Shocked at how little the parents are donating to the holiday bonus for the teachers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will start this off by saying that we go to a daycare associated with a university and that most of the parents in the class are either two professor families or are one prof and one working professional families so people are making at least 100K a year.

I am the room parent for my daughter's daycare classroom. All the kids are 2. There are two teachers - one is technically assistant and one is lead but they share the duties pretty equally. I sent an email last night asking for donations for the teacher's holiday gift and a note about the classroom holiday party. The donations I am getting are a joke! Mostly $40 TOTAL. That's $20 per teacher. What??

Last year, in the infant room, we gave each teacher (of which there were 3) $150 each! I had been planning on giving $100 per teacher this year. $20 per teacher just seems insultingly low to me. I am hoping some parents that haven't donated yet are more generous.

Am I way off base in expecting people to be generous to the two people that watch their kid every single day?!

We gave hundreds (and many parents did the same) to our teachers until some enlightened progressive decided to pool and then divide all donations equally among all teachers and all support stuff.

As a result, donations have fallen by 80%. Great, truly progessive results!

I think it's SO MUCH better. It's not about the amount of the gift, it's about the fact that it's a shared gift. A lot of money coming from a privileged few is sickening and creates the potential for unfair treatment.
How pathetic that you don't understand that.

Hey commie,

Perhaps it's your life that's pathetic -- ever thought why the USSR fell? Why don't you move to North Korea?

Stop preaching BS please. May sound great, but simply doesn't work.

And on the process you destroyed the nice Christmas bonus for many teachers.

+100

Not sure why the pro- communal gift pool poster is so quick to be condescending and hostile. Perhaps she had the same brilliant idea at her kids school.

People should be able to give to who they want. This is a preschool, not the f*cking Federal government.

Well said

[Anonymous]

In a lot of daycares, there is no bonus. The holiday gift exists instead of a bonus.

If you can't afford to give anything, fine. But if you say "We can't afford to give to the class gift. We give on our own instead," what you're really saying is that it's more important that you get credit for giving than that the staff and teachers get equitable gifts.

And if you aren't giving because your budget won't allow you to and yet you think the teachers should get raises, I'm curious about where you think that money would come from.

[Anonymous]

As a former public school teacher, I find this whole thread fascinating. I wasn’t making great money, but I would have been frankly offended if a parent had given me a cash gift for the holidays. You tip service people, not professionals. Likewise, as a professor, I would be mortified to receive cash in a card from students or parents.

That said, I guess private schools are a different game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In a lot of daycares, there is no bonus. The holiday gift exists instead of a bonus.

If you can't afford to give anything, fine. But if you say "We can't afford to give to the class gift. We give on our own instead," what you're really saying is that it's more important that you get credit for giving than that the staff and teachers get equitable gifts.

And if you aren't giving because your budget won't allow you to and yet you think the teachers should get raises, I'm curious about where you think that money would come from.

Or you want the teachers to know how much you as an individual family appreciate them, and you want to personalize your thank you as well. I am giving all my daughter's caregivers the same amount in cash and giving them all their own card. I want them to know how much our family appreciates them and I want to hand it to them in person to tell them so. Doing this in no way means a gift is not "equitable," and I'm never a big fan of "group" gifts anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former public school teacher, I find this whole thread fascinating. I wasn’t making great money, but I would have been frankly offended if a parent had given me a cash gift for the holidays. You tip service people, not professionals. Likewise, as a professor, I would be mortified to receive cash in a card from students or parents.

That said, I guess private schools are a different game.

The people (mostly women) working in preschools and daycares are making substantially less money and have vastly less job security than you did as a public school teacher.

[Anonymous]

Parents that give more do so individually. I don’t want my gift watered down by three others not giving and then the teachers think we were all cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a lot of daycares, there is no bonus. The holiday gift exists instead of a bonus.

If you can't afford to give anything, fine. But if you say "We can't afford to give to the class gift. We give on our own instead," what you're really saying is that it's more important that you get credit for giving than that the staff and teachers get equitable gifts.

And if you aren't giving because your budget won't allow you to and yet you think the teachers should get raises, I'm curious about where you think that money would come from.

Or you want the teachers to know how much you as an individual family appreciate them, and you want to personalize your thank you as well. I am giving all my daughter's caregivers the same amount in cash and giving them all their own card. I want them to know how much our family appreciates them and I want to hand it to them in person to tell them so. Doing this in no way means a gift is not "equitable," and I'm never a big fan of "group" gifts anyway.

I always gave to the group gift and I am sure the teachers know how much I appreciated them because I found ways to do so (hired them as sitters, remembered their birthdays, wrote letters to the director so there's be evidence in their files, etc.)

