posted on July 25, 2000 10:03:39 PM
My kid just started losing his baby teeth. My wife slipped two bucks under his pillow after he lost the first one. It got me to wondering what the going rate for a tooth is these days. I remember getting a quarter about 40 years ago. A rough adjustment for inflation would probably put today's figure at about $2.50.
I kind of like the idea of coins. There's something unmagical about a fairy with folding money, IMHO. I think one of those new yellow dollars would work just fine. My wife thinks I'm just a cheapskate.
posted on July 25, 2000 10:06:42 PM$2.00?!? Are your child's teeth made out of gold? A 50 cent piece or a dollar piece at most would be good. One of the new Sacawagea coins would be great--and the gold color will make it even more exciting for the child.
posted on July 25, 2000 10:42:56 PM
I leave $3.00 for the lost tooth, and $1.00 for the sibling.
The older one knows I'm the tooth fairy, but the younger one still believes...
posted on July 25, 2000 10:44:29 PM
My toothfairy always left a silver dollar under my pillow....but that was 40 plus years ago, too. Dang, wish I had them now...wonder what they would fetch on ebay?
posted on July 25, 2000 10:54:51 PM
A Newsweek article a few months ago reported that teenagers, on average, have about $100 of disposable income per week.
Teeth were only commanding a dollar each when we were last involved. I'm sure that it is at least $2 by now.
posted on July 25, 2000 11:18:24 PMAntiquary:A Newsweek article a few months reported that teenagers, on average, have about $100 of disposable income per week.
The average family just doesn't have $100 per week to give to a teeneager to spend. I'd say that such teenages have *jobs* and are earning that disposable income
Children should learn early that money doesn't grow on trees. Allowances should be earned by doing chores (& not given if those chores are not completed), rather than given simply because the child is breathing "and should get an allowance." And the allowances should be appropriate to age.
Parents create their own familial inflation sometimes and then wonder why the kids think they should get big bucks for every little thing.
edited for UBB
[ edited by bunnicula on Jul 25, 2000 11:19 PM ]
posted on July 25, 2000 11:31:23 PM
If I put my dentures under the pillow tonight what are the chances of finding $50.00 there in the morning?
Bob, Downunder but never down.
posted on July 25, 2000 11:58:01 PM
bunnicula, just always been that way. I do that on birthdays too, and so does Grandma when she sends gifts. The birthday boy gets the big presents but there is always a little something for the sibling too so that he doesn't feel left out. That way everyone feels good.
Allowances are $1.00 a week. I'm thinking of doing an annual increase starting at age 10, adding one more dollar every year though, but I have a few months till my older one turns 10 so I'm still pondering. All of his friends get more for allowance so I'm thinking it might be time for an increase.
edited to add that it is a given in our home that allowances will be with-held if the child slacks and does nothing to contribute that week, but it has rarely happened. Sometimes my son goes into my room and makes my bed for me just to be nice without expecting anything for it.
[ edited by kiheicat on Jul 26, 2000 12:02 AM ]
I assumed that the average likely included some income from a part-time job also. The article never addressed the source. However, a significant number of teenagers don't work. I would also guess that many allowances include food and clothing expenses, as opposed to only an entertainment allocation.
Our son had a part-time job and an allowance, for which he was expected to perform some household chores. I think that is still pretty much a standard practice. However, partly because of changing lifestyles and partly because of increased affluence and partly because of smaller families, many children today do have much more money to spend than children even a decade ago did.
posted on July 26, 2000 09:14:47 AMkiheicat: your "little one" will be devastated & perhaps enraged one day when he/she learns that life doesn't work like that.
posted on July 26, 2000 09:54:58 AM
bunnicula - I do agree with your notion of financial responsibility. My son doesn't get an allowance. He earns a little bit by doing small chores around the house. I also offer a matching funds incentive in order to encourage him to save for the more expensive and coveted play items; Nintendo games, sports equipment, etc. He also has his own bank account for depositing Christmas, birthday, and special occasion gifts of cash. You do seem a bit curmudgeonly on this issue but I'm assuming you've been driven to distraction by your bug bites.
