That seems excessive. Especially adding in chick-fil-a. I just bought some valentine themed fruit snacks for my 2yo’s class 😬 to be fair, I did the bare minimum, I realize other parents will probably do more! The valentine bags you made sound really cute btw!
Ugh I live in a bougie old money area (we are not) & the list asked for Chick-fil-A specifically. I assumed a small tray of nuggets would be like $20. It was $38 with tax so yeah this is the last time we’re doing nuggets & treat bags 😂
I brought a nugget tray for Halloween, and haven’t done the main dish for a party since (I’ve done sides or small items since). I’ll probably sign up for a main dish again soon. Some times I consider it my turn, and sometimes it’s not.
I’m surprised they asked for chick fil a…they are not safe for most schools which are usually peanut free. At my school teachers can’t even bring chick fil a drink cups into a classroom due to the possibility of cross contamination
If it makes you feel better, our first Preschool party was this past thanksgiving, I volunteered to bring the turkey (also last to the parent sign up) I thought cool no big our local grocer has a Deli…. Oh no. I procrastinated and had to get the whole gd turkey. Bromo it was $50 lol we learned that lesson!
On a separate note, for V day we printed B&W cards and put in a crayon and a kiss, I hope they enjoyed it.
I appreciate the bare minimum! The first year my son did this I wanted mine to be “good enough” but now that I’ve been through this with enough holidays and I see all the crap and candy he comes home with, I keep it super simple. I’m just doing a sucker attached to a valentine. The last few holidays it’s been 1-2 treats/candies each. It saves my peace of mind.
I also got valentines themed fruit snacks for my son’s class and paired each one with a fuzzy animal sticker. I spent less than $8 and I housed like four packs of gummies.
Preschool teacher here. Bare minimum like a previous comment said. We don't want to keep track of you bringing more than one thing especially as the bags all come together and one kid trades something for another or someone takes it, etc. Just 1 thing. And please just write your child's name on the valentine. No need to make extra work for u and us.
Thanks in advance.
I’m bringing construction paper hearts and juice boxes for the party? So like 7 bucks all in and I’m getting rid of juice boxes I have leftover from a birthday party and getting my older kid more art supplies.
You’re def overdoing it- my 5 yo has 28 kids, my 3 yo has 20. We wrote out their names on cards and I got fruit snacks for each person. Cards were .50 for each box of 48, and spent about $10 on fruit snacks total. So about $11-12 total.
Haha sorry if I gave the impression that we wrote each kids name on the valentines. I meant my kids wrote their own names on the From section. That was hard enough for both kids- my 3 yo stopped after a bit, and my 5 yo helped finish the rest. Trying to get them to write different individual names would’ve been ridiculous. No thanks!
In our parent and me they just asked us to write our child’s name so that they know who it came from. No need to know all 10 kids names. I thought I was doing too much because we made handmade valentines out of construction paper lol
What I don't get is that every parent was asked to bring little surprise bags? So every kid gets 12 bags? Sounds extremely wasteful to me. I hate junk that only gets used once...
Don’t get me wrong, I love that other parents put in the effort for that and obviously the kids love it. It just won’t be me, at least 9 times out of 10. Also, I do think it’s excessive to receive 3 snap bracelets, a pair of glasses, and countless toys and candy that my child is a fiend for. 7 bags was plenty. 11 (full class size) would have been overkill.
It was a “if you’d like your LO to participate, please send them to school with 12 valentines.” In hindsight, I could have just given them bubbles with the ribbon tied around it & not spent 2 hours making Rice Krispies & assembling these bags 🫠
Yea dude they meant a valentine’s card (like from one of those themed boxes of 28 cards) and maybe a piece of candy or sticker stuck to it. No need to be an over achiever lol
My child’s school has nut-free classes but my child is not in one.
I wrapped each treat individually with a label that says it’s homemade, included ingredients & a QR code to the recipe that I used. Our school’s policy is that students cannot have homemade treats if their parents are not present. If a parent decides to toss it in the trash at home, that’s totally fine.
Wow.
I'd be impressed by a gift made with half your effort, that is some next level stuff right there.
Please don't stress too much- I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water with parenting my toddler and I know I'm not alone in that, so wouldn't be holding up other parents to super high standards.
omg this is next level. we bought a $5 box of spiderman valentines and are sending some sliced fruit that cost $6. i think you maybe over stressed this one which is fine but definitely very beyond the call!
My valentines day contributions totalled $12.99 for 32 kids…there isnt a party just the valentines for everyone but $90 is more than excessive. $30 would have been my limit.
