advice on thank you gifts for DC teachers?

shakinros · September 2013

DD has just about finished her transition to the toddler room. Tomorrow is her first full day with the toddlers, and is like to get thank you gifts for her infant room teachers.

Three of the four teachers have been there f/t since DD started 9 months ago. The fourth has been f/t since about June. There's also a floater who has been in the room for the last 3 weeks, but hasn't spent much time with DD due to the transition.

I was thinking cards and $25 gift cards to target. would it be totally rude to get the floating teacher a lesser gc amount?

Nechie122 · September 2013

I usually skip the floaters when I do room transition gifts and just make it up to them at Christmas. But at our center, the floaters don't work with any particular age group.

I generally do $40-50/teacher, and about $20/floater.

jetgrrrl · September 2013

Wow, you are more generous than I am - we recently left our former daycare and DS1 started Pre-k in a new school (DS2 had been in a nanny share) - I just gave all the teachers a $10 gift card and a nice note. I also bought (nice, not drugstore) chocolates for the administrators. There had been a fair bit of turnover in the class among the teachers and I probably should have gotten the senior teacher something more, but we didn't love her and the we just couldn't swing it - we gave our nanny a month's salary and a gift certificate to an expensive restaurant, since she had taken care of both of our kids for a total of four years. This on top of buying a house, needing to buy new clothes for fall, etc...not to mention that daycare costs a literal fortune in the HCOLA where we live.

shakinros · September 2013

Daycare costs a fortune here too. But I know the teachers aren't getting rich, so I'm trying to strike a balance between a nice thank you gift and not straining our very stretched bank account too far!

shakinros · October 2013

Just testing my siggie...

skibunny59 · October 2013

Ladies! You are all very generous. I just wanted to say that I am a teacher and anything is appreciated. I feel like parents think they have to get a certain $ amount and that's just not true. Through my years teaching I have gotten $50 gift cards to baked cookies to a hand written note from a student. Honestly, sometimes I feel bad when the parent has spent $50 on me.

Sorry, I just see these posts a lot so I wanted to shed some light on the subject from a teacher's point of view.

mhickey426 · October 2013

skibunny59 said:

Ladies! You are all very generous. I just wanted to say that I am a teacher and anything is appreciated. I feel like parents think they have to get a certain $ amount and that's just not true. Through my years teaching I have gotten $50 gift cards to baked cookies to a hand written note from a student. Honestly, sometimes I feel bad when the parent has spent $50 on me.
Sorry, I just see these posts a lot so I wanted to shed some light on the subject from a teacher's point of view.

I totally agree. I am a HS guidance counselor. I have been give a wide variety of gifts as thank yous as graduation to christmas gifts. I feel kinda weird when someone gives me a gift card for $50. In a way I prefer the smaller or handmade gifts. It is the thought that counts.

Nechie122 · October 2013

mhickey426 said:

skibunny59 said:

Ladies! You are all very generous. I just wanted to say that I am a teacher and anything is appreciated. I feel like parents think they have to get a certain $ amount and that's just not true. Through my years teaching I have gotten $50 gift cards to baked cookies to a hand written note from a student. Honestly, sometimes I feel bad when the parent has spent $50 on me.
Sorry, I just see these posts a lot so I wanted to shed some light on the subject from a teacher's point of view.

I totally agree. I am a HS guidance counselor. I have been give a wide variety of gifts as thank yous as graduation to christmas gifts. I feel kinda weird when someone gives me a gift card for $50. In a way I prefer the smaller or handmade gifts. It is the thought that counts.

I think being a HS guidance counselor is different from working in a daycare. For starters, salaries are lower at a daycare, there's no union, no pension. Many public and private school teachers have master's degrees in their fields, less so in early childhood education. It's not a "profession" like teaching grade school. (Obviously there are exceptions.)

Also, there's a general expectation around giving holiday gifts to childcare providers, whereas for school-age kids, I was always told it was frowned upon because it's sort of like kissing up (the same way most people don't buy gifts for their boss.)

