How much? Teachers/busdrivers

[snowlady]

How much do you spend on a gift for a teacher or busdriver. I like to give them gift certificates to the local book store or coffee store, etc...I figure they probably have gotten plenty of mugs filled with candy, cute things with apples, etc...BUT with a GC, what you spent is right there for them to see. What do you do?

 

[philemer]

We never gave a gift to our kid's teachers or bus drivers. No one I know ever did either, AFAIK. Now, our kids would make gifts for their teachers though. Try that.

 

[frenchieinme]

A good thought...

A gift certificate is a good idea as it is like $$$, the size always fits. It is a measure of appreciation. The amount I guess would be commensurate to what you think of the teacher or bus driver and how you have been treated---kind of like with a waiter or waitress.

An interesting note here---gifts to teachers is primarily a lower elementary grades phenonmenon which progressively decreases in number of gifts given as the child goes from elementary to middle school to HS. Yes there are teachers in the HS level that receive gifts but not as many as in the lower grades.

frenchieinme

 

[beanie]

don't forget the mailman

if they provided you with good service , show your appreciation. that goes for the garbage men also

 

[Bruce W]

Article on tipping today on AOL

http://money.aol.com/top5/general/holiday-tipping

 

[Keitht]

This present giving seems to be getting out of hand. Where do you draw the line? How about the bin men or the police or men who work for the utility services? They all provide valuable services so how to pick and choose which get gifts?

 

[beanie]

we tip almost everyone

the utilites guys we tip when they come to our house to fix something , so we don't tip at christmas.but being a postal employee and a former mailmen we do tip them and the ups person , fed -ex person, the garbagemen and recycling person. having worked for tips in the past as bartenders and waitress ,my wife and I try to tip when ever we can. but to get back to the OP we usually gave gift certificates or boxes of chocolate , lotions , etc to the teachers

 

[Dave M]

Where do you draw the line?

I follow the guidelines at Bruce's link very closely. I tip those people - and only those people - and in approximately the amounts suggested, except more for my mail carrier who goes out of her way to provide extra service.

 

[ctreelmom]

Gifts for teachers have gotten completely out of hand, IMO. There's a group of moms in my kids' schools who feel giving the teachers anything less than a designer purse or a SIGNIFICANT gift certificate to the mall won't do. This year I put my foot down when my 5th grader's room mothers asked for $25 per child in a class of 28 in class dues AND still expected us to buy paper goods, juice boxes, etc. for the class parties. I sent in $15 to help cover supplies and said I did not wish to be included in the group gift. My dd always feels funny in years past when we've contributed to the class gift and then half the class brings in personal gifts as well and she doesn't.

This year, I will give her teachers a plate of homemade treats festively wrapped with a small pair of earrings or something my dd will pick out at a local shop that carries adorable things for under $10. A nice letter to the principal about him/her for the personnel file is always appreciated too.

I agree that as they get older, the teacher gifts go away, but even in middle school, I did get a little something for a teacher who I felt went out of her way to help my daughter.

My kids' busdriver is fabulous--I wouldn't want her job for anything! Some years I've given her a small Christmas cactus or Pointsetta, other years it's been a gift certificate for Dunkin' Donuts or the local pizza place. My kids get picked up at our driveway, but if you have a bus stop with lots of families, it's nice to chip in a little bit each and give them something from "The corner of Oak and Main" or whatever.

 

[Big Matt]

My wife is a first grade teacher and she gets everything from hand made cards to gift cards, cookies, starbucks cards, movie tickets, you name it. She gets them at Christmas and at the end of school.

 

[snowlady]

I'm the OP. We live in a small town and really get to know the teachers and busdriver well. My kids are still in elementary school and I think that the teachers are extremely underpaid and deserve some kind of Thank You. The busdrivers in our town are mostly women, who really care about getting the children to and from school safely and deserve to be thanked for their diigence as well. I'm not talking about $50.00 gifts. I was thinking a $10-$15 gift card with a personal note from the children. I was just curious what other people did. It seems there is quite a range of opinions. Thank you for your thoughts!!

