The Tooth Fairy Debacle - What's the going rate for the Tooth Fairy?

 It happened, and it happened without advanced notice, my five year old lost her first tooth!  A monumental event in the life of a child, my daughter was overjoyed to join the ranks of her pre-school classmates that had already lost their first teeth!

As a parent, I was thrilled for my daughter, and saddened for myself as she met yet another milestone that marked the end of her baby years.  Together we cheered, we danced, and we celebrated the loss of the pearly white baby tooth!

Then as we were describing the Tooth Fairy process to her; how she would put this tiny tooth under her pillow at bedtime, and the Tooth Fairy would sneak in after she was asleep and replace it with... with what?!?!? I was ill-prepared, I hadn't expected a visit from the Tooth Fairy for at least a few more months, and yet in a matter of hours we had gone from discovering that her tooth was loose, to it being held proudly above her head in her little fingers like the torch of the Statue of Liberty!  Thank goodness for Facebook and the instant access to countless friends and relatives with small children!  As soon as my daughter deposited her tooth in my hand and went on her merry way to play outside, I set to work and asked the question on Facebook, "What IS the going rate for the Tooth Fairy?!?!?!" 

The responses I received were varied, and ranged from $1 to $20 for the first tooth!  Yikes, it seems that some children have VERY generous Tooth Fairies!  Knowing my own daughter, I know that if she received $20, or even $5, for the first tooth that she would fully expect that the Tooth Fairy would either continue with that amount, or even increase it with subsequent teeth.  The dilemma ensued... How much was this tooth worth? 

Whispered conversations were had, between my husband and I, as our daughter's bedtime approached.  Not wanting to set precedent of too high of a rate of return on baby teeth, we opted to have the Tooth Fairy leave a dollar as a reward for this prize tooth.  After she was soundly asleep, the Tooth Fairy slipped into her room and replaced that tiny little tooth with a dollar bill, and the deal was sealed.

All that night I feared that she would be disappointed with the Tooth Fairy's offerings.  Had the Tooth Fairy left enough?  Those fears were swiftly negated the next morning, when she came bounding out of her bedroom waving her Tooth Fairy dollar above her head and with a HUGE gap-toothed grin on her face!!

I guess the Tooth Fairy did okay after all!