I tend to go out of my way to make gifts for my kids' classes. I put a budget on all of our gifts, so that it is NEVER more then $50.00 ($.83 per kid~ with extras) for major holidays. Mother's Day is one of those ones that I denied the budget for, and went up to $75.00 ($1.25 per kid~ with extras). We are basically notorious in the school for doing amazing things. (Christmas was a huge hit. We did rice krispie snowmen, reindeer candy canes, and cute little snowflake cupcakes...plus some goodie bags)
Everyone always assumes I spend a TON of money doing all of this...really? It's mainly just like two days of work gluing or making shit.
I will tell you right now, no one other parent has EVER made anything for any of my kids' classes in over three years...until this past Valentine's Day. Someone hand stitched the Valentine's. I was not going to do that. It'd be way too much work for 60-80 kids. The parent that did this only has one kid...I have three - two in school. No fucking way, I'm doing THAT. But, that is the ONLY time ANYONE has EVER done a gift.
Sadly, she didn't even do one for Christmas. What.the.fuck?! So Valetine's Day is more important than Christmas, I guess. Whatever you one-upping trying bitch. She doesn't come close to winning the "class gift war". I am still reigning supreme. Hell...even teacher's not in charge of my kids are begging for gifts for THEIR classes (they always offer to reimburse me, but really? I don't have the time to do that many).
I initially was going to just do those cheap flower pens. You know the ones. You've probably seen them a million times. Flowers glued to the top of a pen, wrapped in green gardener's tape. Easy, done. Would cost me about $.30 per kid! Yes, new record!
However....that all changed....
I went into my youngest daughter's class to ask her teacher if she wanted the children to put the tape on the pens, and to give to their mothers. The teacher said, (direct quote) "We usually do the ink stamps of their hands, but that can get messy...so I was at a loss of what to do. I'm so happy you are offering to do this for them! I really had no idea what we were going to do!" I agreed to let them help, and offered to drop off the mostly finished pens on May 5th (it was April 24th when I was asking about this, as I was going to the store THAT DAY to get my shit and get it done with). Fine, whatever, I'll do most of the work and just drop it off.
Let me just say this about the Kindergarten teachers I have come across in my many years being a parent in the public school system. They all suck. Most of them have no kids of their own, and don't have a fucking clue what they are doing. That is my experience here. Even my husband says there is something "off" about this teacher. His latest encounter with her didn't bode well for his opinion either...she said hi, he said hi...then she turned her back to him and ignored him. Uh...okay... Sadly, that was the first time they had ever met too.
This is the same damn teacher that watched my daughter trip, fall (no injury), and let her cry in the playground (while I am watching from my parking spot, waiting for school to get out) for OVER ten minutes BEFORE I finally had to get out of my car and tell my daughter to just go play. Like really, woman? Is she bleeding? No? Okay, go play. Stop fucking coddling the kid. Ridiculous. Hell, my youngest trips and falls on her HEAD every five minutes when walking. That kid is NOT new to owies caused by her own feet. (She tends to run faster then her feet can manage...hell once at school, she tripped and hit her head on the sidewalk...then she SKIDDED with her HEAD to a halt! LOL She has a little scar, but damn if the SAME TEACHER didn't put a bandaid on her head and NOT clean out the wound. I took off the bandaid and there was GRAVEL in her head...GRAVEL!)
Seriously, I think it should be a damn rule that if you are going to be a fucking teacher...then either you need to have kids of your own (and I don't mean a fucking infant that can't talk) OR you have to be REALLY fucking amazing with kids. Otherwise, you really should NEVER be a teacher to anyone under the age of 12. Most teachers I have come across can't find their head from their own ass. So far, I can count of TWO teachers in these three years that actually know their shit.
I went to my oldest daughter's class, and her teacher just loves me. I asked her the same question...kids put together or me do it? You know that one little girl in the class that always has to one up your kid? Well, my oldest has one too! (My youngest has turned into a fucking bully, but whatever) So, while I am asking the teacher said question....this little shit stain comes up to the teacher's desk (obviously she was eavesdropping....not rude or anything, right?) and says: "OH! I've seen THAT before!"
The teacher actually says: "Well, since you like to go overboard anyways..." Wow...just wow... I spend barely any money on my class gifts... All it takes is maybe a day or two of work, and I'm done. How is making sure shit doesn't look like shit, going overboard? What the fuck ever. I obviously don't comment on this, as I'm not some rude cunt.