Ours was a preschool/daycare. If every parent give their kid's teacher the same amount of money, the teachers in the rooms with higher ratios get more money, and who knows what the floater gets? Does that seem fair to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents that give more do so individually. I don’t want my gift watered down by three others not giving and then the teachers think we were all cheap.

I gave $250/kid to the group gift. How many of you individual givers are giving more than that? I'd have felt awkward doing it individually (and cheap doing less, because we could afford what is essentially $20/month for the year.)

[Anonymous]

I am more than happy to give cash to my child's DCPS pre-k teacher. This teacher spends a lot out of pocket on the kids, including treats, transport, food for cooking in the class, and even special equipment that only my child will use. The teacher refused compensation for the latter.

We pooled in our class and raised a good amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In a lot of daycares, there is no bonus. The holiday gift exists instead of a bonus.

If you can't afford to give anything, fine. But if you say "We can't afford to give to the class gift. We give on our own instead," what you're really saying is that it's more important that you get credit for giving than that the staff and teachers get equitable gifts.

And if you aren't giving because your budget won't allow you to and yet you think the teachers should get raises, I'm curious about where you think that money would come from.

Or you want the teachers to know how much you as an individual family appreciate them, and you want to personalize your thank you as well. I am giving all my daughter's caregivers the same amount in cash and giving them all their own card. I want them to know how much our family appreciates them and I want to hand it to them in person to tell them so. Doing this in no way means a gift is not "equitable," and I'm never a big fan of "group" gifts anyway.

I always gave to the group gift and I am sure the teachers know how much I appreciated them because I found ways to do so (hired them as sitters, remembered their birthdays, wrote letters to the director so there's be evidence in their files, etc.)

Ours was a preschool/daycare. If every parent give their kid's teacher the same amount of money, the teachers in the rooms with higher ratios get more money, and who knows what the floater gets? Does that seem fair to you?

I gave cash to all my kids daycare teachers, including the float.
Per the pp's comment, sorry but I'm not having my gift watered down because other parents are cheap AF. DH and I are poors by DCUM standards but we scrape it together and spend a couple hundred on the teachers, it's just the right thing to do. I'm not subsidizing parents who are cheap, sorry.

[Anonymous]

The university daycare/prek we attend (not yours apparently) requests $100 donation per child per year for gifts. Then they send out what they were able to give each teacher/student worker. There are lots of gift bags floating around this week, and I brought our 2 teachers gifts (wine/sbux card).

We are also at a center and got $100 request per kid just for the holiday fund. I gave that and then also did $25 gift cards for our 2 teachers.

As a former teacher, I know how hard the job is, and how woefully underpaid they are...even more so for daycare providers.

[Anonymous]

OP, you have no right to have any expectations here. You don't know anyone else's finances and you have no right to question how they spend their money. It sounds shitty, but it is what it is. We weren't able to give as much as we'd like this year so this is probably hitting a sore point. We are expected to give our nanny a bonus, our condo staff a bonus, our postal worker, sanitation workers, teachers and 5 supporting staff bonuses. I work for a nonprofit and my spouse is a fed. Which means we are also hit up for funding company holiday parties and we get zero extra money at christmas time. I also have been trying to give any money we actually do have to organizations that will help women and children in this country who continue to be systematically raped and disenfranchised by our government. So take your attitude and get the f off the message board with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The university daycare/prek we attend (not yours apparently) requests $100 donation per child per year for gifts. Then they send out what they were able to give each teacher/student worker. There are lots of gift bags floating around this week, and I brought our 2 teachers gifts (wine/sbux card).

We are also at a center and got $100 request per kid just for the holiday fund. I gave that and then also did $25 gift cards for our 2 teachers.

As a former teacher, I know how hard the job is, and how woefully underpaid they are...even more so for daycare providers.

Why the f don't they raise the tution $100/year and dole it out themselves. Hitting parents up for this crap in the city with the most expensive childcare is so lame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents that give more do so individually. I don’t want my gift watered down by three others not giving and then the teachers think we were all cheap.

you sound like a petty, small person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The university daycare/prek we attend (not yours apparently) requests $100 donation per child per year for gifts. Then they send out what they were able to give each teacher/student worker. There are lots of gift bags floating around this week, and I brought our 2 teachers gifts (wine/sbux card).

We are also at a center and got $100 request per kid just for the holiday fund. I gave that and then also did $25 gift cards for our 2 teachers.

As a former teacher, I know how hard the job is, and how woefully underpaid they are...even more so for daycare providers.

Why the f don't they raise the tution $100/year and dole it out themselves. Hitting parents up for this crap in the city with the most expensive childcare is so lame.

I agree with this. Being told how much to donate for a gift is offensive if the request is coming from the school. It’s the school’s responsibility to give bonuses, not the parents. A gift is a goodwill gesture and doesn’t have to be cash.