Holiday gifts for daycare providers

tmadden · November 2012

What is everyone doing for Christmas/holiday gifts for daycare providers? I'm leaning toward Target or Starbucks gift certificates, but am always open to a little inspiration. Also - how much do you plan to spend? G is at a Center, and has three primary providers in his room.

UFCasey · November 2012

$10 gift cards to Chilis because they go there after work sometimes together, so now they can drink on us! LOL!

jaime1220 · November 2012

DS has 3 primary and a few rotating girls. All the girls are going to get alittle something and some christmas goodies, and the 3 primary are getting $20 gift cards to Dunkin Donuts.

Scramblersmom · November 2012

tmadden:
What is everyone doing for Christmas/holiday gifts for daycare providers? I'm leaning toward Target or Starbucks gift certificates, but am always open to a little inspiration. Also - how much do you plan to spend? G is at a Center, and has three primary providers in his room.

I am so glad you posted this because it is bouncing around in my head too. I was thinking $20 Starbucks gift cards. I figure that even if they don't drink coffee they can get a travel mug or water bottle. DS does have some relief teachers too so maybe I can just bring in treats one day for them. I would love to hear everyone else's suggestions too.

pennysuedog · November 2012

For my kids' school teachers I make dipped strawberries.

nicki731 · November 2012

We will probably do small-ish gift cards for each of the 3 teachers in his toddler room. ($10-$20 maybe). We can't afford too much.

blu-eyedwife · November 2012

There are 2 main providers in LBB's room - I'm going to get them each a $25 GC, but haven't decided where yet. Maybe Target or Amazon?

Pickup and Drop off is often in the little babies room, and they have 4 providers. Plus one is LBB's favorite and she kidnaps him sometimes during the day to hang out with her and the babies. There are also 2 providers in the older kids room who are in charge of LBB's room Wednesday mornings, and 2 alternates. I think I'm going to bring in a cookie tray/cookie tins for all of them.

Elsa1984 · November 2012

I used to work at a daycare and RARELY got gifts. There were about 400 kids in the center and there were two teachers per class. There were a few parents that were awesome about gifts during holidays and appreciation week. It was always something simple like a candy basket for the teachers in their child's class to share, or a gift card. But it was like a total of 6 or 7 that did this, and they were all teachers, doctors, nurses, pilots, that had kids at the center so it's not like any of the kids in the center were having a hard time financially. As a daycare teacher, I was working 50hrs a week and my paychecks were 1,000 dollars a month.....lots if parents are rude to you, the directors of centers are mean, etc.

That being said, if you cannot afford something....a handwritten card talking about how much you appreciate them is better than nothing. Sometimes those cards were what kept us going in hard days. Having so many kids during the day it is extremely tiring and stressful, having some rude parents and mean directors, and low pay...makes the job even more stressful and draining. Any sign of appreciation from parents meant the world to us. And then we liked those parents even more and spoiled the kids a little more than the others knowing the parents actually appreciated everything we did.

I remember there was a week I had surgery, my grandma died, and my assistant was gone so I had an assistant that I had to help step by step with EVERYTHING. On top of that, I had ten 12 to 18 month olds. A few parents came in and asked me what happened, when I mentioned the surgery they just said "oh" and moved on. No "get well", "recover soon"...nothing. Just "oh". At the end of the week, one of the mom's noticed I was physically and emotionally drained. When she came to pick up her son, she had a thank you card with a 100 Grand candy bar attached to it. In the card, she talked about everything she loved about the way I took care of her son, adding in examples and talking about how I am worth 100 Grand to her and her family. It meant the world to me because I felt so unappreciated at the time.

I stopped working there is 2004, and I still have the card. So if times are hard and you want to do something for your DCP, a nice handwritten note is sometimes appreciated more than anything else!

Scramblersmom · November 2012

Elsa1984:
I used to work at a daycare and RARELY got gifts. There were about 400 kids in the center and there were two teachers per class. There were a few parents that were awesome about gifts during holidays and appreciation week. It was always something simple like a candy basket for the teachers in their child's class to share, or a gift card. But it was like a total of 6 or 7 that did this, and they were all teachers, doctors, nurses, pilots, that had kids at the center so it's not like any of the kids in the center were having a hard time financially. As a daycare teacher, I was working 50hrs a week and my paychecks were 1,000 dollars a month.....lots if parents are rude to you, the directors of centers are mean, etc.That being said, if you cannot afford something....a handwritten card talking about how much you appreciate them is better than nothing. Sometimes those cards were what kept us going in hard days. Having so many kids during the day it is extremely tiring and stressful, having some rude parents and mean directors, and low pay...makes the job even more stressful and draining. Any sign of appreciation from parents meant the world to us. And then we liked those parents even more and spoiled the kids a little more than the others knowing the parents actually appreciated everything we did.I remember there was a week I had surgery, my grandma died, and my assistant was gone so I had an assistant that I had to help step by step with EVERYTHING. On top of that, I had ten 12 to 18 month olds. A few parents came in and asked me what happened, when I mentioned the surgery they just said "oh" and moved on. No "get well", "recover soon"...nothing. Just "oh". At the end of the week, one of the mom's noticed I was physically and emotionally drained. When she came to pick up her son, she had a thank you card with a 100 Grand candy bar attached to it. In the card, she talked about everything she loved about the way I took care of her son, adding in examples and talking about how I am worth 100 Grand to her and her family. It meant the world to me because I felt so unappreciated at the time.I stopped working there is 2004, and I still have the card. So if times are hard and you want to do something for your DCP, a nice handwritten note is sometimes appreciated more than anything else!

Ok this just brought tears to my eyes. I try to make an effort to let DS's providers know that I appreciate them, and I thank them often, but I am thinking that I should maybe bring them in a little something just because (like a tray of pastries or cookies). They should know everyday that they are very much appreciated and not just on a rare occasion like Provider Appreciation Day.

Elsa1984 · November 2012

As much as I loved my DC kids, I eventually had to leave for my nanny job because of the pay. And at the time, I was still living with my parents and only had a car payment, cell bill, car insurance and gas...I was barely making it. And then directors would drop the bomb that we had to fork over 200 dollars to take a STARS class. Umm....with what money?! I think that is why there is such a high turnover for DCP. A lot of parents just walk in, drop their kid off , and walk out without so much as a "hello". I think some parents assumed we were miracle workers and expected us to keep their kids in a bubble.....keeping all bumps and bruises, and germs away from their kids 100 percent of the time. I once got blamed for a child getting a runny nose.

I'm sure a lot of parents thought we were treated well, because they weren't there the whole time to see the directors or other parents mistreating the employees. And I am sure a lot of parents feel that because they are paying 1,200 a month in childcare, the teachers are getting paid good. Really, most only make minimum wage or a dollar or two over....of you are extremely lucky. My class alone was bringing in 144,000 a year, and I was taking home 12,000 a year if I didn't use any sick days or take vacations. Our center brought in almost 2 million the year I worked there in payments from parents because I happened to see the paperwork when the director demanded I clean her desk one day.

I don't know if most parents there thought we would get a lot of gifts around holidays and they thought them not getting anything would go by unnoticed, or if they literally just did not care. But most acted like we were "beneath" them and weren't worth beans.....and would take the time to talk down to us but rarely say anything positive. Sad, because we were taking care of their children 9 to 10 hours a day.

So those few parents that did take the time to show a little appreciation or ask us about how our day was going, or ANYTHING to make us feel like we were there to HELP them raise and teach their children, and that we were somewhat equal to them and not a robot without feelings....meant everything to us!

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