Hey'all,
I'm veeery lucky to have Fibro Al from Life in A Pink Fibro House guest posting today. She's a funny, insightful blogger, a loyal Tweeter, and a real writer. As in, for real publications on paper. I know. I almost feel like I should pay her. I did offer her chocolate. She was gracious enough to turn it down, which is good, because most chocolate that comes into my hands leaves in only one way- being eaten.
Fibro the Snowman.
An apple/soap/fluffy toy/bottle of vodka for the teacher
I was at the pool when I realised I had a problem. I was actually standing there, contemplating the fact that I had failed to bring Teacher Gifts for the two Speedo-clad girls who attempt to keep Misters 6 and 3 from drowning each week. They have endured much splashing and chlorine up the nose this year. Do they get a gift?
I’m relatively new to the Teacher Gift. When Mr6 was in preschool he attended a hip, multicultural inner-city establishment. They didn’t close for holidays and Christmas was just another ‘cultural celebration’, alongside Diwali and Ramadan. There was no such animal as a Teacher Gift.
Fast-forward to Mr6’s first year at school. The day before school finished he announced that he wanted to give his teachers (three of them!) a present “like everyone else”. With accompanying ‘get it together Mum’ look.
I admit, I was perplexed. What exactly does one buy? Unfortunately, I was not yet au fait with Bern Morley’s fabulous blog, and so missed the bottle of vodka example. I was also uncertain as to whether teachers like these gifts – or simply endure them. After all, how many rose-scented soaps does one person require in their life? (In an attempt to answer this conundrum, I tried a survey on Twitter. The one teacher who responded assured me that she loved them. She also said that kids just love giving them. Though she suspected that parents were not as enamoured of the whole idea. You think?)
In the end, I bought each teacher a delicious little notebook. Small luxuries.
This year, I have upgraded the Teacher Gift (two teachers this year!) to a delicious little notebook and a Christmas decoration. This, I have decided, will be my Signature gift. I who have never had a Signature anything have a Signature Teacher Gift. What does this say about how my life is evolving?
Anyhoo.
Now that I’ve worked out the Signature, I have to decide where to bestow it. The lovely guitar teacher who has spent a year trying to teach Mr6 and I to play more than the riff from ‘Smoke on The Water’ got a notebook. She’s a family friend. She’s in year 12. She patiently watches me stuff up my chords each week.
She deserves a notebook.
But what about the rest? The Ninja teachers? I can’t see them with a notebook. Or a Christmas decoration for that matter. The swimming teachers? Soggy. Mr3 has yet to make noises about his preschool teachers – of which there seems to be a cast of thousands – but do I go down that path if he decides to bring it up?
That’s the trouble with starting these things. There’s no end to them. On the plus side, I do love stationery shopping. And it looks as though I’ll be needing a little notebook of my own – just to keep my Teacher Gift list in order.
Do you do Teacher Gifts? How do you decide who gets one? Do you have a tried-and-true standard gift (the Signature) or do you wing it each year?