Remembering the Tooth Fairy

We live in what some might call a cake-eater community. I mean on the last day of school, there was a rented stretch Hummer there - not to pick up a retiring staff member. Nope, it was there for a single elementary school kid.

Anyway, when my oldest lost his first baby tooth, he'd heard stories of how his peers had received large denominations for their chompers and I'm sure in his head, that money was already spent.

Luckily, when the tooth began to wiggle I contacted the tooth fairy and was able to have a sit down talk with a representative.

Here's what we worked out. I acknowledged inflation and that a mere 25 cent piece probably wasn't going to cut it in comparison to what other children were receiving. On the other hand, placing even a very large monetary amount on a tooth cheapened the event.

Ultimately, we decided to stick with the Tooth Fairy's tradition of exchanging currency for teeth, but to counter the cheapening effect, we decided the currency itself should be special.

So when the tooth finally fell out, my son woke the next morning and found a two dollar bill under his pillow. Subsequent teeth yielded other less commonly exchanged currency such as gold, rare coins and miscellaneous foreign coins.

Now every time my son or I come across a two dollar bill or rare coin, we both think of The Tooth Fairy.