Despite a pragmatic nature, I am very fond of childhood fantasies and enjoy Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. I want my son to remain a child as long as possible. I suspect he may no longer believe in any of them but is cunning enough to humor mom and dad in their vicarious appreciation of same.
I think I'll push for the Sacajawea dollar idea and perhaps add a bit of decoration as suggested by toomany.
posted on July 26, 2000 10:06:03 AM
bunnicula, what are you going on about? My child will be devastated and enraged about what? My mother did the same for me when I was a child and I am not devastated and enraged. I remember getting a 'little something' from my mother while my sister got the big stuff on her birthday and vice versa.
She also left me a dollar from the tooth fairy... should I leave less 40 years later for my own children just because you think that the way I was raised will cause major upheaval in the world if I do the same for my children?
Simmer down!
posted on July 26, 2000 10:19:34 AM
xardon I am very fond of childhood fantasies and enjoy Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. I want my son to remain a child as long as possible.
I agree...I look at my kids sometimes and wish I could just stop the clock so they could stay children.
My son figured out long before he brought up the subject with me that I was actually Santa Clause but he played along, probably for my sake, lol
He's been very good about not crushing the belief of his little brother though, although he does use a line that I told him when he first asked who Santa was. I said "You have seen Santa Clause but you just might not have known you were looking at him." They get this mystical wonder look, lol
I got a measly quarter when I was a kid many moons ago, thought it was a fortune. The Tooth Fairy gave my children a dollar half that many moons ago. So now 2.00 is about right (and they say we aren't suffering from inflation.)
Kcat,
I would have done the same as you had my daughter been old enough to know what was happening.
Toomany,
That's a great idea. Wish I had thought of it way back when.
posted on July 26, 2000 11:24:51 AM
My kids always got a dollar - and I saved their first missing tooth. I think it's gross, but family tradition, ya know.
I always told my kids that Santa, Tooth Fairy, etc. were wonderful fantasies. The idea was that when they were old enough to understand what the word fantasy meant, then they were old enough to handle the fact that it wasn't real. Also, this was my way of making sure that they didn't wonder what else I had told them that wasn't true - I made sure they knew that God wasn't a fantasy - but Santa was. Still, both of them pretended to still believe in Santa long after they didn't. I miss those days.
posted on July 26, 2000 03:22:18 PM
Kihiecat:
Simmer down - you forgot the NOW - simmer down now I say!! Have you been watching Saturday Night Live too much!
Anyway,
You will all go crazy - my son gets $5 for a lost tooth.
posted on July 26, 2000 03:29:51 PM
I always left a dollar, and I was relieved of my job as tooth fairy, Santa Claus and Easter Bunny this year. My last one is too old now. I'm just plain old mom now.
My daughter gets $5.00 a week allowance. For this she is expected to do chores commensurate with her age. She's so-so with the chores, but an A-B student.
posted on July 26, 2000 04:56:46 PMkiheicat: sorry if I stepped on your toes. Really, I am. The thing is society these days is setting kids up for a big fall. We're raising them to expect that they will always be a winner (even when they're not), that if someone else gets something it's "only fair" that they get something too (even when it's someone else's event), etc. etc. etc. Children are not being allowed to overcome small disappointments--which in turn will allow them to cope with bigger disappointments. We want so much to smooth their way, to give them everything. I don't think we are doing them a service in this. There comes a day when a child learns that the universe doesn't revolve around him or her. When they find out that life also involves disappointments or losses. It seems ridiculous, I know, to think about giving a child a gift so "they won't feel left out" when someone else gets one in that light. But it does start small and builds. We have been having games for the kids at the library this summer. It is shocking to see how many kids (not toddlers or preschoolers, mind you) just can't cope with losing. Tears, tantrums, quitting abruptly--because they didn't win. They've been raised to think that they are "special," that no one is ever a winner or a loser in *anything.* I have seen this growing over the years...
edited to lose a "t"
[ edited by bunnicula on Jul 26, 2000 04:58 PM ]
posted on July 26, 2000 05:18:27 PM
boysmommy TOO FUNNY! That's EXACTLY what I was thinking but I thought if I wrote "Simmah down nah" nobody would know what I was talking about. LOLOL
bunnicula, no worries. I'm simmering down now myself... LOLOL
posted on July 26, 2000 07:33:08 PM
So some of us do still watch SNL!! It had been a long time but I have watched it the last twe weeks and that skit is hilarious!! Nothing like the good ole days though with Roseanna Roseanna Danna or whatever it was.