When it comes to my child's caretakers, I'd rather err on the side of being too generous than being stingy.

SparkySharky · October 2013

Nechie122 said:

skibunny59 said:

Ladies! You are all very generous. I just wanted to say that I am a teacher and anything is appreciated. I feel like parents think they have to get a certain $ amount and that's just not true. Through my years teaching I have gotten $50 gift cards to baked cookies to a hand written note from a student. Honestly, sometimes I feel bad when the parent has spent $50 on me.
Sorry, I just see these posts a lot so I wanted to shed some light on the subject from a teacher's point of view.

I totally agree. I am a HS guidance counselor. I have been give a wide variety of gifts as thank yous as graduation to christmas gifts. I feel kinda weird when someone gives me a gift card for $50. In a way I prefer the smaller or handmade gifts. It is the thought that counts.
I think being a HS guidance counselor is different from working in a daycare. For starters, salaries are lower at a daycare, there's no union, no pension. Many public and private school teachers have master's degrees in their fields, less so in early childhood education. It's not a "profession" like teaching grade school. (Obviously there are exceptions.) Also, there's a general expectation around giving holiday gifts to childcare providers, whereas for school-age kids, I was always told it was frowned upon because it's sort of like kissing up (the same way most people don't buy gifts for their boss.) When it comes to my child's caretakers, I'd rather err on the side of being too generous than being stingy.

It's a gift. Isn't anything you give generous?

I'm glad to hear it's the thought that counts. I want to let my DC providers know I'm thinking about and appreciating them w/o having to worry about somehow leaving a sour taste in their mouths. A gift should be based on what the giver can do, not what the recipient expects.

Nechie122 · October 2013

SparkySharky said:

Nechie122 said:

mhickey426 said:

skibunny59 said:

Ladies! You are all very generous. I just wanted to say that I am a teacher and anything is appreciated. I feel like parents think they have to get a certain $ amount and that's just not true. Through my years teaching I have gotten $50 gift cards to baked cookies to a hand written note from a student. Honestly, sometimes I feel bad when the parent has spent $50 on me.
Sorry, I just see these posts a lot so I wanted to shed some light on the subject from a teacher's point of view.

I totally agree. I am a HS guidance counselor. I have been give a wide variety of gifts as thank yous as graduation to christmas gifts. I feel kinda weird when someone gives me a gift card for $50. In a way I prefer the smaller or handmade gifts. It is the thought that counts.

I think being a HS guidance counselor is different from working in a daycare. For starters, salaries are lower at a daycare, there's no union, no pension. Many public and private school teachers have master's degrees in their fields, less so in early childhood education. It's not a "profession" like teaching grade school. (Obviously there are exceptions.)

Also, there's a general expectation around giving holiday gifts to childcare providers, whereas for school-age kids, I was always told it was frowned upon because it's sort of like kissing up (the same way most people don't buy gifts for their boss.)

When it comes to my child's caretakers, I'd rather err on the side of being too generous than being stingy.

It's a gift. Isn't anything you give generous?

I'm glad to hear it's the thought that counts. I want to let my DC providers know I'm thinking about and appreciating them w/o having to worry about somehow leaving a sour taste in their mouths. A gift should be based on what the giver can do, not what the recipient expects.

Let's be honest ... It's part gift, part tip/bonus. For instance, when I lived in an apartment, I tipped the super and the doorman every year. It was a token of my appreciation. You could say "it's the thought that counts" but I wouldn't want to be the resident who sent a plate of cookies.

You may not like it, it may make you uncomfortable to admit it, but it's the unspoken reality.

SparkySharky · October 2013

Ah, yes. The tip. I've heard about the expected gratuities during holidays in metropolitan areas - doormen, nannies, housekeepers, garbage men, newspaper boys/girls, dogwalkers, hairstylists, anyone you see regularly who provides a service. Being where I'm from, it's still a gift. Only if you're directly employing someone would you give them a bonus. And, honestly, I'm so effing broke it would be a miracle if I could afford one, and the bonus would probably look like an extra vacation day or two if that miracle actually occurred.

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