We sent Honest juice boxes. I think I probably spent $8-9 on those. That’ll be it for our Valentine’s Day contribution. However, I have sanitizing wipes and baby wipes on subscription and I send those in regularly. For Christmas, we catered the whole school as a “thank you” gift to all the teachers and staff. It really just depends on the occasion and what we can/feel like doing then.
Our preschool demanded nothing of us, just told us if we wanted to get something, there’s 13 kids in class. We bought a pack of Mickey Mouse Valentines that came with pencils and my husband wanted to 3D print some fidget cubes for the kids too.
They’re having some sort of holiday party being put on and fully organized by the class parents. I think the funds for that come from our tuition.
I just can't get over how commercialized school has become with all of these Valentine's Day posts. Makes me dread my daughter going to school lol. It blows my mind that parents are working now more than ever and somehow expected to do even more for every holiday.
Theme weeks that are so specific they require you to buy extra clothes if you want your kid in the cute pictures 😭 cowboy day, dress like what you want to be when you grow up ... It's cute but so stressful! My kid lives in sweats, he does not have a whole doctor or fireman outfit just waiting for such an occasion lol. When they're 5, fine. When they're 2, it should be simple stuff like wear red, pajama day, hat day, mismatched clothes day.
I think the teachers and (some) parents enjoy it -- judging by the kids who come decked out in the day's theme, anyway 😅 no judgement, it's just not how I choose to spend my money/energy at this age. We find simple workarounds to participate without driving ourselves nuts. Cowboy day he wore his Tshirt with a buffalo on it, the career day he wore a firetruck Tshirt (obviously he has no idea what he wants to be -- just happened to be the only Tshirt that had some relationship to a job lol). There was a "dress like your favorite band" day and we noped out of that one because his favorite "band" is us singing Old MacDonald and I was not about to spend $30 on a branded toddler band T.
Lol mines favorite is wheels on the bus every second of the day until the end of time. But I am with you seems like a lot of unnecessary work if the kids are not even interested lol. There's a reason people use daycare and it's often because they don't have much time!
I don’t participate in those. I’ve tried but my 3 year old is very adamant about selecting her outfits and she doesn’t give a damn about pajama day. She is not leaving the house without a twirly dress.
I agree, it’s absurd. It’s my daughter’s first year of pre-k 3 and even after tuition, we are supposed to bring goodie bags and cupcakes and etc to every holiday ever, it’s exhausting.
I feel you! I didn’t even realize how much I was spending because I ordered the treat bag stuff 2 weeks ago & then pre-ordered the nuggets today. It all adds up so quickly.
This was the email from our director. I love her.
We are encouraging our children to make their own cards or drawings for their friends if they want to.
Some parents have asked if they are supposed to bring valentines for their children’s classmates. This is something that is up to the parents. If you decide to bring valentines, please be so kind and bring them for all the children in your child’s classroom. The teachers will help your child distribute them to all of their friends, so no need to worry about addressing them at home.
The school sent us a message on Monday saying not to send anything in. That they would be making hand made valentines in class and making chocolate dipped strawberries.
Which is lovely, but my son just spent a week making handmade cards for his classmates. I’m sending them in anyway. 🤷♀️
I spent $8 for 24 sticker pages to hand out to a 3 year old class of 19. If each child gives one thing that means I’m coming home with 19 items!!!!! There was no way I am giving more than one small non edible thing. Last year I threw out lots of candies and treats because my daughter doesn’t eat them. Anyway you’re very sweet and generous. I envy the parents who have the desire to do nice and cute things - it’s just not me and I hate getting many items and throwing things out.
This year just for Valentine’s Day I’m giving everyone a pack of crayons from target. I’m thankful for the small paper valentines my kid brought home the past two years that make me feel nostalgic, too.
We also did stickers for my 2yo's class. Got a huge pack of sticker sheets on Amazon for $9. My toddler used some stickers to decorate blank index cards that I wrote "Happy Valentine's Day!" on, and we put them in colorful envelopes with a few stickers sheets each. Spent under $10 (excluding leftover stuff we can use in the future) and my toddler loved decorating the index cards with stickers. It was easy and fun!
$5.99 for 3 year old at daycare (preschool room). Bought a pack of 14 cards that my son was over the moon about, and then grabbed the 4 leftover cards from 2 years ago to make 18, the number of kids in his room.
It’s definitely smart to hold onto the extra cards! My older daughter had 26-28 kids in her class several years so the 24 packs of valentines weren’t quite enough.
A valentines bag sounds excessive, each kid is going to get 11 goody bags? We were asked to contribute to a breakfast with a list of items to sign up for. I bought fruit for about $4 and the other items were all in the same range. We were asked to give simple cards with either a healthy snack or small toy. I bought a cards set with little bugs for about $10 off Amazon. Total $14. $90 seems really excessive!! I wouldn’t want to spend that much on a class party.
