Is it weird to give gift cards to all daycare staff (different amounts)

[Anonymous]

DC has attended a small center for the last 4 years. This is her last year. Our income has increased over the years and we'd love to show our appreciation with gift cards to all the staff, a couple of whom have been directly involved in her care since she was a baby including supporting her special needs. We were thinking of giving $100 each to those two teachers and to her current classroom teachers, $50 each to former teachers and $25 each to teachers that haven't directly cared for her extensively but are part of the team. Is giving different amounts weird?

[Anonymous]

I’d recommend giving gift cards all in the same amounts and not tying the $ you give to your perception of how much direct work that person has had with your child. It essentially devalues the contributions of the other teachers. If the center is medium to small sized then you should definitely expect the teachers to talk with each other about gifts received and share the amounts and it could create hurt feeling behind the scenes. I’ve worked at a center for several years and this has been my experience.

[Anonymous]

I think this is very thoughtful and differing amounts is totally fine. We give the same amount to the 3 assigned teachers (usually $100 each), a smaller amount to some of the others who help out from time to time (50) and sometimes also to former teachers. Even if they talk about it, I don't think it looks bad - the amounts reflect time spent and is normal.

[Anonymous]

Yea, this is fine. We do something similar. The teachers who get the smaller amounts are really appreciative to be getting a gift from a parent outside their class so don’t worry about it being “less.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d recommend giving gift cards all in the same amounts and not tying the $ you give to your perception of how much direct work that person has had with your child. It essentially devalues the contributions of the other teachers. If the center is medium to small sized then you should definitely expect the teachers to talk with each other about gifts received and share the amounts and it could create hurt feeling behind the scenes. I’ve worked at a center for several years and this has been my experience.

Thanks for this perspective, I appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

OP here now that I think about it there are really only 5 out of 20 teachers that have really never been assigned to my child's class. I think giving the same to everyone might be the way to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here now that I think about it there are really only 5 out of 20 teachers that have really never been assigned to my child's class. I think giving the same to everyone might be the way to go.

That’s what I did last year — I had two kids in a daycare we’d be been at for several years and at the specific time of the gift there were 2/10 teachers not caring regularly for one of my children, but they had both cared for my older recently and would be caring for my younger in a year or so and it felt weird/rude to leave them out and even harder to figure out how much different teachers did in comparison to each other. In the end I just went with the same amount for all of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yea, this is fine. We do something similar. The teachers who get the smaller amounts are really appreciative to be getting a gift from a parent outside their class so don’t worry about it being “less.”

This. It’s very kind of you OP to give to everyone.

[Anonymous]

You are very nice.

But I would give $150 to my kids teacher and $100 to her assistant

[Anonymous]

Please gift to assistants too, they do a lot of work just like a teacher

[Anonymous]

Just wondering - who are the assistants? In my young toddler's room there are 2 teachers for 10 kids. Those are the 2 teachers I will give a bigger gift to. Are the assistants the people at the front who helps with the drop offs and pick ups? I was planning to give them less since they dont interact as much with my kid. I dont know if theres someone else who helps with the diaper changes. I assumed the 2 teachers do the diaper changes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering - who are the assistants? In my young toddler's room there are 2 teachers for 10 kids. Those are the 2 teachers I will give a bigger gift to. Are the assistants the people at the front who helps with the drop offs and pick ups? I was planning to give them less since they dont interact as much with my kid. I dont know if theres someone else who helps with the diaper changes. I assumed the 2 teachers do the diaper changes

At our center we drop off directly in the classroom. There are assistant teachers that are in the classroom at the same times as the lead teachers. Also, some are only there for "aftercare". There are also substitute teachers that are there during public school holidays (allowing the regular teachers to take time off).

IME the center director was more than happy to tell us which teachers interact directly with our child. It is hard to give a nice gift to all the teachers. Historically, parents at our center have given pooled gifts, with the same.amlunt for every teacher.