 

[stmartinfan]

I have usually given Barnes & Noble gift certificates for about $10-15, depending upon the relationship the person had with my child. But for all of them, I would write a personal note with our thanks for what they had done, trying to include specific examples of why they were so important to my child. For one child who was an especially challenging kid, I continued into junior high as well, knowing that the special help many of the staff was giving, like the school nurse, was making it possible for her to be successful. I always got warm thank you notes in return, with one PE teacher saying that he'd never gotten a gift before. I also felt that our already cordial relationship with the staff was even better because of our willingness to acknowledge how important they were.

 

[kjgrain]

Something different

Here is what we do for the teachers. At the start of each school I get the kid's main teacher a gift card to staples and then we give it to them at the start of the school year. The teachers have really appreciated this kindness and thoughfullness because they spend so much of their own money for supplies for the class rooms and my kids make a first good impression on their teachers at open house night when we bring supplies. A huge plus for me is 3 less presents that I have to remember to buy at Christmas time.

Then for Christmas the kids make their teachers Christmas tree ornaments. We take plain clear or frosted glass ornaments which you can get at hobby/craft stores. The the kids take different colors of craft paints and put a few drops into the inside of the ornament and then they shake until the whole inside is painted. Each ornament is different. Then I get to make a special tag for the ornament for the teacher with the childs name and the date on it. It is original and nice way for the teachers to remember your child once a year when they put up their christmas tree.

 

[wackymother]

I'm the OP. We live in a small town and really get to know the teachers and busdriver well. My kids are still in elementary school and I think that the teachers are extremely underpaid and deserve some kind of Thank You. The busdrivers in our town are mostly women, who really care about getting the children to and from school safely and deserve to be thanked for their diigence as well. I'm not talking about $50.00 gifts. I was thinking a $10-$15 gift card with a personal note from the children. I was just curious what other people did. It seems there is quite a range of opinions. Thank you for your thoughts!!

We always give teacher presents (three kids) and I think the $10-$20 range is appropriate. We have one kid in HS, one in middle school, and one in elementary school, plus DH is a teacher and one of my best friends is a teacher, too. One thing I like to give is movie tickets--you can often buy them discounted through the Entertainment book (too late in the year now, though) or I used to get them as credit card rewards. I would put two in a card and tell them to have fun seeing a movie over the holiday break. These were always really successful and not too expensive.

My friend led a Brownie troop and one of the mothers gave the leaders (who worked like dogs) each a $5 gc to Starbucks. That was really appreciated because it meant a nice sitting-and-talking outing at Starbucks with a cup of special coffee for free. I thought it was a nice gift and she did too.

DH teaches in HS and very occasionally gets a gift. Always exciting no matter what it is! I give gifts to guidance counselors because do a lot for the kids and everybody forgets them. I never thought of the bus drivers...uh oh...ours are not that great, though....

 

[swift]

A few of my parents give me a $5 Starbucks card. It sure puts a smile on my face and makes me feel appriciated.

Theresa
Bus driver

 

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I'm a teacher and teach third grade, but taught second for many years. One of the best gifts I ever got was some homemade tamales! One parent at the end of the year in pre-k gave me a sensena pen and I love it, but that is really unusual. Homemade goodies, cards the kids make themselves are all appreciated, even $5 Starbucks certificates are appreciated. Kids shouldn't feel that they have to give teachers a gift (IMHO). I teach in a very poor community. I always give my kids a book and a new box of crayons for Christmas because those things express my values to them.
Liz

 

[Blondie]

As a high school teacher of 34 years I can tell you that the amount of the gift cert is truly insignificant. Just the idea that a parent or child did this kind thing is huge-- and I mean it- $5 to Dunkin dounts or even the local breakfast joint is just awesome! Homemade treats, holiday cookies, etc are great too. Even a card is great and most appreciated. Don't be afraid that the gift is too small; it is not. Thanks to all of you who think of your kids teachers. All I need is one, nice thank you a year and it keeps me going for another five!!

 

[Cathy in Boston]

I do not have children, but my feeling is, there is NO ONE with a more important job than teachers. If your kids have a good one, let him or her know it with a little something - the $5 Starbucks card someone mentioned sounds perfect, not so expensive you can't do it for all the teachers, but still something they can definitely put to good use.