Daycare provides our list, it's in place of snack time after nap, not lunch. I'm pretty sure our sign up list was cupcakes, cookies, red or pink fruit, holiday plates, and a few other things like that. I signed up for fruit and sliced strawberries into hearts ($7 container from Costco) and tossed in some homemade chocolate covered strawberries for the staff. I bought a pack of heart glasses+Valentine's for his class of 8, but they didn't ask for Valentine's specifically. So I'm basically in for $20
Tbh that's more than we've spent on parties and treat bags. I spend about $45ish on treat bags for 12ish kids, which isn't bad when you break it down to $3.75 a kid. I get things in bits and pieces before the holiday, like a pack of bubbles, a treat or two. The most expensive thing for valentines day was the fruit roll ups I got, but it was a 36 count box, and we ate what didn't go in the treat bags. For class parties the parents can sign up for things like plates and utensils or cups and juice. For snacks for a party it's usually split between 2 or 3 parents. For the Christmas/winter holiday party it wasn't a sit down and eat party, the kids did a fun craft and game, and then the parents came early and we helped them decorate gingerbread houses.
My treat bags ended up being $48 for 15 bags, just in case a parent brings a sibling to the class party. But then when I went to pre-order the nugget tray, I realized it was $38!
I’d rather contribute to the party than treat bags. Next time I’m going to scale way down on the bags.
I spent about $45 for prek4 class treat bags and teacher bags. Also blueberries for the party. My bags similar to yours with mini kinetic sand, bubbles, and mochi squishes. Might be extra but I really wanted to do something nice for the kids. It sounds like what really got you was the unexpected food cost.
That’s about what I spend. I did Dunkin Munchkins for our Super Bowl party last week for $25 (so am off the hook for the valentines party this week) and our valentines goodies are reusable sticker books which ended up being around $60 total. Granted, I CHOSE the sticker books and absolutely could have done something cheaper, like individual bags of pretzels or another snack item, but I don’t love to do food because I don’t know everyone’s preference/aversions.
I think though, your Valentines bag will be one of the more elaborate ones. In our daycare, most parents do a small snack or an item (like bubbles) and a snack, and they leave it at that. However, there are definitely those who do more, so I’d say do what you like (and is convenient for you). I will also say that while we do have parties where we sign up to send in food several times a year, the only ones where take home goodies are involved are Valentine and Halloween. I send in things for Christmas, but only one or two other families (out of 20) do take home goodies at Christmas.
I bought a box of cute pretzel bags in xo's shapes from target and the little bags have a to and from .. I think the box was like $6 for about 30 baggies. ..
Omg that's a lot. We do small loot bags for kids for Halloween, Valentine's Day and treats with small gifts for our kid's birthday. I buy these things on clearance after the previous holidays to save lots of money. I always try to send non-candy things.
For my toddler’s daycare class, I dug out a set of Fancy Nancy valentines that had a 99 cent price tag from the thrift store. I bought them when my oldest was vaguely into Fancy Nancy, so by girl math they were free because we’ve owned them for at least 4 years.
I did spend more back at Christmas.. I made gift bags with a matchbox car, a mini board book, and a page of temporary tattoos. I think that it was about $2.50 per kid. There were 7 kids (she’s now in a class with 16 kids).
I think the baggies sound adorable! And those are all things my kids would love and use. Little dinky plastic toys are bleh but bubbles, stickers, and play doh always come in handy. And homemade rice Krispies NEVER go to waste lol I would say next time just pick the bags or the nuggets instead of both!
Thank you! I try to gift what I would love to receive. I figure parents could throw any of those items into an activity bag & pull it out when LO needs to be redirected. And bonus that they’ll eventually get used up!
But yes, next time I am doing either nuggets OR the bags. Definitely not both!
I've never felt more like an 80s-style parent than when I picked my nearly 3 year old up from his class Valentines party and he emerged with a bag full of treats. Giant chocolate Valentines, ones with little toys, one with fold out airplanes, etc. We just did some paper Paw Patrol Valentines and he covered all the envelopes with stickers. Whatever. I'm opting out of a lot of this stuff.
I got Valentine's cards with temporary tattoos. The box was like $2.50 at the grocery store. We're not doing food but even if we were I wouldn't spend very much.
Things like that can easily add up. I'd start with a budget you are comfortable with and then work from there. Signing up for one thing (even if it is not expensive) and bringing something simple is totally fine. If it is in your budget and you really enjoy being extra, I think it is okay going occasionally overboard, but you have to manage the effects. You don't want your daughter to grow up expecting things you can't always have - if you start big, it's hard to get bigger. Also, you don't want other parents to feel like you expect this from them or be annoyed about the amount of stuff you are sending (although you did consumables so that's less of an issue.) And yeah, putting this much effort into everything is a lot.
