“Conversation heard in local store on Tuesday night as I was purchasing lemonade:
Mom: “What should we get your teacher?”
Child: “I don’t know.”
Mom: “Let’s not get anything; that’s five bucks I don’t have to spend.”
This post comes far too late for the expensive Thanksgiving/
Holiday Season, but this quote, from a letter in TCPalm, in Florida’s Palm Beach Area, brings our eternal dilemma into sharp focus.
Parties and other events requiring food, drink, gifts and decorations, will continue to happen, all year, in kindergartens everywhere and we will all be…
out of pocketbook.
Miss Bindergarten's Classroom 
I wish people would feel like they *wanted* to give teachers presents. Who wants to give any gift (to anyone) because they *have* to? Yuck. If you don’t feel your teacher needs or deserves a present, for crying out loud, don’t buy anything! Of course, this blog goes to teachers, not parents, so my comment isn’t very helpful — but seriously, a gift doesn’t have to cost money. As a volunteer thank-you last month, the kdg teacher gave a wreath of the kindies’ handprints cut out of paper. So charming, I enjoyed it very much. I’m sorry anyone would see gifts as such a horrible chore… that mom could have said, “Well, sweetie, what can I help you make?”
Dear KV,
And, when they wanted to give the teacher a present, please no coffee mugs! Rather, a pound of coffee: Peets, Major Dickensons’s blend is lovely, ground to save time…