Do Parents Acknowledge When You Send Home Gifts For Holidays?

[Jewels]

I have usually had very thankful parents. But I did have one DCM that was annoyed (or something) to get things sent home that her daughter did not do ALL on her own. She would act like I was tricking her by saying it was from her daughter. She only liked things that her daughter did completely on her own and so, I barely sent anything home. The little girl was here till she was about 20 months so obviously she wouldnt be doing much of anything without some sort of assistance. I never did understand what that DCMs deal was.....

When I had my son in daycare and he was 1yr old, like just turned one, He would come home with something almost everyday, and it would honestly just make me roll my eyes, and everything went straight to the trash, there is no way my 12 month old did any of that, I'm glad you are doing things during the day, but I really don't care to receive stuff until he is actually doing it.......now I don't mean for like a mothers day gift, but just everyday. I never send stuff home with daycare kids unless its something they do. I tell all my parents that we do alot of projects, but until the kid actually has the interest and want to do the stuff, I don't make them do or do them for them, I do assist in cutting and gluing, and teach them how to do everything, but if they have no interest, they can go play. And if they sit and do something for 2 minutes and couple swipes of a paintbrush or something, I will send that home.

[momma2girls]

I start a preschool program at age 3. I do start other things like coloring around 2-2 1/2- crafts when they are able to do them- except for Mother's Day and Xmas, I do a craft for everyone that is able. Now when it comes to handprints, I do them at about a yr. and 1/2 and over. I had to redo my 1 1/2 yr. old little girl 5 times, before I got one close to looking good!! !!
I laugh at this as well, look what my 8 month old daughter made me- !!! I have started coloring earlier, and the throw them, eat them, rip off the paper, play with them, more than color. I do pudding painting around the age of 2, then I don't have to worry about paint going in their mouth. This goes over very well!!

[Lucy]

I've done daycare for awhile, but have been inconsistent with having the kids make gifts. The parents rarely acknowledge them, and who knows what happens to them after they leave my house. But this past Christmas sealed the deal for me. I'll never do it again.

Someone on this forum posted a project where you make a star with an oval cut out in the center of it. You take the kids' pictures and put the pictures showing through the oval. The kids glue various shaped dry noodles to the star, and then the whole thing is painted silver or gold, a string or ribbon tied on, and voila - tree ornament.

This was a week-long project. My husband had some really sturdy THICK paper he used for model airplane patterns in the garage, so he drew and cut out the star shapes. The kids glued on the noodles (which weren't cheap - I bought 5 different shapes of noodles), then the next day my husband spray-painted their creations. Meantime, I had taken pictures and had them printed at walgreens. When the pictures came back, the kids glued them onto the backs of their stars, making sure their face showed through the oval, and they attached ribbons for hanging. They came out BEAUTIFUL, and I was so proud to have the kids wrap these in tissue paper and give them to the parents.

Forward to when they came back after Christmas break, not ONE person said anything. I group-texted 3 of them that I've worked with for 5 yrs or so, asking them how they liked the gift their kids made here, and one replied "cute", one said "fun", and the 3rd never answered. About 4 days later I asked the 3rd mom in person what she thought of the star ornament, and she says "huh?" I explained what it was, and she said "I don't think we got that". I specifically remembered putting it in a bag with some of their other stuff, and described that to her ("remember the grocery sack that had Daughter's blanket and barbie? I put it in there"). She says, "hmmm, I'll have to look at home. Yes, we have the blanket and barbie". Now mind you, this is a mom of TWO kids, so she had TWO ornaments. I'm now seething that they threw it away unopened, or something. A week later, she says "oh, we found that star thing. It was under our coffee table with a bunch of newspapers and toys and stuff. (I've seen inside their house from the front door - it's a MESS). So I said what about Son's star? She has no idea. It was later found in dad's filthy messy car's backseat. After all that, she still never says how she liked them or anything about them. For all I know, ALL these parents tossed them. Oh... the other parent that I didn't text was asked in person and had an unenthusiastic response of "oh yeah, cute picture". Nobody said anything to me voluntarily, I had to ask first, and NONE of them thanked me for the OBVIOUS work, money and time that went into them.

I was livid. I learned that IF I do crafts and projects, it's for the KIDS, not the parents. I won't make something with the parent in mind as a gift EVER AGAIN. Lesson learned. I spent bucks and time on those stars, and they were adorable. My husband even got involved. He was just as mad as I was.

Wow, that was long. Sorry! Didn't mean to go on like that, but obviously it was nagging at me.

[iheartkids]

For years I've always had the kids "present" their gifts to their parents when they are being picked up. I love to see the looks on the parents' faces as well as the proud look on the kids' faces when they are handing it to them. They may not specifically say "thank you" to me but they will gush over it. It's when the parents don't teach their KIDS to say thank you when I buy gifts for them that would make me upset.

[BusyBee]

I just keep my gifts cute, but super inexpensive. I believe my parents appreciate it, several of them thanked me as they left. But I figure if they just get tossed in the garbage, I didn't spend much and the kids still have the joy and the memory of making the gift.