holiday gifts for daycare

[Anonymous]

My friends working in daycare tells me that it is common for daycare teacher to receive $25 giftcard. I wonder if everyone earns high salary because I cannot imagine to spend $500 on daycare holiday gifts for one child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friends working in daycare tells me that it is common for daycare teacher to receive $25 giftcard. I wonder if everyone earns high salary because I cannot imagine to spend $500 on daycare holiday gifts for one child.

It's really important to me. When I budget for daycare, I always budget for that 500 or so dollars.

My kid is the most precious thing in my life, and he and I both consider his daycare provider family.

[Anonymous]

Question here. Is it true that the higher giftcard amount you gift (e.g. $100-$300 to one teacher), daycare teacher may treat your kid differently in a good way? Could that be possible that daycare teacher change the attitude to the kids or make judgements based on the amount of giftcard they receive from each family?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friends working in daycare tells me that it is common for daycare teacher to receive $25 giftcard. I wonder if everyone earns high salary because I cannot imagine to spend $500 on daycare holiday gifts for one child.

We're not high income (170k). We budget a week's daycare salary, which is $250 for us at our inhome.

[Anonymous]

Our daycare is >$500/week. My son's room has 3 teachers. I was planning to give $50 each. Too little? This is in downtown DC. Are we supposed to give something to the director too?

[Anonymous]

Our in home day care is $500/week in DC. We are giving $100 to each provider and the director, who is still fairly involved in the day to day care of the kids.

[Anonymous]

Geez. $25 gift card is just fine. A week's tuition is generous but they're not you personal nannies; you are not their direct employers.

Give whatever you feel works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Geez. $25 gift card is just fine. A week's tuition is generous but they're not you personal nannies; you are not their direct employers.

Give whatever you feel works.

Plus 1

[Anonymous]

I would be incensed to pay 2k in tuition and then obligated to pony up $100/kid or worse... a WEEK’s tuition! $500? You people are nuts.

[Anonymous]

We give a week’s tuition, split among the teachers. IMO we have a high income ($200k), and we did this when we had two kids in daycare as well- it was really a stretch. But we love our daycare, the teachers are amazing, and I know they are not paid as much as they deserve. So we make it work.

However, two additional points- one is that at our daycare, the class parents collect money in a pool. I like this because the teachers don’t know who gave what and there is no favorable treatment. TBH I wouldn’t expect that but this really separates the two things. My DC still makes a card for his teachers so he gets to appreciate them in that way.

Second, since I manage the class gift, I can tell you that a week’s tuition is certainly not the norm. I would say maybe about half the parents do a gift like that- $100-$200 range per teacher, and then it varies from there.

So my advice is to consider a class gift from all the parents, be generous when considering a gift bc daycare workers have a tough job, and also only give what you can honestly afford.

[Anonymous]

This topic comes up every year.

[Anonymous]

I realize everyone may be sick of this topic but as a new parent in a large day care center in DC, I wanted to know how people break down gift amounts for teachers in the room. DD's infant room is conjoined with another infant room, and each section has a lead teacher, assistant teacher, and then there are two floaters who seem to help both sections. I want to give the most to the two primary teachers in DD's section (maybe $100 each?) but I am not sure how much to give the floaters. Any advice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would be incensed to pay 2k in tuition and then obligated to pony up $100/kid or worse... a WEEK’s tuition! $500? You people are nuts.

It's called not being cheap to the people who clean up your kids' poo and vomit and patiently deal with bawling infants and tantrumy toddlers. Obligated, no. Nobody is obligated. Is it a decent thing to do if you can afford it? Hell, yeah.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be incensed to pay 2k in tuition and then obligated to pony up $100/kid or worse... a WEEK’s tuition! $500? You people are nuts.

It's called not being cheap to the people who clean up your kids' poo and vomit and patiently deal with bawling infants and tantrumy toddlers. Obligated, no. Nobody is obligated. Is it a decent thing to do if you can afford it? Hell, yeah.

NP, and I am just shocked by what posters here think is standard. There is no way my family could afford gifts at this level, I WANT to gift my daycare provider appropriately and end up feeling like crap thanks to high income posters on this site. Also had to laugh about the poster taking $500 out of their bonus for this purpose... I guess it makes sense, most of us plebs don't get a bonus, much less one like that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez. $25 gift card is just fine. A week's tuition is generous but they're not you personal nannies; you are not their direct employers.

Give whatever you feel works.

Plus 1

I am a small in-hone daycare. I get everything from homemade chocolates and cookies to 2 weeks tuition. The chocolates and cookies mean a lot to me because I know the family made them especially for me, all of my favorites. I love the Target gift cards, the wine. I love the 2 weeks worth of tuition because who doesn't like a bonus for a job well done?

I don't treat any child differently based off the amount of a gift ( i mentioned that because of other threads that suggest preference based on gifts). Give what you can, but most importantly, give from the heart.