Appropriate?

[melilley]

Have you looked at those DIY kitchen sets on pinterest?

Perhaps you could get the parents to donate FREE items to help build a new kitchen.

I scored a free entertainment center off of freecycle and we turned into a really cool stove/fridge that is used out on our patio play area. It cost me about $30 total to make.

This is what I was thinking.

This way you may get some of the stuff you need and the parents wouldn't feel obligated to to donate anything and/or wouldn't feel bad if they financially couldn't help, especially since you said one family more than like can't help.

Daycare-do you have a pic of the kitchen you made that you wouldn't mind sharing? I have thought about making one, but wasn't sure about it.

[Cradle2crayons]

This is what I was thinking.

This way you may get some of the stuff you need and the parents wouldn't feel obligated to to donate anything and/or wouldn't feel bad if they financially couldn't help, especially since you said one family more than like can't help.

Daycare-do you have a pic of the kitchen you made that you wouldn't mind sharing? I have thought about making one, but wasn't sure about it.

I want to see too!!! I've always enjoyed re cycling stuff but until I got my SUV had noway to get cute stuff home .

I'm not really creative though and I love to see home made kitchens. We are building a new master suite on the back of our house in the spring making our house 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Our current master and master walk in and master bathroom suite will be another dedicated daycare space and I'm so danged excited!!! That's going to give me a separate daycare storage area (or center area) and a completely separate complete daycare bathroom and give me THREE daycare rooms. Right now one spare room is daycare and my bonus room is a newborn sleeping area as well as my sewing room.

I've found so many great ideas here.

[melilley]

I want to see too!!! I've always enjoyed re cycling stuff but until I got my SUV had noway to get cute stuff home .

I'm not really creative though and I love to see home made kitchens. We are building a new master suite on the back of our house in the spring making our house 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Our current master and master walk in and master bathroom suite will be another dedicated daycare space and I'm so danged excited!!! That's going to give me a separate daycare storage area (or center area) and a completely separate complete daycare bathroom and give me THREE daycare rooms. Right now one spare room is daycare and my bonus room is a newborn sleeping area as well as my sewing room.

I've found so many great ideas here.

Lol, yeah, I always have these wonderful ideas of homemade stuff in my head, but I don't think it would turn out they way I see it in my head.

I would die for a separate daycare bathroom and more dedicated daycare space...lucky!

[JoseyJo]

I would die for a separate daycare bathroom

Me too! Our only bathroom is 6X8- it's shared by me, hubby, 2 teen boys and up to 9 dcks!

[SilverSabre25]

All right, all right. You guys have convinced me that it's not a good idea. which I guess I knew, since I felt like I had to ask here.

BUT--I did go ahead and order replacement parts for my current kitchen. Which admittedly is a very NICE kitchen, just not always up to the LOVELY treatment my children put it through.

But that knocks down the cost of the new kitchen set up to just $170. Which is a lot more doable. even my Stingy "Why Do We Have to Buy More Daycare Stuff?" husband admitted we can probably swing that.

[Cradle2crayons]

Me too! Our only bathroom is 6X8- it's shared by me, hubby, 2 teen boys and up to 9 dcks!

Lol right now the kids side of the house has a full bathroom. It's dedicated to my two kids and the daycare kids. We installed two single vanities so we could have two sinks in there as well as the master.

I have so many things going through my head with ideas for when we get this addition done. It can't come fast enough .

And the current master that will be added to the daycare rooms is HUGEEEEEEEEEE. like 18 by 24 master bedroom and the bathroom is huge too with double vanities. And the walk in closet is also huge.

I'm so lucky we found this house for the price we did. And making it a six bedroom three bath will make it completely UNHEARD of anywhere around here. And on lots of land also. We bought this house for $79,000 and it is listed as a 4/2 with a bonus room, but part of the addition will add into the bonus room, giving it a closet making it the fifth bedroom. It's not considered a bedroom right now only because the closet is outside the door. The house was built in 2009 and it appraised for $105,000 and that was with never being painted, no floors, and unfinished. When we finish the Reno the value will be well over $165,000.

We aren't interested in selling though because e old man who owns the 120 acres surrounding us is about to sell us an additional 20 acres and we have more than 5 acres already. I also own 20 acres a few miles down the road so we aren't going anywhere.

After this Reno, this house will be absolutely completely PERFECT for us, except we are going to doing a Reno on the kitchen in the near future also .

