Does anyone else have this problem?
My son Jack spends a good amount of his week in daycare, so I feel like I should get his teacher a gift for Christmas. But what should I give? What’s too much to spend, what’s too little? Are home baked gifts yummy – or icky and cheap?
As experienced teachers, Monica and Shannon have agreed to give me (and anyone else who could use it) advice on caregiver gift giving and The Shopping Mama crew will put together a mini-gift guide to help you find the perfect gift.
So here are the questions I’ve come up with so far. Feel free to add any questions or advice you have!
- Are teacher gifts expected? What about assistants, helpers, librarians, office staff, cafeteria ladies?
- What’s a good price range for caregiver/teacher gifts? What if I make more money or less money than average?
- How much is too much? (When do I look like I’m trying for favoritism?)
- What’s the real deal on home baked gifts?
- Tell us the truth, what do you think of the “world’s greatest teacher” or “apple” gifts?
- Are any gifts off limits or otherwise a good idea to avoid?
- What if you/your kid doesn’t like the teacher?
- What if the teacher is really special?
Who Else?
I’m always at a loss as to who should get something over the holidays. Who do you think should (or need not) be on everyone’s shopping list? Weigh in with your advice.
- UPS/FedEx guy (my last one rocked, this guy is kind of mean, but I do make him deliver a lot of stuff)
- Mail carrier
- Cleaning Lady
- Piano Teacher
- Bus Driver
- Barber/Hairdresser/Nail Tech
- Pharmacist (you know you love us)
- Pediatrician/OB
- Newspaper Boy
- …Who am I forgetting?…
Tell us what YOU think about this gift giving dilemma! And look for our mini shopping guide posts soon.
Rachel C
November 19, 2010Those are all neat teacher ideas. I agree that apple-y, teacher-y gifts are not good.
For my daughter’s teacher, I ordered nice stationary personalized with her name b/c I know that she likes to send notes so it would be useful to her.
Deal-ectible Mom
November 20, 2010I’m going for Scentsy this year! For $20 I get a plug-in warmer and a Scentsy Bar. Everyone loves those!
Another great idea is to watch deal sites such as groupon. I picked up a $40 gift certificate to The Body Shop the other day for $20 out of pocket. I can now purchase multiple small gifts and hand them out!
I leave the UPS guy a good bottle of wine and the Fedex guy gets the same. They work their butt off for us and for some reason it seems ok to gift them booze
I also gift the hair dresser…she’ll probably get a Scentsy bundle too!
Michelle
November 20, 2010I care for children in my home. The parents usually give me gift cards to restaurants or such for about what one day’s care costs them. I do actually like (and ask for) toys/games and supplies for my childcare, as I’m a big kid at heart and always like to update the things I have – and those things are paid for out of my pocket.