Why is do parents not "thank" a teacher?

[Dcteacher]

I took 11 children to Borneo. For 2 weeks.

We did a lot.
Suba dived in the South China Sea.
Trekked the foothills of Mount Kinabalu.
Stayed in the jungle and learned jungle craft.
Spent to day on a tropical island.

On return. Not one single parent thanked me for the trip of a lifetime for their child.

I had spent the previous 2 years helping with fundraising, answering questions doing the paperwork, taking time out of my holiday. This is not in my job description. I don't have to do this.

Not one.

Why?

Because people are pricks.

What age are these ‘children’. How much contact have you had with the parents since the trip?

They were 16 to 18. After the trip, they have all left school. I will not see them again.

I would have assumed the teenagers would have thanked you themselves.

How much did the parents pay for the trip?

You'd think!!!!?

2 of them.

Just to be clear...I will no longer be doing any residential trips from now on. 20 years of teaching. 4 major overseas trips, 7 ski trips and countless others.

I do this for the students. I use to be happy to use my time and holidays. However, not a single "thank you".

Presumably these aren't little children. I'd expect the children to have thanked you.

Also I'm not a fan of these kinds of trips tbh and might have begrudged the cost a bit.

Never mind. I'd prefer it if these expensive trips didn't run.

Parents, technically, should have paid nothing. This was a two year project.

I was not asking for presents or bottles of wine etc..just a thank you....seriously, just those words. I took two weeks out of my holiday. I could have gone on holiday with my family. I could have just stayed at home.

I am just asking why, noone walked up to me at 10pm on a Saturday night and say "thank you". I am seriously asking too much?

But presumably the parents who send their children do want such trips to run and as such should say thank you. I don't understand it either OP. I've taken 7 years olds away for a night, putting my own baby and toddler in additional childcare, and I'd get next to no thank yous. I say thank you for a playdate, thank you to the headteacher on the gate as I leave the school grounds, thank you to a bus driver - why wouldn't you say thank you to someone looking after your child?!

They are rude.

school took my son on an abroad trip when he was in year 9. I wrote a thank you card highlighting we were very grateful for someone giving up time to make it happen.

I would expect my son to say thank you to, but not to really understand what the teacher had given up.

Yep.

Thank you!!!

Unbelievably rude. You thank a waiter for bringing your food to the table, shocking to think you wouldn't deserve the same respect.

Might some send a card and a gift later? I remember my parents did that once after a ski trip.

Was it like a World Challenge type thing?

Yes, I think it's very rude that when they were picking their children up from the trip, they didn't say thank you.

Because an increasing number of people these days are fucking rude and beyond entitled.
I mean, ffs, how hard is it? Two little words?
Don't blame you for jacking it in. But thank you for what you've done to date.

It’s because people are rude and unappreciative and full of entitlement. Regardless of what they paid it was a massive responsibility that you undertook. And you deserve a thank you.

I don’t have kids but I did work in schools, youth clubs and social services where I did day trips and some short overnight residential trips, so I don’t know how it’s like from the parents POV.

Maybe parents are just so glad to see the kids back in one piece and forgot to say thanks? I dunno 🤷‍♀️ I actually can’t remember if parents /foster carers of the younger kids said thank you or not but I think most of them never. I didn’t really think of it at the time.

I do remember getting thanked by teenagers coming back from a theatre trip though which I’d given up my Saturday to take them there :)

I am so so grateful to the amazing teachers who took my kids away over the years but when teens I haven’t always known how or when to thank the teachers, I do try at pick up but the teachers seem busy and it’s the teen space rather than keeno parents? Does that make sense? Maybe I will email instead afterwards now

@Dcteacher because you got a free holiday of a lifetime?

I don't thank the staff at pick up, because it's too chaotic, and just one more thing for the staff to juggle.

I do e-mail school teachers (and then feel guilty that I get a lovely "thank you for your thank you" message). And the youth group that DS is active with get a thank you on the facebook page - it's the only way I have to contact them.

So it's not everyone who doesn't say thanks. When did you get back?

I think it's probably because:

1; you got a holiday of a lifetime too.

2: you got paid?

As a parent, who qualified as a teacher, who went on to teach, imagine my horror when I was told that I was taking my class of 7/8 year olds on a residential for three days...... with no extra money or any days in leiu!!

The expectation that I would pay additional childcare for my own family at my cost too!!

Like what kinda fuckery is that!!!!

I couldn't believe that this really was the expectation!!

So maybe parents don't realise.... but they should be grateful and those kids should be saying thank you!

But unfortunately we live in a society where most people take 😤

Sorry nobody thanked you - that's rubbish! 😔 Every time my DS went on a residential, we took a card and chocolates/wine for the teacher when we met him at the coach afterwards. We were usually the only ones though. It's basic manners in my view to at least say thank-you.

Did the 'children' thank you? They're certainly old enough to have done so without their parents doing it on their behalf.

But yes, if they didn't, that's on the parents for not teaching basic manners and decency.

Parents probably don't realise that you don’t get paid any extra for all the admin and the extra hours. Before I became a (mature) teacher I vaguely thought that school admin staff did all the planning and organising, and teachers who went on residential trips got overtime pay or time off in lieu. And I had no idea how tiring and stressful a residential can be. Obviously I know better now. It's just ignorance.