Comments on: Holiday bonuses for caregivers (guest post)

By: Tragic Sandwich

Tragic Sandwich — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 17:01:19 +0000

Baguette is in full-time day care. I give something for the individual on the teacher’s birthday, and something for the classroom at the holidays. For birthdays, that’s gift cards. For the holidays, I’ve given CDs to broaden the classroom’s collection and gift cards to Michael’s. Even at this very expensive private day care, the teachers do a lot out of their own pockets, and I try to help with that a little.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:01:07 +0000

@Kate, that sounds very appropriate. Another option is to buddy up with another parent to make your gift bigger. At my children’s daycare, the tradition was that one parent would volunteer to take up a collection. That way we’d end up with a few hundred dollars that we divvied up according to hours (ie 50% for the directors and 10% for each teacher or something like that).

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 04:03:45 +0000

My daughter goes to a daycare center, and there are six teachers and two directors (aka a ton of people). What’s appropriate for a holiday gift? Honestly, I don’t have a ton of money available right now to get them something grand, so I was thinking that cards with a hand-written note plus a nice box of candy from Godiva would be okay. Any other thoughts or advice?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:41:41 +0000

My oldest child is in kindergarten this year and the room parent asked for everyone to contribute $10 towards a teacher gift. With 30 kids in class, that will make a very nice $300 gift for her! For our after-school teacher, we will also do $10 in a kid-made card. I do $25 for our younger child’s day care teacher whom we just adore as well as $10 each for the 2 helper teachers. Not sure if that’s comparable to what’s others do or not. Sometimes it feel like it’s not enough, but then I remind myself that other families are giving gifts too. I always write a personal note of thanks to each teacher with specific examples of why they are special to our child and us.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:10:07 +0000

When I hired my first nanny, she made it clear to me that she got my vacation days as paid days, so that was not really an option as a special gift! One week of pay is what I’ve heard is the going rate for in-home caregivers. This works for night time sitters, too. Just base the math on how much you normally spend on them in a month and divide by four. @C, I think pro-rating the “one week” rule for the year makes perfect sense. If you had been with someone for 6 months, take the one week salary and divide in half. In your case, divide by 12 because you will have only been with the day care provider for one month, or just do what Annika (the writer above) did and give a surprise bonus after more time has passed.

By: Cara

Cara — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:50:41 +0000

A parent from our daughter’s preschool emailed all the parents and said it has been the tradition there (her older son went to the same school for a couple of years) for parents to give $20-$40 each and then it is split between the 4 teachers. Awesome!
I had been contemplating gift cards and thinking of what we could really afford and how to not seem totally lame with a small gift card. Giving $40 and knowing the teachers will all get a card, signed by the kids with a wad of cash inside was perfect.
And having worked in child care before having my daughter, I would have very much appreciated such a gift.
When I was a nanny, the mom did something similar as the above poster — time off when she traveled for the holidays and I still got a pay check. But she did that throughout the year as well which is really only fair if you’re the one traveling/taking time off:)

By: TwinMamaTeb

TwinMamaTeb — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:42:46 +0000

We have a nanny who has worked for us for 3 years. I get the whole week off betw xmas and new years. Her bonus is that she gets the whole week off and I pay her anyway.

By: c

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 16:32:55 +0000

I’d love any advice on how much to give that first Christmas! It sounds like we are in exactly the same boat you were: our six month old daughter has been in home daycare for about 3 weeks. We love the daycare provider, but we haven’t been there long enough to feel like a big bonus is appropriate, and it would really be tough on our budget. What have others done in similar situations?