As a broke, disgruntled non-profit director I get depressed/stressed around this time of year. Why you ask? Tipping and gift giving. For the most part I can ignore family, however the people I can’t ignore are the staff at the preschool. How much do you give the person that takes care of your most prized possession, your kid, all day long? Nothing ever seems to be enough.  My wife tips the parking lot attendant $1-$2 a day just for for parking and fetching Dimples (a.k.a. “the Hyundai”).  The teachers, on the other hand, care for my cursing, poop-covered, rowdy, and adorable child for nine hours a day – he’s my child and I wouldn’t want that job! So do they get gifts, cash, cookies, movie tickets, all of the above, or something else entirely?Â
What are you guys out there doing for the people that nurture and protect you little bundle of evil (joy?) when you aren’t around? If it’s your co-parent, what extra are you doing to acknowledge their role? I hate shopping with a deep, unrelenting passion, yet I still have to do what I can to show my appreciation.
we usually settle on gift cards for some place with lots of different stuff (e.g. target or amazon.com). when you think about how hard those people work and how little they get paid (pre-school and elementary school teachers), it’s depressing. i’d guess that if you took the top ten oil company ceo’s and split up their incomes among all the teachers in america, it might add up to something decent.
We take our twins to a home daycare and this is our first Christmas with the provider. We’re also at a loss of what to get her and how much to spend. We’re thinking of a giftcard to a local restaurant for her and her husband.
I have also concluded that I need to show her how much I appreciate her taking care of my kids at other times than Christmas – which might take the edge off what we’re getting her now.
Good luck!
At my daughter’s school, we have a class parent who organizes the e-mail list of all of the parents. Using the e-mail list, this parent has coordinated for every parent to make a contribution to a gift fund, this year it was $25 per family. I think my daughter’s class raised over $650; gift cards and gifts were purchased for the teacher and her two assistants.
Also, each child made homemade Christmas cards for the teacher and her two assistants. Last year, things went smoothly because I helped her with the cards. The duty fell to my wife this year, and there was a meltdown before the first card was completed!