So, the teacher and I start brainstorming ideas that might make it different somehow. I am obviously blackmailed into this, as the kid would NOT let it go. She couldn't just be HAPPY that she was getting something to give to her mother - FOR FREE! Nooooooo!!!!!!
We finally come up with the idea of doing pots and like 3 flower pens per kid. Shit. My budget is wrecked now. I tried everything I could to get out of doing something so elaborate and time consuming. Don't these people know I have a 4 month old at home now? God damn it.
I get all of the materials the same day, and finish painting/gluing pens by 2am. It actually turned out that the gardener's tape wouldn't stay on the pens (no matter what I tried) without hot gluing it. Sigh. So much for the kids doing their own projects! OH...but wait! I have an idea! I'll just tell the teacher's to have kids make cards to attach to the pots/pens, and then it is strictly from THEM. Woot!
So, I write a note to both teachers letting them know the days I can come into the classrooms to help the kids.
I did NOT expect the response I got back. My oldest teacher was fucking in awe and wanted me to come in really badly. My youngest teacher sent a note home that was pretty much insulting as fuck.
The note said that she wanted the kids to make their own Mother's Day gifts, and since I had done 99% of the work...that she was no longer interested in involving the children in it. She wrote that I could still bring them in if I wanted to (and keep 40 pots lying around my house? no thanks....I don't really have a choice now, bitch) but that I don't need to come to the class OR bring in the pots anymore. She would come up with something herself.
Wow. This is fucking free. You should be on your fucking knees thanking the shit out of me for doing all this work - and in one night no less. But instead, you go from telling me it's an awesome idea and all on board...to...being a straight up bitch. Awesome job.
I still haven't decided what I am going to do. I might still send them in. However, I DO feel like this teacher is wholly unappreciative of all the work AND money I spent doing this...AND it was with her seal of fucking approval.
Update:
The day I brought all of the pots in, the Kindergarten teacher was super impressed. She wanted all of them. They were handed out that day. She thanked me in a note and in person. I'm not sure why she caused such a big deal out of this whole thing, but I wasn't going to have 40 something pots sitting around my house just because she changed her damn mind the night before.
The secretary even got a pot. The secretary put her pot on her desk and dressed it up with some stuff. I have a picture of it somewhere.
So, all that drama over her not wanting the pots was pointless on her end. I wound up having only 3 left after making over 80. The parents were also impressed and I was later stopped by some expressing their thanks.
Some of the mothers even stopped to ask me HOW I manage to get all of my classroom gifts done. Huh? I just do it over time. I bang it out a month in advance sometimes and just finish it the night before. It's not really difficult.
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2 comments:
OMG, at the school I work for we the teachers are the ones who have to come up with these type of gifts for the mothers or fathers. The kids make them and we help them wrap them or whatever, and the school pays the expenses. We have to teach so many things that doing these projects take a toll, but we must do them and make sure EVERYONE takes them home. The parents complain if their child didn't take it home...they make it a big drama! And us the teachers get told off.
I don't think that to be a teacher you have to be a parent. Those teachers that you describe just seem to live for the paycheck or for the vacations, teaching is not their career.
I've never had the school pay for anything that we've done before, and I make sure that the price stays within our budget (I can't afford to be spending $200 on class gifts). We still do the class gifts, even though we have moved since then. That kindergarten teacher wound up being worse over the school year. It turned out she was a glorified babysitter, and my daughter wound up being an entire school year behind her other classmates.
I come up with 2-3 different things per year, per random holiday and make one of them. I usually have some left overs in my craft box, so I can reduce the time/money it costs to make things. Even though we have moved since this post, the parents have not changed. They want to take credit for shit they don't do themselves, and they never offer to help with anything other than maybe buying some cupcakes at the grocery store.
I have 4 children now, and 3 are in school. Last year, I was "room parent" for 4 different classes. One of the other parents dropped the ball and basically went psycho on the teachers over "control" of the classroom.
I generally do not mind doing things like this, as long as there aren't requirements, bitching, one upping, and people being general assholes. I mainly do it because we are apparently a crafty family, and because I know the kids want something special. Pretty soon, my oldest won't want to bring in gifts anymore.
I think my main issue with this, was because the teacher was being an ungrateful bitch and that little kid was being a snot. I wound up stopping the class gift stuff for about a year afterwards, and it was really freeing. However, I realized none of the other parents do anything and that wasn't fair to the kids.
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