As someone who has worked in PR for several years, reads the newspapers daily and watches the news regularly, I thought I’d seen it all but nothing surprises me more than my own two children.

It’s with a sad heart that I have to bring to the attention of readers a negative influence on our young and impressionable children (well my six year old in this instance).  Please note this is not a direct attack on what can only be described as a ‘national institution’ but the story needs to be told.  It would be a disservice if I didn’t alert other parents to what I know now.

Going back to my six year old son who caused all the uproar in the first place, he is now at the stage where the ‘tooth fairy’ is starting to play a crucial role in his life and starting to ask the same questions over and over again. When is she coming to visit? Why aren’t my teeth falling out? My friend’s tooth has fallen out, when will mine? At no point in the last six months or so has he ever mentioned what the going rate for a tooth is but I didn’t think it would be more than £1 if I’m honest.

The excitement was just too much to bear when the first signs of a wobbly tooth were upon us. Like all good parents I asked around my mummy friends and it was agreed that nowadays the tooth fairy was handing out £2 per tooth. Double what I had thought but I didn’t want to go against the norm of what was expected. The night in question the tooth went under the pillow and I quietly placed a shiny coin there hoping to see his happy face in the morning. What I got instead was a child crying hysterically who had thrown his duvet and pillow aside hunting for the money.  When I asked what happened he said ‘she’ (tooth fairy) had ONLY given him £2 which wasn’t enough. “My friends all got £5!” He demanded that she be called back and leave more cash under his pillow the following night.

That would need more patience then I could muster so I agreed that I’d make up the difference. It cost me £5 for one tooth. A colleague kindly pointed out to me that it could now cost me up to £100 pounds to foot the tooth fairy bill over the coming months.

This is why I will be starting a PR campaign to ensure that the tooth fairy bill is added to next year’s annual ‘basket of goods’ list. It’s a must!

Each year the Office for National Statistics provides a detailed list to describe goods and services, which is then used to measure consumer price inflation. The list includes everything from food and drink to household bills, white and electrical goods, as well as leisure activities and services such as childminder fees. Generally 700 different goods and services are selected to provide an overall picture of things people buy.

Yet the cost of ‘teeth’ should be included in the standard list of goods and services. We all seem to pay for them, some more than others, and with more children than ever before being born there are plenty of wobbly teeth to go around.

£95 to go for me to pay – here’s hoping tooth fairy inflation doesn’t go up anymore before my younger son starts to lose his teeth in about three years time.