I do not remember the posters name but I am in agreement and so tired of the new concept of no competition and everyone is a winner etc. While I understand partially the philosophy behind it we are also setting up children to fail in business. When they become adults they will not know how to function as everyone does not win - failure will be taken much harder then if they learn at a young age to work hard and you get what you deserve.
Prime example my son's school district decided to change gradings this year to a ridiculous sometimes, hardly ever, always etc. type of thing. Their explanation is that it comes across better to the struggling student. There are no more A,B,C,D or failing marks until high school.
In addition, my son played tee ball for 3 years and got ready last year to play real ball. Well, we went to sign up and they said the Little League Organization in PA had decided that children are not yet ready for competition at 8 so they will now play coach/kid pitch but no scores = no winners or they are all winners philosophy etc. My son was very upset - they said well he can try out for the next higher up league but only a few kids make it - so go ahead and let him. He did make it and we would not have had it any other way. He felt a part of a team that had a goal and all children were involved. They took 1st, he made all stars and had the best personal season ever.
Okay -
I know I will get blasted - sportsmanship is better - all children should be winners etc. But that is not how life is. My children are good sports but very competitive and they will be succesful as adults competing in a real world.
I believe that children should be sheltered as much as possible but they also need to understand how life is and a little competition does not hurt them, in fact helps them.
posted on July 26, 2000 08:01:42 PMboysmommy3: sportsmanship was & *should* still be part of playing sports, but the way they run sports for kids in a lot of places today has *nothing* to do with sportsmanship. It's this self-esteem crap people are being brainwashed into accepting. A child's self-esteem should be *real* not some pie-in-the-sky idea that everything comes his/her way just because they are breathing! Why should a child strive if his/her effort is not recognized? If everyone is going to get the same reward why try to put in any more effort than necessary? Not just in sports. In school. In life.
posted on July 26, 2000 09:09:58 PM
boysmommy I used to LOVE to watch the REAL Saturday Night Live with Belushi and Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy as Buckwheat and Father Guido Sarducci and, yes, Gilda Radner as Rosanne Rosannadanna... too funny!
Some of the skits they have now are funny but I usually fall asleep... guess I'm getting older, sigh...
On the sportsmanship issue, I recently saw a newsmagazine show on parents of sports team kids who were appallingly UNsportsmanlike. Here the kids were on the field trying to play a game and the parents were having fistfights in the bleachers... what's up with that??? Yes, competition is good and a part of life, but kids should also be taught how to not only lose gracefully but win gracefully.
posted on July 26, 2000 10:04:50 PM
kihiecat (sp) and bunnicula:
You both said it better than I did - thank you!
Yes, I agree that sportsmanship should be taught and an attribute to be proud of However; for everyone to get trophies etc. - like B said - why try??
Life is just not like that and I think some of these children will learn far too late that they will have to work hard and compete to get the jobs, the house - the girl or guy etc.
BUT I am appalled at the latest lack of sportmanship that has been seen especially as they were parents. The hockey one last week where two parents fought and one died right in front of all of the children.
posted on July 26, 2000 11:40:37 PM
Sportsmanship. Whether we or they like or not, professional sports figures are role models for kids. Kids emulate what they see their heroes doing. As sportsmanship has declined in professional sports there has been a corresponding decline in children's sports. As long as professional players are allowed to get away with disrespect to referees, fighting, and poor sportsmanship in general, then that is what kids will emulate. I stopped watching hockey (except for Olympic hockey) because the game is more brawling than hockey. I am close to turning away from basketball for the same reason. Baseball, too. When I want to watch fighting, I turn on boxing. Players get slaps on the wrist & excuses made for them after blatantly breaking the law. Keep playing & get commercial gigs after beating up on members of the audience or fellow players. Repeatedly flaunt drug abuse & be kept on teams. Etc. etc. etc. All because they bring in a lot of money. Sends a great message to kids, doesn't it?
