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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Kalichick - re X-mas daycare gifts
Hi! So hubby and I are talking about holiday gifts for the boy's teachers at school. They have one main teacher, one who is with the boys a lot who we love, and 4 other teachers in the room.
We are thinking Target cards or Visa cards. How much? My hubby says $200, $100, and $25 for the 4 others teachers. I say we should double it since we have two boys there.
We pay about 2,000/month total for both boys.
Is that too much money or not enough? We want to be generous but we don't want to look like jerks either. I have no idea what anyone else gives.
Re: Kalichick - re X-mas daycare gifts
Not daycare related, but the largest gc I have gotten was $40 for the cheesecake factory. I usually see around the $25 dollar range.
Thanks Marina - see at a friend's daycare, they give significantly more than I am thinking about. I don't need to keep up with the Jones but I want to be generous and appropriate. The teachers do not makke a lot of money and they do an amazing job with my kids.
I heard you should give the equivalent of the cost of one week of care?
I understand. If you are thinking a higher number, I would say maybe $250. But to be honest, I would feel a bit uncomfortable accepting that from a student. Then again, I work in a complete different socio-economic community than the boy's daycare is in.
A neat idea might be to do a basket, with other things than just a g/c. Maybe you can call the basket "A night out on the town". You could include a few different g/c.. in various amounts..attached to a small gift.
Example: movie theater g/c maybe with a couple of boxes of candy and popcorn; restraurant g/c with wine glasses or cute dessert plates with maybe a box of crackers and cheese; visa g/c with maybe some cute accessories (could say pick the perfect outfit to match these accessories).
I dont know if this makes sense.
Wowzers!! I don't know what I would do with a $200 gift card! hahah We get on average $25 gifts (whether gift cards or actual gifts). I can tell you to stay far far away from Starbucks (we get a TON of them). I also don't know what area your school is in. We're middle class but not with people who have a ton of extra money. I would definitely give to all the teachers in the room but more to their main caregiver. I would also do a gift from each of the boys. Also, if you are friendly with the director I wouldn't leave her out. I would much rather my families give to my teachers than to me, don't get me wrong, but I'm different in that I own the school and most directors are staff and not the owners.
I have one parent who will probably do a decent number for us ... but I would think even he will only do in the $100 range if that. He often gives us money ... i.e. he signed his daughter up for the dance class we offer at school and threw $100 bill at me and told me to keep the change (it was only $56 for the month) and did the same with her school pictures ($65 and keep the change), brought us all $25 gift cards to Starbucks for no reason ... you get the idea.
I had a teacher get married last month and some of the families gave her things ... most gave her gift cards in the $20 range but the one dad I mentioned above gave her $125 to Mortons.
Some of my favorite gifts have been a gift card to the movie theater, a basket with treats and a blockbuster gift card. We all get a ton of Starbucks gift cards and scented lotions. Also I'd stay away from the cliche teacher things (#1 teacher mugs, etc). We get a random assortment of stuff ... oh another thing a parent did one year was bring us in lunch. Super nice and much appreciated ... you might do that in conjunction with a smaller gift or a basket of muffins, cookies, cupcakes, something like that.
I bought my staff really pretty aprons off of Etsy this year. They've all been talking about wanting aprons so I got them thinking they could use them for art time but they are so pretty I'm not so sure! haha I had contemplated dropping a small gift card in the pocket to the grocery store, trader joes, target, etc but not sure yet.
Good luck!!! I wish you were at my school ... I'd love a $250 gift card!
Ha - so here I think I am being cheap because I have friends who are giving way more than me!
I'll remember - no Starbucks (damn beause I have 4 in my wallet :-)!, no mugs, apples, etc.....and food is always appreciated!
There is a group gift - everyone puts in $25 bucks per child. I just don't think that is near enough for what our very underpaid daycare teachers do for my kids every day.
I'm glad to hear CBB chime in because she's in a higher "rent district" than me. I'm not expecting much from our families either as I know money is tight! I think $100 is sufficient but I would ask some other parents if you know any what they plan on giving.
I second Nordstrom and Target! The Visa cards are ok only problem is that you get charged a service fee on them to even check the balance and they seem harder to use than a gift card to a particular place. I have a few still sitting in my wallet.
You might ask the director as well. Some schools (I personally do not) allow the teachers to put out wishlists or lists of things they like (I have parents that ask me for this) or the director may know what certain teachers like. For example, one of my teachers is VERY crafty and so if asked I usually recommend getting her a gift card to Michael's or Joanns.