Tooth Fairy Time

[muninnhuginn]

My baby lost a tooth yesterday. At five years and one month it seems a tad young. It's also a lower incisor and we're sure the top ones are meant to drop out first. Looby Loo's had so many bumps and bangs this week tho'--a bang on the head on Monday necessitating a note from school, falling off the tag-along on Thursday when she and M skidded on a patch of ice--that it could have recieved a knock: she doesn't remember and didn't mention a sore mouth at any time. But when I picked her up from school yesterday, she said her tooth was loose. So I told her to leave it alone (fat chance of that!) and tried to work out what to do about it. It came out in her noodles at supper time without fuss: we didn't even immediately notice what the "bit" she had found actaully was. It looks like the entire tooth; her gum's not sore; she's not upset. Bearing in mind the way her milk teeth are crammed in, it might be blessing. There'll be more space for the permanent ones to grow in without early dental intervention.

We tried to work out what the tooth fairy should give her (a gum shield sprang to mind) and decided that if we got 5 (new) pence twenty-one years* ago, then a 50p piece didn't seem unreasonable now. Anyone actually know what the going rate for teeth is, these days?

* Edit: wishful thing that: it was, in reality, thirty-one years.

Comments

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

According to the website for comparing the purchasing power of money in the Great Britain from 1264 to 2002 (http://eh.net/hmit/ppowerbp/), the purchasing power of 5p in 1983 was the same as the purchasing power of 10p in 2002.

On the other hand, I too got 5p for milk teeth in 1973, and that would now be worth 37p, so maybe it is time the Tooth Fairy gave a bit more for a tooth.

[muninnhuginn]

Of course, I actually meant to write thirty-one years ago: it must be a sign of approaching senility that I've deducted 10 from my age. (Used to get away with this subtraction, but I think the grey in the hair's a bit of a giveaway nowadays!) So the 5p to 37p transform's about right: this fairy has decided to be generous and round up to the nearest available single coin rather than down.

[groliffe.livejournal.com]

and the early seventies had horrific inflation. 1s in 1970 is now worth 48p, so it matters a lot what year you are remembering...

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

The 20p coin is my favorite, 'cause it's so pretty.
But the kids next door get a dollar a tooth. (!)

[muninnhuginn]

I've never liked the 20p I've grown to like the new tiny 5p although its size does cause it to lodge in interstices in purses.

A nice silver dollar per tooth, that's a whole $24 dollars for the full set.