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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the tooth fairy should be giving more than 20p

78 replies

Battybonkers · 17/08/2022 23:09

DD has lost her first tooth. DH wanted to leave 20p, I wanted to give £5 for 1st tooth and a quid for each subsequent one. DH was horrified - accused me of rampant Inflation in the middle of a cost of living crisis. I on the other hand think he needs to accept prices have gone up since he lost teeth around 30years ago - inflation is a reflection of wage progression in the fairy world. Who is BU? What is the going rate for teeth these days??

OP posts:
Bangarang · 17/08/2022 23:58

It feels like us 50p fairies are being bashed a bit - I'd love to give my kids more but I often have to write an IOU from the fairy as it is 😕

I used to have a pot of fifty pence pieces but alas, we need things like bread and milk sometimes.

They both got a few quid for their first ones. And two years ago the tooth fairy left a fiver because we had nothing else 😱

Luckily my youngest just loves coins and has no sense of currency etc.

Squashedraddish · 17/08/2022 23:59

£2 for first tooth, £1 thereafter

EarlofShrewsbury · 18/08/2022 00:00

I've made it well know in our house that the tooth fairy is a bit scatty brained and usually has a waiting list.

I have ADD and although I usually have change in, I hardly ever remember.

We always give a £2 coin.

theclangersarecoming · 18/08/2022 00:02

£1 per tooth is fine!

Luredbyapomegranate · 18/08/2022 00:03

elliejjtiny · 17/08/2022 23:28

The tooth fairy here gives £1 per unblemished tooth and 50p for a tooth with a filling in it.

@elliejjtiny

Harsh

Jerabilis · 18/08/2022 00:05

A sneaky tip for those regularly without cash - my parents convinced my brother and I that the tooth fairy had a collection schedule for teeth and for our area it was on Thursdays - the same day as the bin collection. So any teeth lost on another day had to be saved to be put under the pillow on Thursday night.

They came up with the idea when my brother lost his first tooth and for some reason they didn’t have any cash in the house. Teeth could only be collected from our home, not a holiday location too…

SunnyD44 · 18/08/2022 00:06

£5 for a tooth!! Jeez!!

I’d say 50p - £2.

Anything less than that is a bit stingy and anything more than that is just unnecessary.

I do think kids like an actual coin rather than a note anyway but the value isn’t that important as it’s just exiting finding a coin underneath your pillow!

Ahhh I miss the days of the tooth fairy s d panicking that you haven’t got any change on you.

Kite22 · 18/08/2022 00:11

YABoth BU

20p is a very small amount but notes sounds ridiculous.
50p or a £ sounds fine.

However, as with all things, it depends on how much spare money you have every month, and, for families on a budget, if you are paying this out for one mouthful of teeth or if you have several dc.

user1484512193 · 18/08/2022 00:16

I see all these people commenting £2 here and £1 there... I think you're mad but each to their own. My mom was a single parent on the tightest of budgets and actually went without meals sometimes so we could eat. She would give us anything from between 5p to 50p and you know what, we were just glad the tooth fairy had been and put the money in our money box and I do exactly the same with my kids and do a note. Still magic for them.

GlitteryUnicornSparkles · 18/08/2022 00:18

My son got £1 per tooth.

seven201 · 18/08/2022 00:18

We do £1 per tooth, but my dd is just super excited about a "shiny coin" so I can get away with a shiny 1p if I wanted to. She's 6.

Snowpatrolling · 18/08/2022 00:25

Golden coin in my house, so £1 a tooth.
althoigh mine are older now so we don’t do the pillow thing or I give them and IOU!!

RoseMartha · 18/08/2022 00:26

It was £1 a tooth my dc are teens now.

Summerfun54321 · 18/08/2022 00:46

50p per tooth. It’s the magic of finding a shiny coin under your pillow in place of a tooth. It’s nothing to do with the actual monetary value of the coin.

Kite22 · 18/08/2022 17:16

Agree @seven201 and @Summerfun54321

Surely anyone young enough to be excited at the magical swapping of a 'fallen out tooth' for a shiny coin isn't going to be too clear about 'value' or spending power.
It is all about the "magic" of the tooth fairy.

Hugasauras · 18/08/2022 17:18

I got 50p 30 years ago!

Greenfrog78 · 18/08/2022 17:30

£2 per tooth but if they need to ho dentist/hospital they get £5 ( only happened once).

MardyBumm · 18/08/2022 17:32

I was getting 20p back in 1992.

hennaoj · 18/08/2022 19:35

£1 per tooth here. Mine never spend it! I used to get 20p in the 80's! My brother and sister got 30p per tooth in the late 80's and 90's, I wasn't impressed.

hennaoj · 18/08/2022 19:35

Not 30p, 50p

Sartre · 18/08/2022 19:52

I did exactly the same as you. £5 for the first one then £1 for subsequent ones.

Sartre · 18/08/2022 19:53

Should also say I definitely got £1 per tooth as a child in the 90s. 20p is what I’d have expected in the 70s Wink.

GrouchyKiwi · 18/08/2022 19:56

Our Tooth Fairy leaves £1 per tooth. She also brilliantly retrieved DD1's first tooth from her intestine after DD swallowed it when it fell out as she was eating. She's a very good Tooth Fairy (except when she doesn't make it because it must have been too windy out...)

Soubriquet · 18/08/2022 19:57

£2 for the first tooth. £1 after

Cervinia · 18/08/2022 19:57

£1 per tooth is fine