Squeezing the Tooth Fairy

This little article came from my mom-mom, via my mom, and I just have to share it because it is, well, absurd.

Inflation costs Tooth Fairy

NEW YORK (AP) - Days of finding a quarter under your pillow are long gone. The Tooth Fairy no longer leaves loose change.
   Kids this year are getting an average of $3.70 per lost tooth, a 23 percent jump over last year's rate of $3 a tooth, according to a new survey by payment processor Visa Inc., released Friday. That's a 42 percent spike from the $2.60 per tooth that the Tooth Fairy gave in 2011. Part of the reason for the sharp rise: Parents don't want their kids to be the ones at the playground who received the lowest amount.
   "A kid who got a quarter would wonder why their tooth was worth less than the kid who got $5," says Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University.
   To avoid that, Brian and Brittany Klems asked friends and co-workers what they were giving their kids. The Klems, who have three daughters and live in Cincinnati, settled on giving their six-year-old daughter Ella $5 for her first tooth.

I'm pretty certain that we maxed out at a dollar, and I think most of the time we got a special coin, like a 50-cent piece in lieu of actual spending money. But five bucks for going through a natural growth stage? Come on.