mommy get change that day and leave the $19 to be picked up that night. Sigh... :)

we always did $1. but I know people who give $$ and a toy--crazy!! The price has gone up!! no more quarters!

I did gold dollar coins. I went to the bank and stocked up. Also nice is a $2 bill. I only left notes in reply to the ones my youngest would leave. And if I forgot before I went to bed, I would "find" the coin on the floor where it must have fallen during the night.

My good friend has an awesome ritual which I wish I'd thought of for my kids... She gets the golden $1 dollar coins (you can often get them as change from car washes) and leaves those under the pillow. The gold coin makes it so much more "fairy-special" than quarters or a dollar bill.

My daughter lost her first tooth yesterday! At 4y10m, I wasn't expecting this! Money doesn't mean much to her yet, but I left a loonie and new socks. She was so thrilled with the socks, I don't think it mattered that I left money.

It's been a long time for me, so I can't suggest a money amount except that it should not be big bucks. I did sprinkle glitter and a note from "Matilda the Tooth Fairy." Everyone kept the fantasy going for a long time.

Breezy, What did the TF leave?

I think the quarter sounds great, or a $1 coin, A 50c piece would be cool, "large".

I kept all the teeth from my kids. I have a ring box with a flip lid for each kid that I saved their teeth in, up to a point that is. Eventually, they wont even tell you that they lost a molar when they are older, or forget to give it to you.

My DS is 5.5 and we haven't lost teeth yet, but it sounds like I better get prepared as I know a lot of his friends have lost some already.

I love the gold coin idea and will be going to the bank to stock up!

EAM, that's so funny. Did your nephew make it to Aunt D's house without losing the tooth?

I don't remember how much we put under the pillow, but I know it wasn't over a dollar. Probably a quarter or two. I like the idea of the gold dollars, if you can find them.

When our kids lost their teeth we would put the tooth in a glass of water by their beds. The tooth fairy then would fly into the glass and take the tooth but the water would become the colour of her wings. (and they got a loonie under their pillow - our $1 coin). Of course the coloured water was thanks to food colouring.

Breezy, Hi back! ;-)

I don't want DS getting rich for doing what his mouth is supposed to do anyway. I also want it to be jus a fun part of childhood.

My thoughts exactly. The dime motivation hasn't stopped my kids, even when they lose the bigger teeth at about 12 yrs old, from putting their lost teeth out for the tooth fairy! (We've always put ours in a glass of water in the kitchen window, which is replaced with the dime by morning--unless the tooth fairy gets lost in bad weather and is a day or so late ;-)... I think maybe this was my mom's way of not reaching under pillows and sleeping heads for tiny little teeth.) If you don't give out big bucks for teeth, it leaves you room to do as you're doing with the Nook... Spend for useful 'rewards' for real accomplishments.

The unusual coins or foreign coins are neat ideas, as is the glitter. :)

My son was sad that his friends lost their first teeth earlier than he did, so to make him feel better, I told him that the tooth fairy leaves as many dollars as his age. So when even though some friends were 5 or 6, he was excited that he got $7 whole dollars when his first tooth came out. Every tooth after was $1. Unless Tooth Fairy forgot, then it was $1.25 and a note. One time, she forgot to take the tooth but she left the money on the kitchen counter, and she had to leave a followup note that even though she paid, her inventory of teeth was overfilled at this time, and she was allowing the child to keep her tooth for a memento. The Tooth Fairy is not very organized.

I like the dime idea...because dimes are the smallest coin and the tooth fairy is tiny! Maybe a dime and a note...with some gold and silver fairy dust. I mean glitter :)

My poor 3 year old had to deal with the tooth fairy at age 2 1/2!! She had an accident and her 2 front teeth got pushed all the way up, so they had to extract them, with no anesthisia BTW. She got toys from the tooth fairy because of er age and what she had to go through. She had an appliance made with fake teeth, but it wouldn't hold. Now that she's 3 they are going to try again in march. Let's hope it stays, as she is prob. doing fine without them, they say her speech is suffering.she is a trooper though! Took it much better than mom! :(!

My husband got really, really excited when our first lost his first tooth and gave him 20.00. I thought he was nuts!
The other two also got 20.00 for their first tooth, just to be fair.

In our house, the story always was that tooth fairy finances dictated cash received. If there is an abundance of teeth, her finances are stretched tight and you don't get much. If there aren't many teeth around, they are worth more. The age old teaching of supply and demand. other than that first tooth, there never was any rhyme or reason for what was received; more like what was available to give. they NEVER got another 20.00 though!

As to the 'oops' that happen with having an empty wallet when a tooth is lost, we would look at the poor, stricken child and say, didn't you get up to use the bathroom? We thought we heard some mad fluttering - you must have scared her away! Sad child would be sure to empty their bladder very well before bed that next night, go to bed on time, do everything right in order to not disturb and would be rewarded with whatever was available.

Sadly, I cannot give up on the tooth fairy, but I have given up on the games and stories. When my kids, now ages 15, 13 1/2 and 12 lose a tooth, I simply flutter into their room, grab the tooth, drop some spending cash and flutter away.

