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Preschool and Daycare Discussion
Do you really think $10/teacher is ok for a holiday gift?
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Anonymous
| OP, you can't make others agree with your philosophy on tipping. If I were in your shoes, I would donate the average rate to the pool of money, and then give some extra to the individual teachers you want to appreciate. It isn't your responsibility to bring up the overall average for the entire preschool. If you want to recognize a few providers individually, do it privately and quietly. Yes it is unfortunate for the other providers that their holiday bonus will be crap this year. |
Anonymous
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Twenty-five dollars? That is halfway to a good bottle of champagne. Here is a radical idea: maybe the people whom I have selected to care for my children are professionals who negotiate their salaries directly with their employers; perhaps they take enough pride in what they do that my tip is not going to influence their behavior toward my child.
Could it be that I...(insert dramatic pause)...do not have to continually buy their goodwill? |
Anonymous
| "Buying goodwill" is just a bizarre statement. I can so picture you as the parent who walks out of daycare each day to leave people thinking, "Good thing this child gets to spend the day in a POSITIVE environment!!". |
Anonymous
I was replying to this poster. Buying goodwill sounds equally ridiculous to me. |
Anonymous
Eh. Enjoy your champagne. There are eight children in my son's daycare class, and I'd be damned if mine is going to be the one without a gift for his teachers. They work hard all year caring for my child when I'm not able - the very least I can do is offer them a small token of my appreciation at Christmas. |
Anonymous
| We have 8 teachers in my daughter's class too and we gave each teacher and the administrator $25. The $225 was the majority of our Christmas budget this year. |
Anonymous
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I clicked on this thread thinking it was going to be a discussion about gifts, low-cost ones or otherwise, that are given to a child's school teachers. In a school.
Instead I see it's about tipping service providers for a service, more akin to the garbage man / mailman / hair dresser thread. |
Anonymous
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Christmas gifts =/= tips. It's not as though I'm slipping the teacher a $5 after a particularly fun field trip.
And hell, considering our former nanny's Christmas bonus was a week's pay, I'm getting off easy with $25. I genuinely like and appreciate my son's daycare and think of his teachers as more than mere "service providers," so I don't resent giving them a little something for the holiday. |
Anonymous
| I am a provider for an infant and a 2 year old. I got gifts for both of them. I did not receive so much as a card from either family. A thank you note would have been great. We are often the last to be thought of but the most important person next to you and your family of course in your child's life currently. |
Anonymous
| If the expectation is that the gift is monetary then it is a form of tip, particularly if people like OP try to exert pressure on others to give a certain amount. I gave our care providers cards and artisanal candy and cookies. In the past I have sent letters and photos and given gift cards and cash too but I know that this is appreciated, not expected. There is no way I would spend the majority of my Christmas gift budget on providers at a daycare center. A nanny -- yes. |
Anonymous
Agree 100%. I would never have stayed sane without my son's day care providers. He's in a center and they've changed over the years, but most of them by far have been extremely helpful partners to me in raising my son. |
Anonymous
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I understand and would do a small gift, but to give or expect that much given how much day care is just amazes me. One has to remember that not everyone celebrates the holidays and it has different meanings to different people - personally, I'd rather get someone something just because than for the holidays as they get other stuff and its nice to get it at other times too... just my thought. But, you don't know where a family is at. For us, I have a reasonable pay, but by the time you take out taxes (I don't even take health insurance), gas for me to get to work, $4 for lunch (I have to get out of the office), union dues, and basic clothing (I always shop sale or clearance) - one infant in child care, if I return, will be bringing home few a few hundred a month = grocery's (with coupon shopping)... and that's just for the day care that is reasonably priced... for others, my husband would have to have supplemented my income just to pay for day care so I can keep my job.
And, for the simple fact of we don't buy lots of gifts in our house. We live very modestly. We buy what we need and that's it - just the basics. So, for another family to tell me I need to contribute several hundred dollars as a bonus, when neither my husband nor I get bonus, nor am I even getting a raise or COLA this year is very unreasonable. |
Anonymous
| PP provider here, I think a nice thank you note is really all that is needed, anything above and beyond that is very much appreciated, but never expected. I can't speak for centers and what the customary thing is, but as an in-home just a thank you or maybe even some baked goods since I don't have the time would be great! |
Anonymous
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My experience fwiw: the first 2 years of daycare I gave $100 to the main teachers and $25 or $50 to the assitants. It really didn't seem like they appraciated it at all. I got a very casual thank you but that was it. I wasn't expecting them to jump for joy or anything, but I thought they would be happier. They acted like it wasn't enough.....So, after that I just contributed $100 to the general fund and left it at that.
We are now at a new daycare, more expensive, and they just raised the tution by 5% for 2010. the daycare is a non-profit so most of the tution money goes to salaries, so I'm assuming that the teachers make more than regular daycare teachers. Anyway, I'm not really sure how much to give to the general fund this year since we have 2 kids now. I'm thinking around 200. back to Ops original question though, yes 10 is way to low! |
Anonymous
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Those of you on this thread who love your providers, please respond to the other thread on this topic:
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/83661.page trying to let providers who cruise DCUM know that many parents appreciate them. Too often in life we only bother to write when we have complaints and not about the good in our lives. |