£50 bottles of perfumes for teachers!

[MsGameandWatch]

Who can afford or even feels inclined to this? Honestly I am . A child handed one over to her teacher at our school this morning. Have just googled it and the cost for this perfume varies up £90, if you get the larger bottle.

I honestly can't get my head round it.

She may hate wine, chocolate, vouchers for somewhere she doesn't shop...

I don't drink yet people give me wine,I just thank them and pass it on or save it for guests.

Well, in this case she'd get olive oil from one of my uncles' (something something removed) farms.

Or smoked salmon. Or as somebody above mentioned, eggs. Or a fruit basket. Or a candle.
But not perfume. Or lipstick. Or anything else like this... I wouldn't give her knickers either, would I?

Or a bra?

But if the parent works for the brand that's fine and understandable.

In this case that would be a rather sensible gift, imo :)

DS was given a £50 bottle of aftershave for his 13th birthday. I'm pretty sure his friend didn't actually spend £50 on it.

I have known parents give Clarins hampers - the family were very well off, and it was an independent school.

My mum was a teacher and I am a teacher. Many of my friends are teachers. None of us has ever received anything more extravagant than a box a Quality Street or bubble bath set as far as I can remember. Where on earth are all these parents who spend so much on gifts? Clearly I am working in the wrong school!

Actually I've got a child leaving primary school in the summer. The school have been unbelievable with her and I'm planning on buying her class teacher & TA, the TA she had in year 4 &5, the class teachers from year 4 &5, the sports teacher and the secretary who has the patience of a saint all a gift. I've been putting money away to do so. They'll all be accompanied by a personal card from both my DH & I as well as one from DD. I'll also be writing a personal letter of thanks to the Head of the school cc'd to the governors. They've made her who she is today and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. I have put aside about £40 per person to do this. It's not the norm in the school even though it's a private school and most gifts are class collections but I feel quite strongly that I'd like to do that to express my personal thanks. I really hope that they don't feel that it's inappropriate, I hope that they'll accept the gifts in the manner which they're given.

I work for a brand, subsequently I gave the teacher a £35 gift and the TA £20. It cost me nothing, I didn't actually think of the street value and have just had to google the prices as I work in HR and am clueless on stuff like that. I don't really know any of the parents yet so wonder if my gifts had a similar reaction

@ 1horatio *"But if the parent works for the brand that's fine and understandable.

In this case that would be a rather sensible gift, imo"*

IMO it would still be tacky

@1horatio

I am a Healthcare Professional, regularly saving lives etc and I am not allowed to accept gifts except chocolates or flowers, and they all need to be declared and shared.

I don't give Christmas or end of year gifts to Teachers as they, like me, are just doing their job. A handmade card from the child is all they will ever get from me.

Principal (who normally get only token presents) of the last primary school at which I worked, told how had once gotten a case of wine for Christmas from a parent at his previous school: it sold for the equivalent of 30 pounds a bottle, and this was par for the course at this school. This was a government run school. It was probably one of the most affluent parts of the city, where the P & C had so much money they used to search for things to buy. It is only government school I've heard of with its own olympic sized swimming pool.

Most children who left the school went to the more expensive private high school.

I was pleased with my small box of chocs ( my favourite too) because I know that mum can't really afford it. Received a gorgeous unusual tree ornament. I like the inventiveness of some of our parents definitely no £50 presents here. Some of our parents receive food parcels but I know they appreciate what we do.

To quote "the end of ZE world"

WTF MYTE?

Possibly a mug, or just a nice card is fine surely?

I always make sure whatever we give that my kids have helped make it. This year it was a couple of candles and some chocolate 'reindeer poo'. My kids always get a book from the teacher as a present back which goes down really well with them.

We bought for the teacher and 4 TAs, also the kids club staff who are all lovely.

The gift bags were 3 for a £1, the small chocs were unusual and a good find, I bought them when they were on offer. Total spend, about £4.50 each.

Ds wrote out all of the gift labels, adding his own message to each person.

The thought of spending £50 on a teacher is outrageous!

I don't get buying presents for teachers at all. In fact it really annoys me. They get paid already to do a vocational Job that hopefully they take some pleasure in doing.Yes most of them do a great job and work super hard and go above and beyond etc and I appreciate that.But So do lots of other professionals and they don't get some of the benefits teachers get either.
I do a card at the end of the year to say Thankyou if I believe they have done a good job and I chuck in to the end of year collection and that's it. DD's do them a card.

(I am a mental health specialist social worker however so very possibly feel a bit bitter that the best present I ever get is to not get attacked by one of my clients and that this is the first Christmas in ages that I won't be on call/working the actual day. Bah!)

(Actually it's not that bad-though Christmas is terrible for people with MH issues in general-busiest time-everyone in my team is frazzled trying to make sure all the clients are ok).

Probably a re-gift

I had a family once who were very well off importers/exporters and mum was always going through duty free so used to give great perfume presents. another family had a leather coat factory, one year the child's teacher was asked to choose a style she liked, her dad was over from Canada, met the family at pick up one day when he had come in to tell some Canadian stories, mentioned he thought the coat was lovely and they gave him one too!