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Does the Tooth Fairy Keep Up With Inflation?

The Tooth Fairy has been a frequent visitor in American homes since early 1900's. The idea of a magical pixie exchanging money for teeth has helped generations of children through the unpleasant and often scary means of losing their baby teeth. Most lose all 20 by age 12, and even though they could be old enough not to think in fairies any longer, most families play out the overall game to the end. It is an expression of passion for our children to console them because of their loss. When my son recently told my husband and me that he had his first wiggly tooth, it sparked memories of our own tooth exchanges. We both remember receiving a silver dollar for each tooth, but wondered if we should calculate for inflation. I discovered through online research that the lady named Rosemary Wells จัดฟันถูก, a former professor at Northwestern University Dental School and a professional on Tooth Fairy lore, did a study tracking the amounts the Tooth Fairy left for teeth from 1900-1980. The results were that indeed, the Tooth Fairy keeps up with current economics. I wish I had been able to view the specific study in its entirety. I might have liked to start to see the rates from year to year. Instead, I asked my friends what the existing rate was one of them, and most told me $5. Somehow though, the evening that the tooth finally made its debut came as a surprise to us, and all we had in the home was a $20 bill. It was actually a miracle that people had that since we rarely have cash. Our son was VERY happy in the morning, and we'd to explain that it was simply because the initial tooth is indeed special he got so much. From then on, we have kept only a little stash of $5 bills hidden in the house only for Tooth Fairy use. I was still curious to observe the price of a tooth had risen through the years, so I made a decision to conduct my own, personal small scale study and ask all my friends and family. I received responses from 25 cents all the way to $100 per tooth! Nearly all people who responded lost their baby teeth in the 1960's and unanimously remember getting 50 cents per tooth. I looked up average prices for the 1960's, and found a loaf of bread cost 25 cents. Therefore, if children desired to take their Tooth Fairy money and buy bread (humor me), they would have been able to get 2 loaves per tooth. The average price for a loaf of bread today is $3, so allowing children to have the ability to buy 2 loaves, they would need to get $6. A doll store conducted a survey of 150 Moms back 2006, and discovered that the average amount they gave for a tooth was $3. Tsk! Tsk! Meaning that parents today are only half as generous as their parents in that their children can just only buy one loaf of bread. About 25% of individuals genuinely believe that larger teeth are worth more, and give more for molars. The amount does seem to vary by location too. In a few areas, $20-$25 per tooth is average. I suggest asking your children what others are becoming and asking friends before your child loses that first tooth so you might determine the going rate for the neighborhood. You do not want to offer more than others (other parents will resent you when their children complain), and you do not want to provide inadequate or your child will undoubtedly be distraught thinking that there surely is something amiss together with his teeth. If you can't or are unwilling to cover the typical, I ran across a posting with really a clever explanation. You can say that the Tooth Fairy sets out with exactly the same amount of cash each night. If you will find just a few children who have lost teeth, they get a fairly wide range of money, and if there are lots of children that night, each one of these will get a smaller portion of the pot. Pretty ingenious! However, if you are using this excuse, I will suggest that one or more times, you develop the bigger amount so you can say, "Well, FINALLY, you're as lucky as friends and family! ".


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