Appropriate tip for family daycare owner and staff?

December 14, 2018 8:42 PM

Our daughter attends a small family (in-home) daycare here on the SF Bay peninsula, and we'd like to give the owner and her (one) staff a Christmas gift/bonus. We've been thinking about giving cash because, frankly, we just don't have the energy for a truly thoughtful gift with a 10-month-old. The daycare itself is a marvelous value at $1500/mo, and we are exceptionally happy with it. The question, though, is how much is appropriate? We don't want to be showy, but also have no reason to be stingy.
posted by TheNewWazoo to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Cash is the right thing to do in this situation.
If it is so small that it is basically like a nanny share, I'd do 10% - so like $150 for each employee?

If it was a traditional daycare I'd do $25-50 per staff person.
posted by k8t at 8:54 PM on December 14, 2018

Are there other parents at the daycare who’ve been there longer to consult? 9 years ago, when my daughter was in a SF home based daycare, we would have given about $100 each. I’m sure they’d be happier with cash so no need to worry about a gift!
posted by otherwordlyglow at 8:55 PM on December 14, 2018

We gave $50 gift cards and a nice note for each person when we were at an in-home daycare in Madison, WI.
posted by juliapangolin at 9:24 PM on December 14, 2018

When I do this type of thing in cash, I use the largest denomination possible. Like, 50's and 100's - is this ok?
posted by porpoise at 10:37 PM on December 14, 2018

We send our kid to an in-home daycare in the a East Bay which is about the same price as yours. Yesterday we gave the owner in a holiday card a cash tip of 25% of the monthly price and then >$50 each for the helpers in a different envelope.
posted by kendrak at 5:52 AM on December 15, 2018

Twenty years ago on the East Coast, we gave one weeks pay in cash which seemed to be the standard amount. This was an in home day care with one woman working.
posted by maxg94 at 8:24 AM on December 15, 2018

We live in the the East Bay, and gift $100 each to the owner/head teacher and two assistants at our small in-home daycare. $1,500 is a crazy good rate for high quality infant care, by the way - we're paying $1,900 and feel lucky.
posted by Jaclyn at 1:45 PM on December 17, 2018