What is an appropriate generous holiday gift for preschool teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would be the _most_ per teacher that would be appropriate? These people are saints as far as I can tell

Based on this quote and on your (OP's) use of the word "generous" in the thread starting post, I suspect that your inclination is in the $1,000 per teacher range.

Without knowing the teachers' individual financial situation, I would consider $500 each unless you know that one is experiencing financial difficulty.

However, I know of pre-school teachers who have difficulty making monthly rental payments. Take this statement as you will.

Any amount above $50 to $100 should be made with discretion.

OP again. Yeah, if I could give $1000 anonymously and not have it be weird I would. I will probably give $200 each in cash or gift cards to my kid’s two teachers and I liked the idea of a heartfelt card with art/ message from kid inside and chocolate. For the record this is a small private preschool so no PTA or gift restrictions and they’re not getting any additional group gift from parents.

$200 each is a very generous amount that will be appreciated ! (Good Karma coming your way !!!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our children's preschool collected from all parents and divided among the teachers, who do such important work and get paid so little (I was on the board of directors of the private preschool).

I'm sorry, but $50 us an insult. We always gave one month's tuition.

Our preschool teachers were always so thankful. We also would give to the kitchen staff, who were often overlooked. When you make $12 an hour, a $50 gift card is pretty great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do people give just straight cash? This is what I assume would be most desired, but somehow feels wrong? not proper? something? To just pop a $50 bill into a card. I usually do a target/Amazon gift card but I can also imagine the teachers probably get a lot of those and it's a lot to keep track of... Again a NW DC preschool. Someone please give me more insight into if people do cash or cards more? And teachers opinions are obviously the most important!

I've always done Visa gift cards, since AAA usually waives the activation fee around this time, but I think Amazon is a pretty safe bet too. I usually do $50 per teacher, which is apparently on the high end for our school (outside Beltway-burbs with families on the higher end of middle class). There's definitely a threshold on how much to give before things get weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people give just straight cash? This is what I assume would be most desired, but somehow feels wrong? not proper? something? To just pop a $50 bill into a card. I usually do a target/Amazon gift card but I can also imagine the teachers probably get a lot of those and it's a lot to keep track of... Again a NW DC preschool. Someone please give me more insight into if people do cash or cards more? And teachers opinions are obviously the most important!

I've always done Visa gift cards, since AAA usually waives the activation fee around this time, but I think Amazon is a pretty safe bet too. I usually do $50 per teacher, which is apparently on the high end for our school (outside Beltway-burbs with families on the higher end of middle class). There's definitely a threshold on how much to give before things get weird.

I thought about this, but 1) I've actually had some difficulties using them at times myself. 2) it's another card to keep track of, I imagine many teachers could have up to 20 gift cards, which is great, but a lot to organize/carry around

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people give just straight cash? This is what I assume would be most desired, but somehow feels wrong? not proper? something? To just pop a $50 bill into a card. I usually do a target/Amazon gift card but I can also imagine the teachers probably get a lot of those and it's a lot to keep track of... Again a NW DC preschool. Someone please give me more insight into if people do cash or cards more? And teachers opinions are obviously the most important!

I've always done Visa gift cards, since AAA usually waives the activation fee around this time, but I think Amazon is a pretty safe bet too. I usually do $50 per teacher, which is apparently on the high end for our school (outside Beltway-burbs with families on the higher end of middle class). There's definitely a threshold on how much to give before things get weird.

I thought about this, but 1) I've actually had some difficulties using them at times myself. 2) it's another card to keep track of, I imagine many teachers could have up to 20 gift cards, which is great, but a lot to organize/carry around

What I've always done with Visa gift cards is use it to buy any gift card I ACTUALLY want, so it can be consolidated fairly quickly.

[Anonymous]

200 gift card

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I get that you are new to having school aged kids, but I encourage you to seriously reconsider your relationship between you and your children's teachers. As your children get older and are getting grades, it starts to feel super weird to be giving their teachers money. Its also pretty awful that teachers in wealthy districts get cash thrown at them by parents but teachers in less wealthy areas don't. In fact, most school districts have a policy against it (or limit it to $25 or so). Your children's teacher is not a member of your personal household staff like your nanny is. I suggest a personal note and a small token of your appreciation such as a $25 gift card to a local bookstore.

Okay but preschool and daycare teachers are not public school teachers and they get paid a lot less and have far less job security/ fewer benefits. It will never be totally equitable. I’m open to suggestions but I hate the idea that we shouldn’t give generously to underpaid childcare workers because not everyone can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our children's preschool collected from all parents and divided among the teachers, who do such important work and get paid so little (I was on the board of directors of the private preschool).

I'm sorry, but $50 us an insult. We always gave one month's tuition.

One month's tuition is 2k for us. Should we really be giving a 2k holiday gift to my kid's teachers???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our children's preschool collected from all parents and divided among the teachers, who do such important work and get paid so little (I was on the board of directors of the private preschool).

I'm sorry, but $50 us an insult. We always gave one month's tuition.

One month's tuition is 2k for us. Should we really be giving a 2k holiday gift to my kid's teachers???

Umm, yes. Your kids preschool teachers probably make between $30k and $40k. Think about living on that! You paying an extra month's tuition on your salary, you can afford it, whereas the teachers need it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our children's preschool collected from all parents and divided among the teachers, who do such important work and get paid so little (I was on the board of directors of the private preschool).

I'm sorry, but $50 us an insult. We always gave one month's tuition.

One month's tuition is 2k for us. Should we really be giving a 2k holiday gift to my kid's teachers???

Umm, yes. Your kids preschool teachers probably make between $30k and $40k. Think about living on that! You paying an extra month's tuition on your salary, you can afford it, whereas the teachers need it

I would be happy to give this much because we’re lucky to be able to afford it (my employer completely covers childcare costs at the moment, which I know I basically unheard of). But short of a pooling situation, it sounds a bit awkward to do *that* much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our children's preschool collected from all parents and divided among the teachers, who do such important work and get paid so little (I was on the board of directors of the private preschool).

I'm sorry, but $50 us an insult. We always gave one month's tuition.

One month's tuition is 2k for us. Should we really be giving a 2k holiday gift to my kid's teachers???

My kid’s tuition is more than 2k, and no, we don’t give 2k holiday gift to my kid’s teachers. I think we have 2 main teachers plus some floaters.

[Anonymous]

Our daycare switches classrooms twice a year, so we have a total of 6 teachers and a few floaters. I plan to give $100 to each and we will also contribute to the group gift.

[Anonymous]

Ours has 3 teachers and we do $150 each.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$50 is very generous, $150-$200 is ridiculous. A weeks tuition is crazy to me but hey do what you want with your money.

You give what you want and can afford but saying "ridiculous" in light of the role they plan in your kid's life. What?!

[Anonymous]

I hope some people commenting have their preschoolers in public school because the daycare teachers make significantly less money. My kid is at an amazing Montessori school and we give 200 per teacher. We can afford it and want to show appreciatiation for how much they take care of our child. We give cash not gift cards.