[MotherNature]

I don't think it's appropriate. The daycare is your company/business. A company, let's say for example, Domino's Pizza, Walmart, The Mom and Pop's Shop on the corner, etc. do not ask their customers to donate money to their company because they want to enhance their business. I always think of my daycare as a company; a business, just like the ones I mentioned above. Yes, my company is smaller than those, but it is a company and I operate it as such.

You said that the kitchen is what you want to be YOUR gift to the daycare. If you have your clients help pay for it, then it's not YOUR gift. It's a gift from everyone that puts money into it.

When someone specifically requests for donations from a small group of people, it often makes those people feel pressured to be obligated to donate even though they do not have the extra funds to do so. So the request could put unnecessary financial pressure on those that are barely making it financially.

[MotherNature]

What about Craigslist or Once Upon a Child? Or a local facebook sale group?There's always kitchens & accessories available at those. You'd save money & save resources by reusing stuff. Then you could freecycle your old one to someone else. We found great miniature kitchen stuff at Goodwill. Real pots & pans, just smaller. Tiny muffin tins & loaf pans, etc.

[SilverSabre25]

What about Craigslist or Once Upon a Child? Or a local facebook sale group?There's always kitchens & accessories available at those. You'd save money & save resources by reusing stuff. Then you could freecycle your old one to someone else. We found great miniature kitchen stuff at Goodwill. Real pots & pans, just smaller. Tiny muffin tins & loaf pans, etc.

I'm picky about what I want this time around That's what we did the first time, and it's just not an effective set up right now. I'm going for specific things. And wooden.

(Though I do wish I had a smaller kitchen, more accessible to toddlers)

[MyAngels]

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for but watch Amazon's Deal of the Day in the coming weeks. Last year they regularly offered wooden toys from several different companies at good discounts. I bought some things from Plan, Alex Toys, Melissa & Doug, Hohner, Kid craft, etc., and I remember other companies had things, too. Most everything was a minimum of 50% off.

[SilverSabre25]

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for but watch Amazon's Deal of the Day in the coming weeks. Last year they regularly offered wooden toys from several different companies at good discounts. I bought some things from Plan, Alex Toys, Melissa & Doug, Hohner, Kid craft, etc., and I remember other companies had things, too. Most everything was a minimum of 50% off.

That's a good idea. I'll do that.

I've got things from Melissa and Doug, Green Toys, and a lot of Hape and Haba.

[Laurel]

I don't think it's appropriate. The daycare is your company/business. A company, let's say for example, Domino's Pizza, Walmart, The Mom and Pop's Shop on the corner, etc. do not ask their customers to donate money to their company because they want to enhance their business. I always think of my daycare as a company; a business, just like the ones I mentioned above. Yes, my company is smaller than those, but it is a company and I operate it as such.

You said that the kitchen is what you want to be YOUR gift to the daycare. If you have your clients help pay for it, then it's not YOUR gift. It's a gift from everyone that puts money into it.

When someone specifically requests for donations from a small group of people, it often makes those people feel pressured to be obligated to donate even though they do not have the extra funds to do so. So the request could put unnecessary financial pressure on those that are barely making it financially.

[Annalee]

I want to completely replace our play kitchen + all accessories this holiday season. My "Gift" to the daycare, so to speak. I've totaled up what I want (and have a purty little Amazon wish list!) and it totals around $300.

Would it be appropriate to give a letter to my daycare families (All 3 of them, ) letting them know what I want to do and asking for donations to help me achieve it?

part of the problem is that I know for a fact that 1 family can't afford much (mom on bedrest, off work) and the other, the mom can't but dad probably can (divorced). So, I feel bad asking....but $300 is kind of a lot....this is a big investment, nice stuff, etc.

What do you think?

I have placed a pic of something I wanted for dc before and let the parents put money in a box and I would match the difference....it worked great....For Christmas at my dc, the parents and I take a family from the "angel tree" and buy gifts for this fam....I provide a gift for the dck....I tell the parents that they do not have to bring a gift for me in particular...some still bring a gift for me, some don't but they all seem to pitch in toward the item....By placing the box, though, takes away the pressure because no one knows how much the other gives. Just a thought.....

[countrymom]

my kitchen set is 13 yrs old and looks brand new. I paid 200 dollars for it at tru and its a step 2 product. I now look for durable stuff, wooden toys are great, but plastic stuff seems to hold up better in my house and with 2 yr olds. Also, depending what you are replacing maybe you can get the stuff cheaper at homedepot.