Look at that million dollar grin.
And by a million I mean nearly 50 bucks.
The Tooth Fairy has been very, very generous to my daughter.
Since this picture was taken, roughly three weeks ago, my 8-year-old has pocketed an additional $20 from the Fairy who pays for falling enamel.
That’s way, way more than the average kid makes experiencing this normal rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, but that’s mainly because the Tooth Fairy’s generous grandparents also add in several dollars to sweeten the pot.
Take the Fairy’s parents out of the mix, and most kids these days are hauling in about three bucks for each tooth they place under their respective pillows, at least according to a new survey by Visa.
The credit card company says $3 is nothing to sneeze at, and not just because most of today’s parents only got between 25 cents and a dollar when they lost teeth back in the day. The $3 mark is actually up 15 percent from last year when the going rate was $2.60.
“The Tooth Fairy may be the canary in the economic coal mine. She’s showing signs of life by leaving 40 cents more per tooth this year,” Visa’s Jason Alderman, noted in a press release. “This is not only good news for kids, but an ideal teachable moment for parents to engage their children in thinking about how to budget their windfall by saving a portion.”
So exactly how much is too much for a child to get rewarded for simply leaving her tooth under her pillow?
Visa is trying to help parents answer that question by pushing its new Tooth Fairy Calculator iPhone app and online tool. The high-tech helper does the math for clueless moms and dads and tells them how much they should be shelling out based on the state in which they reside, their age, gender, income and education level. For example, a 46-year-old, college-educated dad/Tooth Fairy living in Hawaii and earning roughly $40,000 per year should be coughing up $1, according to Visa’s new app.
You can find out if the Tooth Fairy is gypping your kid by plugging in your information here.
By the way, according to the survey, only 8 percent of children receive more than $5 per tooth from the Fairy, so don’t feel compelled to buy into your kid’s whining that the rest of the world is making a fortune for pulling dangling dentin.
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