Omaha Nesties
Wilwarin
member
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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.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Does your center daycare hold fundraisers?
WTH?! I just got both an email and a packet from my kid's daycare today asking me to sell greeting cards. Um, seriously? Not only do I pay $800 a month, but I have to fundraise for a privately-owned business?
Does your daycare do this?
Just answer if you use a center.
Re: Does your center daycare hold fundraisers?
WTF, no?! That is crazy. Call me a crusty person but I am even sort of side-eye about my center's "Teacher Appreciation Lunch" that they hold twice a year. They (the directors, not the parents) send out an email, you have to bring food/napkins/etc. I am always sort of feeling like, they aren't my employees. If you want to give them a lunch to show your appreciation, go ahead. I get them presents, cards, etc on my own.
I know, I sound like a horrible, grumpy person. I have just always thought it's sort of annoying. I am already giving you 1500 dollars a month, that's my appreciation!!
Stupid nest ate my reply -
Anyway - No. No fundraisers at our daycare center. They ask for each family to donate 2 boxes of kleenexes per kid per year, and then when they're running low, but otherwise no. That's kind of ridiculous. I already pay them.
I found it a little odd when my niece and nephew's daycare had an "art show" and then the parents had to purchase their kids' art projects. What parent would say no to that? "I'm sorry honey, but I just don't have the money for you to bring home that flower you painted to hang on the fridge." Talk about shitting in a kid's cheerios. You're going to buy it. It seems mean to NOT buy it, ya know.
Fundraising for a publicly funded school. Ok. Private daycare center? No way. Although I'd be willing to donate my time to help out in any way I could. (Cleaning day, helping with the daycare garden, etc.)
My friends kid goes to the one on 168th & Blondo (NW corner) and its in the same price range you pay, and she asked me to buy something. I said no (im always a sucker for those) because why would I want to make the daycare owners money.
I think its tacky.
My kids go to a Christian daycare. I absolutely love it there. They do fundraisers and I have no problem with it. Example: buy a picture of your child's class in a picture frame for $2.00. The price I pay for the care they receive is amazing. To put it in perspective, I pay less than an in home daycare for my children. I feel like I should be paying them more and do not mind the fundraisers at all. These women are not making a lot of money off of my kids. That being said, I will see if my parents want to buy but I will probably just make a good sized donation to them. I know this is not the norm.
The public school school kid who came to my door a couple weeks ago really got my eyebrow raised. This is why I pay property taxes. I did buy from him but was not excited to give LPS more money. I did buy from the boy scout that came to my door a couple days ago with no problems.
Ava and Lily's daycare does fundraisers. I think it's a great thing. They have top of the line playground equipment and recently installed fingerprint recognition for checkin/checkout. No child leaves that place without a fingerprint of whoever it is taking them.
It also pays for the yearly program that comes in to do an ID packet for each kid (Mouth swabs for DNA, DVD of child talking with interviewer, pictures, fingerprints)...as hard as it is to think about, if my kids were ever abducted I would have packets to give the police and wouldn't even have to think about it.
I think all of that stuff (and there are lots more "things"...these are just examples) is over and above what a center can provide and selling a few pizzas once a year doesn't hurt to help it out.
It depends on the fundraiser and the reason. I don't think there should be sales because come on, the kids are too little, and it's the parents selling the crap. No one wants to hit up their friends and family, in the first place, let alone when YOU have to do that, not your cute kids. I don't have a problem with directory ads or buying a line in a program (for the dance recitals) or even having school nights at the pizza place or whatever.
Just curious- do any of you consider buying a school t-shirt a fundraiser? Would you want your child to have a school t-shirt? If it costs $4 to have the shirt printed and the school charged $10 would you think that's crazy?
That would be great, if they had all that. Sure, they have a great play area and a gym, but none of the extras you are talking about. They specifically said it was to buy new toys.
I worked at a daycare where we did a fundraiser every year. It was completely optional, and we always told the parents what it was for - for 2 years, it was for a new playground, and then it was for classroom essentials (the infants/toddlers got new toys, the preschoolers got tons of art materials and we paid for part of a field trip with it).
My daycare hasn't asked for fundraising yet, but if they did, I would probably do it. They do Scholastic book orders, which they benefit from and get books for the classrooms. We decided to set aside $15/month to do that... They also did Tshirts, and I know the price was up a bit (like $2-3), and the only reason we didn't get one was because I forgot about it until it was too late to order.
Yes, we pay alot for quality daycare, but I also know how expensive it is to run a daycare... so if we can help out and keep our tuition from going up next year, we will.
Picture courtesy of Heidi Keene Photography
Just to put a little perspective on this -
I work in childcare, and childcares aren't funded like public schools. Like 90% of your $1500/mo tuition goes towards bills (gas/electric, rent, food for meals, etc.) and teacher's salaries. Our shittty, shittty salaries. And we work pretty hard. So it's not too uncommon that a childcare would have a fundraiser every now and again for things perhaps not in the budget but would be awesome and useful in a classroom, like say, a die-cut machine or a laminator or something.
And I personally appreciate anything that the parents do for us WAY more than our office staff simply because I am working for YOU as parents. I mean yeah, I'm working for the people in the office, but I'm caring for your child. You know? So know that it is appreciated A LOT when you do contribute to anything like that!!!
You are right, I think it is likely our daycare teachers make way less than they should - they are Amazing, work so hard, and treat my kids like gold.
I think where the side-eye comes from is I feel like the lunch is "put on" by the directors (as in they pick when/where/make the plans) but they ask us to bring everything. We have a Parents' Association & we have an event for them also, 2x/year. I do Christmas/birthday/Nurses Week/etc kind of events/gifts for my employees at my work, so why wouldn't the directors do the same for their employees? These teachers are not my employees any more than a public school teacher is, KWIM?
All this to say I love these teachers and they are full of amazing, so I am happy to take them treats & whatnot. I just think the organization/planning of these lunches is sort of odd, like if it's the parents who put the whole thing on, then let it be from the parents, not the directors.
Ugh!! This would really annoy me!!
We use an in-home daycare but when we used a center in Kearney they didn't do fundraising.
That kid's teacher probably spends a few hundred dollars each year to supply their classroom and also have gifts for the kids to give their families at Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, etc. The amount of stuff that we're given is pretty measly which is why we have such an incredibly high salary to cover all of the money we spend on other people's kids! But then I guess I could just make tons of copies of stuff I steal from the internet and have kids do paper pencil assignments all day long. I'm sure that'll get them to grade level faster than getting hands on items that engage them and actually interest them. Why should I care if the kid likes learning? All they have to do is pass a test, right? Why make it fun? Just do what the school can pay for and I'm sure everything will be a-ok. We'll win that race to the top! No child will be left behind doing it that way. Yeah right.....
I know women who hide how much money they end up spending on their classrooms (and not just to make it cute or pretty, but to get things to help kids be on grade level) from their husbands. Most spouses would shiit a brick if they knew how much we end up spending each year. Luckily I am able to buy a little here and there so it's not one huge chunk except for in August. It's easier to swallow that way.
Gotcha
Yeah, that's a little weird, esp. if the Parent Group has an appreciation event themselves.