Apparently I wasn’t the only one who thought $20 for a single tooth was outrageous.
After all, the Tooth Fairy isn’t Santa.
Well, unless you’re in my daughter’s first grade class, then Saint Nick and the winged enamel collector share the same bank account.
But that’s not the case in most of the country.
According to CNN, the Tooth Fairy is floundering in today’s sluggish economy, and kids are beginning to take notice.
The cable news network cites a recent survey which found that the going rate for freshly fallen teeth has seen a 40-cent decline this year, from $3 to $2.60.
If you think that’s bad, consider that 10% of kids are waking up to nothing, according to survey results. Compare that to last year when just 6% of kids reached under their pillow and found a whole lotta invisible dollar bills.
The survey queried more than 1,000 parents and found that kids living along the East Coast of the United States have less to smile about than their toothless counterparts on the West Coast.
According to the survey, kids in New York, New England and the Carolinas received just $2.10 for a pea-sized sample of enamel, pulp, cementum and dentine. That’s a 38% decline from $3.40 last year. Out west, kids scored more than the national average: $2.80 and up 4% from last year’s $2.70. Meanwhile, children living in the Midwest receive an average of $2.80; a 3% decrease from last year’s $2.90 (unless you live near me, then $20 per tooth is not out of the question). In the south kids are raking in just $2.60 from the frugal fairy. That’s a 21% cut from last year’s $3.30.
On average the survey found that most kids get a dollar or less for a single tooth, regardless of how sweet it is.
How much does the Tooth Fairy leave your kids?