Tipping when leaving a daycare
We absolutely love our daughter's daycare and would like to give her teachers a generous bonus when we move this summer. Much of the advice out there is "how much do I have to tip at the holidays" but what we'd like to know is how much is an appropriate but generous tip, after 18 months of care? We would like to give to her two primary teachers (one who had her for a few months, one who had her for over a year), as well as a smaller tip to the other teachers who helped take care of her. We have seen 1-2 weeks' tuition split between the teachers as an appropriate holiday tip, which would be about $500 divided (unevenly) between 9 people, and we would like to give more than that. Is there an amount that would be considered "too much" for one person to receive, and in some way offensive?
Parent Replies
I have two kids that went through day care and private schools and have relatives who are teachers. No amount of a cash 'appreciation' is too much, and no appreciation is too little. If you give cash along with a card in a closed envelope (with a nice card) it remains anonymous w/ the pool of employees. This is the Bay Area where the disparity of income is huge so being as generous as you can and modeling good behavior helps us all all co-exist. As FYI, I believe some/most private schools will ask you to contribute to an equitable gift-pool in December but end of year is a free-for-all.
You're leaving, so there is no concern in my mind that you might be seen as trying to "bribe" the caretakers for preferential are of your child in the future. That would be the only circumstance where I would worry about giving too much. If you're able to give generously to someone who took great care of your kid, why not? We've done this in the past, and hope to keep on doing this as long as we are financially able to, as we travel a lot and have to leave great caretakers behind. They're always very happy to see us and care for our kids when we need occasional care and find ourselves in the right city.