We give gift cards to daycare teachers and school teachers. Not quite so much money, but I’d say on average they’re underpaid and if you’re willing and able to give them that much, they’d appreciate it.
1 Like
I do. I do $100 for all of the 4 year old’s teachers (there’s 3), $100 for baby’s lead teacher, and $50 for baby’s other teacher (there’s 4). I went back and forth on amounts but the smaller amount for the aides was mostly that I had no idea how many there were when I was buying gift cards.
Note that we live in VHCOL, and we’re fortunate that a few hundred at the end of the year is no big deal. I wish they were better paid in general but then we probably couldn’t afford daycare.
I don’t gift to the director/owner but maybe I’ll give her a card.
2 Likes
I am only giving to her because she is not an owner, just the director!
Thanks for sharing amounts, that is helpful too. @chaskavitch I am glad that it is normal to give gift cards, thanks for sharing.
I did $25 to Amazon to each kid’s teacher (4 teachers total) with a nice note, and I will do another $25 at year end. We are in a MCOL city, and there is also a parent teacher association that gives them gifts which I contribute to, so this is on top of that in order to be a bit more personal. If they didn’t do gifts at all, I would probably do $50 each time instead for a yearly total of $100 per person.
3 Likes
D2 has 6 teachers but it is public school, not a daycare. I gave each of them a $15 starbucks gift card.
3 Likes
Private Preschool (outdoor) program. I gave a card and $20 target GC to each of her 2 teachers.
1 Like
Disorganised Australian over here. I gave nothing. So you can consider me the low bar to sail over.
5 Likes
When there was more than one (lead and assistants) I did $20-25 each on local gift cards. Now that we’re at a home daycare, I pooled my $50 with 3 other families for a joint higher value gift for things she’s talking about enjoying or wanting to do.
3 Likes
How often do you clean your bathtub for “always comfortable bathing child in it” cleanliness?
Sincerely someone who historically cleans her tub with embarrassing infrequency but has learned scrubbing bubbles is magic.
2 Likes
Bathtubs get scrubbed once/week on my schedule.
Bathtubs and showers have soap and hot water dumped on them daily, so they are “clean” - scrubbing them is an aesthetic preference IMO.
1 Like
We have a separate bath/shower for the kids. We have a cleaner now so once every 2 weeks. For my personal ick factor, I’d be looking at once a month for DIY if I was good at cleaning toys washcloth etc out and not having stagnant curtains stuck inside or any of those variables. Less pickup means more frequent scrubbing.
I think if we shared a bath and tub combo with the kids I’d want to at least give a minor scrub down weekly cuz, eew grownup feet.
3 Likes
Errr not enough?
The kids each have their own bathtubs (like, baby/portable bathtubs) which get scrubbed with bleach every time they poop in it, which has been roughly monthly? But irregular. Adult bathtub gets cursory cleaning by cleaner every 3 weeks.
5 Likes
When the cleaner does it, so, once a month at the moment. Before cleaner, never.
7 Likes
When did your children start watching television? I mean really sitting down and getting engrossed in a show. My DS has no interest whatsoever in TV and he turns two in a couple weeks. I’d really like him to start watching soon so that we can get free babysitting from the TV every once in awhile!
7 Likes
My 2.75 year old will now watch TV for a bit. I know older kids was doing so by 3yo, but can’t recall when.
1 Like
My 2.5 year old will watch TV for a bit now. She does get distracted and will start playing with things after a couple bluey episodes but it’s usually distracting enough for up to a half hour. For sure didn’t start until a bit after 2 though.
1 Like
Mine would zombie lock onto the TV from very young and then be infinitely dysregulated and full of rage when it turned off. 
she’s a little better now that it’s incredibly predictable and time bound when she can watch but even at 4 it’s still… touchy. Even with a newborn I haven’t ended up using it as babysitting time for her because the cost for a non scheduled TV session is just way too high 
5 Likes
We were around 2.5 here too. Heads up that not being interested in tv was one of D1’s signs that her vision was much worse than the ophthalmologist originally thought.
4 Likes
I think around 2.5, but very specific shows.
We had a Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit show, that was really quiet and calm? And J1 loved it. We ended up getting the set of three movies on DVD, because there was two more but you could only get them as a full set of three (So we had an extra disc one that I think we gave away). They’d ask for “my bunnies.”
I hate constant background noise, so I never had the TV on unless they were sitting watching it - I know friends of mine just had their tv on a kids channel all day long in the background in their toy area. I think my kids were more focused / tv as babysitter because it wasn’t always on, it was occasional use.
I remember husband going to a conference and the boys were under 1 and probably three? and him coming home to find the Lorax on and them one on either side of me in the bed, I had the worst sinus infection ever but couldn’t get to the Dr because children and no childcare. He came home early not even knowing and thank g*d they were focused on that TV
7 Likes
This is us too, so may be a factor. I stopped having TV on when eldest was around 3 months because during floor time, she’d break eye contact and twist away to stare at the TV from wherever she was to watch and that spooked me. I was like. You’re 3 months old my FACE is supposed to be the interesting thing, child! Come back here 
6 Likes