Giving Some Money to Our Pre-School - Inappropriate or Not?

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

My 3 year old is in a lovely pre-school who do a lot for the kids. There are 3 ladies who work there and the owner who usually works in another branch (she has two places). I was thinking of putting €50 in an envelope. They could get some coffee's, some supplies for the school or whatever they might like.

Would that be appropriate/in-appropriate, enough/not enough?

Apologies if it's really obvious but I sometimes get this sort of thing wrong.

bee06

I’m going to give my son’s preschool teacher a voucher for a nearby cafe in her Christmas card.

Cyrus

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Hey Folks,

My 3 year old is in a lovely pre-school who do a lot for the kids. There are 3 ladies who work there and the owner who usually works in another branch (she has two places). I was thinking of putting €50 in an envelope. They could get some coffee's, some supplies for the school or whatever they might like.

Would that be appropriate/in-appropriate, enough/not enough?

Apologies if it's really obvious but I sometimes get this sort of thing wrong.

we always give a voucher to the carers looking after our kids at christmas, normally 25 euro each or something.

Foweva Awone

I think a lot of schools and creches are requesting no cards or presents this year because of Covid, so may be an idea to send a voucher by email instead.

ax530

I usually give the crèche teachers a card with cash and a note that they can pick their own Christmas treat/drink. Have given chocolates or wine too think they share that amongst staff but for primary carer cash. Sometimes feel a voucher for 10e actually costs the person.

TheBoyConor

€10 is a bit stingy.

Kintarō Hattori

Thanks for the replies folks. There's no one specific teacher, there's 3 of them who are there every day. So €25 each? Do I leave the owner out of the equation? That seems a bit mean but then I'm up to €100 :eek:

It'd all be coming out of my pocket as I think the missus would be telling me to give them nothing.

TheBoyConor

Don't mind the owner. They are creaming it in from every angle and paying the staff a pittance. No fear of them.

Try to give it directly to the staff. We all know the trick of the communal tip jar being managed by the manager or owner whos takes a hefty skim off of it and only passes a portion on to the staff.

As we all know, staff in childcare work long hours in a stressful environment and sometimes have level 8 or 9 qualifications but are barely getting minimum wage.

Navy blue

I wouldn't bother with the owner, why not give the staff €20 each. I'm sure it would be very much appreciated. I normally give a €20 voucher but with three staff in my sons preschool room and my daughters teacher and being off work due to Covid, I have had to cut back a bit this year. I would think the staff will get less presents this year due to Covid hardship and also people may not feel comfortable sending gifts in this year, so I am sure anything they do get will be all the more welcome

bee06

Foweva Awone wrote: »

I think a lot of schools and creches are requesting no cards or presents this year because of Covid, so may be an idea to send a voucher by email instead.

I wish, I just spent the evening writing 25 cards for each kid in the class because apparently it’s the done thing at my sons school.

TM2015

We used to give the two carers a 50 euro voucher each plus a small gift like a nice set of loccitane hand cream. Chocolate for the rest of the staff.

Our child is in afterschool now so again a 50 euro voucher and some chocolate for the teacher. Chocolates for the rest of the staff and the bus driver.

I would give a gift card like Costa or Starbucks to the ladies who look after your child every day.

I wouldn't give the owner anything.

fits

Cripes! I had no idea people were doing this.

There are five staff in one boys room and 2 in the other. And I have a childminder.

fits

Also this kind of spending seems crazy to me. 50 euro a staff member? Most people can’t afford that. I don’t think we could without some strain and we are a dual income family. I lived abroad for a while and there was nothing like the same spending at Christmas.

lawred2

TheBoyConor wrote: »

€10 is a bit stingy.

Not really for you to say what's stingy for anyone

bee06

fits wrote: »

Also this kind of spending seems crazy to me. 50 euro a staff member? Most people can’t afford that. I don’t think we could without some strain and we are a dual income family. I lived abroad for a while and there was nothing like the same spending at Christmas.

€50 is ridiculous. I was thinking €15. I think mostly people get chocolates, candles, hand lotion etc rather than cash/vouchers.

TM2015

fits wrote: »

Also this kind of spending seems crazy to me. 50 euro a staff member? Most people can’t afford that. I don’t think we could without some strain and we are a dual income family. I lived abroad for a while and there was nothing like the same spending at Christmas.

Perhaps but we are aware just how underpaid the carers can be so we are happy to give a nice gift. When our child left the creche, we gave 100. The two girls had been nothing but amazing and deserved all of it and even more.

fits

As I mentioned before I have 8 people looking after my two kids between everything. They are all deserving too. There’s just no way I could afford to give them 50 each.

Kintarō Hattori

I'm lucky in that the creche is small and there's just three carers there so I went with €20 each this afternoon.

TrixIrl

I'm dropping box of 6 bottles of prosecco in with a card. 45e with the offer on in Tesco. We've a lot of parttimers that do a day or a couple of mornings so couldn't get into individual presents but they'll divvy them out. Hope it'll be enough now reading pps.

Give where you can. What an undervalued profession in relation to pay. In my mind they have the most important job, minding those who mean everything to you.

screamer

There are multiple staff at my kids crèche. I usually leave in 6 bottles of wine, and let them decide who gets what. Most people give chocolates or biccies, so I prefer to give something different.

Purple Mountain

TrixIrl wrote: »

I'm dropping box of 6 bottles of prosecco in with a card. 45e with the offer on in Tesco. We've a lot of parttimers that do a day or a couple of mornings so couldn't get into individual presents but they'll divvy them out. Hope it'll be enough now reading pps.

Dont worry because they'll get other gifts like other bottles, sweets, biscuits etc and they'll all end up being shared out.