I have two families leaving my care. They are both teacher's children and their last child with me. I am very sad...as these are my best families, but not only that..they just get it! They are wonderful families and I am sad that I will no longer be caring for their children.
Do you buy them a gift? Just wondering how you all handle this.Thanks!

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I would because the way you type about them; it would be a gift from the heart and NOT obligatory.

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No. No gifts ever. They were good people, paid their bills, etc. and that is great....but that is what every family should do. No need to give gifts for that! Something for a memory seems nice, like a framed photo with their child and all the daycare friends or something but no need to spend any extra money.

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More goodbye gift threads: https://www.daycare.com/forum/tags.p...e+-+gift+ideas

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I print out all of the photos of their children and the special moments in my care and put in a photo album. It doesn't cost much at all. I like to write my memory on the back of each.

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I think is a very nice touch! I would give a book most likely and leave a note inside.

They were part of your daycare "family" and if you care for them I don't see why this would be bad.It will only do good. I give small gifts for birthdays, holidays and specially if they were to leave us.

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We usually give them a gift from the whole group (which we pay for obviously.) We try to have every kid do something.

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This is what I do with my special families. They really appreciate it.

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I do not give a gift to every child that leaves, but to those that I truly had a connection and love for, I do. I take a lot of pictures, so I look back over the years and print the pictures that have special meaning and I try to include every child in the scrapbook so that the child leaving will always have those photos too. It takes time but for me, it's part of letting go and it helps me.

I don't do daycare just for the money. I am emotionally involved in each of their lives and having someone leave is never easy, but that's because I give myself whole heartedly. Do what seems right to you, not anyone else.

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I also make photo books for my kiddos that are leaving. The parents and kids always love them. I also include a couple of moving on poems. For a kiddo that I only had for a year or two I will just go through vista print and have them make a photo book. But with the ones that I've had for 4 or 5 years I have the photos printed and put in a photo album. Because I have to edit it down to just 88 photos.

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Usually, when I lose kids they are heading to kindergarten so I get them a school bag with supplies in it.....if I get a notice on a child just choosing to leave before then, I do not get them anything....

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When we left our daycare 5 years ago (after being there for 3 1/2 years), our provider made us an incredible scrapbook with pictures, memories and poems. It's a treasure still and brings tears to our eyes when we read it. If you had a great connection to the family, I think it's a wonderful thing to do. I'm not so crafty with scrapbooks, so I typically will do a photo album with the children and their friends, with notes and names of their friends. I gave one to a DCG that was just leaving for the summer (teacher's kid) when she was an infant so she'd remember faces, and she still sleeps with it at night! She's now 3 1/2

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I never gave gifts, because honestly there was a lot of children I couldn't wait for them to age out. I felt weird, especially since everyone knows everyone where I live, to give gifts to some families and not to others. They would find out here.

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I just had 2 families leave. It was really hard for one, the other one not so much -- but she's VERY connected to our community and is great word of mouth, so I made a photo book (found coupons and only spent about $15 total) and it was really special, included lots of text and memories. The other family I found a really good coupon for a print on canvas, and took my favorite picture of him and had it put on canvas. Both families really loved their gift. It was all because I wanted to do it -- not because they expected anything. It was actually more work to get the other kids to help out with a good bye card, lol!

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For my favorites, I've bought a nice picture frame and put in a picture of all of us together. Made up a graduation diploma from the child care with a small poem added on it. Then on the child's next birthday, sent them a gift package in the mail with a card and a new photo of all their friends waving, saying how much they're missed.

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What I did in the past was give them one of those books that has a page for each of their school years. You can put a picture and notes. They usually don't have a page for preschool though but I improvised...maybe used the kindergarten one but can't remember.

I only gave it to families that have been with me a long time. I also gave a touching letter called "Dear Toddler" but I can't find it anymore. I didn't write it but it was on the web.

I just retired and today was my last day. I gave the last two I had one of their favorite toys they liked of mine while here. Since I am having a garage sale to sell all my stuff I also gave my last one that left today about 15 books that were his age level and a few more odds and ends that I thought his mom could use for him. I didn't buy anything though.

I had two at the end who had been with me a long time. One gave me an edible fruit arrangement on Mother's Day which was about two weeks before they left and today from the other family I got 12 roses and a $50 restaurant gift certificate. Didn't expect those things but it was great! Oh and also a very, very nice card of appreciation.

Laurel

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