Breezy- sorry if this is too late! My eldest lost his first at 5.5 yrs, and my youngest just lost his first a few days before he turned 6. They both got $5.00. Any teeth lost since then has been 4 quarters. Except for the time eldest lost 2 teeth in one day...that was special, so a few extra quarters. We have a special pillow (brought at babies r us 8 years ago) that hangs on the door, with a boy lost tooth theme. I am so scared of waking them up, or missing the tooth under the pillow.

What did you end up doing?

I know I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I thought I'd add my 2cents...
The tooth fairy leaves a Two dollar bill for the first tooth (I have them saved in my drawer for future first teeth...) and then a single dollar for each add'l tooth. But they always get folded in a new and different design. The tooth fairy first got this idea in the Southwest Airlines magazine, and has been collecting those bad-boys ever since. Our tooth fairy has too much time on his/her hands, I tell ya....

Here is a link that might be useful: dollar bill oragami

When my eldest son was around 7 the tooth fairy left a note on the door that said she could not get to his bed because so many toys were on the floor. The toys were alwys put away on subsequent TF visits. :-)

Love the origami idea!

We don't have kids, but I think back to when the Tooth Fairy visited me...I think I got change for some of the first teeth, and then as I was getting a little bit older, I got a dollar. One tooth had to be extracted at the dentist and I had an infection...even with the anesthesia, it hurt like crazy...for that one, the Tooth Fairy left $5, I think...I know it was WAY more than usual.

Also, my Tooth Fairy would leave special notes for me. Probably because I wrote notes to her. My favorite that I remember is I wrote asking her what she did with all the teeth that she collected. Very smart Tooth Fairy came back with, "I make them into special pearls." Worked for me. I was very excited...but I was a bit of a dork even back then. ;-)

I too got a dime, but my kids' TF delivered "special" money, such as Sacajawea one dollar coins or other fun big currency. We learned early to stock up for those unexpected losses or "double loss" days.

Our tooth fairy does $1 per tooth. However, she brings the special $1 gold coins so they are a bit more special than just a regular George Washington.

The tooth fairy also leaves a scant trail of fairy dust (glitter) from the windowsill to the bed.

My DD was scared to death of the tooth fairy! We made a big deal about putting the tooth under the pillow and that the fairy would leave her something. She had nightmares, couldn't sleep, because someone strange (the fairy) was going to be in her room and around her bed.

I have friends who leave temporary tattoos or stickers either with or without the money.

We do $1 for the first tooth, and 2 quarters for each subsequent tooth, plus a fancy, glittery fairy sticker (I have girls). The fairy sticker is like the "signature" of the TF.

Coincidentally, a bunch of us at work were talking about the tooth fairy at lunch a couple of days ago. It was interesting to get an international perspective. Folks on my team come from all over: Netherlands, Venezuela, China, Greece, India, Hungary, Iran, and a few boring caucasian Americans like me. Most of them said their tooth fairy was like ours, or that they didn't have one at all.

I thought the most interesting a the woman from Iran who said that their tooth fairy didn't leave money. Instead, she (all tooth fairies are "she", right?) left small toys. Sounds like a good option if you don't want the kids to get too into money at a young age.

Of the ones who had young children (or had been children more recently than me), the consensus was $1. Most of the old farts like me said we'd gotten quarters as kids.

Laura

Our tooth fairy was not that consistent. I think the first tooth received a penny, nickel, dime, quarter and dollar coin minted in the year of their birth. After that, they probably got $1-2 in coins for an average tooth experience, but a couple of difficult ones got bonuses.

Hi all - yes, my nephew made is to D's house, tooth hanging by a thread - and got $10 the next morning. Hilarious. And pricey.

This tooth fairy wasn't prepared for the first tooth and would you believe it - he SWALLOWED IT! He bit into an apple with peanut butter on it and that's all she wrote. So, he had to write a note and ended up with a $5 because that's all I had - either that or a quarter and some pennies! So with ds #2 the first tooth also was worth $5. Now though it's all over the place - sometimes coins, sometimes $. But normally $1 no matter if it's coins or paper. I think I used to get .25 cents! Definitely high inflation!!!

I love all of these unique ideas on here though!

i told my kids that the $ varied each night, depending on how many kids lost teeth that day. so if there was a big payday, that meant few kids lost teeth that day. hence the variances between our kids and their friends, and the bills that were in the wallet that day.

lwerner - I used to teach 6-12th graders at a private school that had lots of kids from other countries. We did discuss the Tooth Fairy at some point. Most of the western kids were familiar with the whole TF thing, but not the Asian kids. Some said that with the loss of a first tooth, they sometimes would throw it over the house for an upper tooth and under the house for a lower tooth, but that wasn't universal. Mostly their baby teeth went in the trash.

Speaking of which, what do all you TFs do with the collected teeth? I finally disposed of them not so long ago as the youngest was passing 30. Kind of sad, but really, how long do you need to hang on to them?

Thank you, everyone!

I really enjoyed reading all your stories and advice. DH pulled a gold Sacajawea coin from his poker money and replaced that with DS's lost tooth. (I mistakenly said Susan B. Anthony dollar earlier.). It was a huge hit! DS was so excited.

I hadn't had a chance to decide on a long range Tooth Fairy strategy when DS lost his second tooth 10 days later as DH was on a business trip. The Tooth Fairy managed to find a shiny 50 cent piece in the aforementioned poker money bin. Another happy morning-after-TF!

I think the gold coins and other special money is what our TF is planning now.

I appreciate all the advice! :)