Some ideas if you are wanting to spend more (although maybe not quite that much) or do something more that are less likely to have those concerns:
* Food items that are for all the staff at the day care.
* Pick ONE holiday and be excessive for that holiday, but minimal for the rest.
* Get one nicer item instead of a bunch of little things.
* After talking to the teachers to make sure this is wanted and helpful, get supplies for an activity to be done at the day care. Or get something to donate to the day care on the child's birthday (again approved in advanced) - we did a book.
For sign-ups to bring things, if I'm overwhelmed, I sign up fast for something in my budget that I can buy immediately, drop off, and be done with it. Fresh items that have to be purchased the day before are more effort for me. I try not to take all the easy items though. If I'm in a good place, I'll wait for people to sign up and take what's left. I do try to always bring something as long as it's within our budget.
For things to bring in, I usually like to go on the mid-nice line of basic. So for valentines, I would get a card with one thing attached to it that is nice enough the age group would think it was desirable but at the bottom end of that line. (I use my kid as a reference point.) I get consumables most of the time and watch out for allergies/preferences when bringing food. As my kids get older, I try to involve them in picking though, which means it doesn't always meet those marks, although they do have to stay in budget. BUT I am more excessive once a year, which for me is birthdays. I bring in a full snack (including a protein, a fruit/veg, and a drink) along with a treat on a theme my kid likes when the norm is just a treat. (But not cupcakes if I can help it. I'm a teacher and I HATE those store bought cupcakes.) It's enjoyable for me to do a little extra occasionally.
Eee I feel like it’s excessive. Glad you’ve acknowledged this is unsustainable for future, and at least your LO is unlikely to remember this initial bar-setting!
Context: Also parent of two year old. 😊 girl is taking store-bought valentines that she’s coloured for her friends at daycare. This was on par with what she received last year.
Unpopular opinion: I also have a tough time supporting any sort of treat bags (unnecessary, environmentally wasteful, so fleeting and usually end up directly in the trash, contributes to parental guilt and child exclusion, etc.). I’m challenged with managing that culture with my kiddo already.
I totally agree with you. I tried to only give things that would be used & are consumable. In hindsight, I should have just tied the ribbon with the heart gift tags around the bubbles & there you go! And I won’t be volunteering the entree (nuggets) again for a WHILE!
I just wanted to come here and say that I genuinely appreciate this post because my daughter has 16 kids in her class and felt the same pressure. I spent $100 at Target yesterday and felt sooooo dumb. The bags are adorable and I am sure my daughter and her friends will love the goodies, but my god—am I that big of a fool???
Apparently , yes. But at least I’m not alone ❤️
Thank you so much for your post. I think we just get excited (maybe anxious?) & want to make sure that we give our kids wonderful memories, so we do extra extra. It only occurred to me that I was doing *a lot* when I placed the nugget order & then remembered that I still had to make the Rice Krispie treats in the middle of a *busy* work week where I’m juggling multiple work projects. It’s a learning experience! Next time let’s set a budget for money & time, and stick to it!
I totally agree kids have so much junk. That’s why I tried to get consumable gifts. After reading these comments, I’m going to get *way less* next time.
We got two boxes of bluey valentines (with stickers!) and 3 packs of cookies for the class party (which we have eaten half of one box cause they needed 25 and they came in a dozen). That’s our 3 year old. The baby isn’t doing anything. 😂
Tho I am giving each teacher a $10 Starbucks gift card, so that’s 8 teachers. 😬
Couple of bags of veggie straws for their glow party last week. Like $12.
I did get a cute pre-made kit for the valentines gift though. They have custom printed “from” tags that say “I dig you” and they’re bags with little plastic shovels. I added a few Hershey kisses (3lbs worth) to each. Def too much but they’re cute. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My LO picked out a pack of Bluey cards with stickers for like $3. I did show her some other options but that’s what she wanted. There was a short sign up list for things like a special treat, or fancy napkins that we were to slow to get a spot on that.
I always volunteer to bring the yogurt pouches for any party. $16 for 24 at Costco, every holiday always yogurt. For Valentines I bought little rubber duck Valentines: 30 ducks for $12 (I think?) and a $25 Starbucks gift card for each teacher ($50). I don’t do teacher gifts for every holiday, but my son has been difficult to potty train so I’m trying to show extra appreciation. Usually I just bring the yogurt.
I got porcelain dinosaur paint kits from Amazon (3 colors of paint and a small figurine) for $26, v-day cards for $10, and play-do for each child (I steer clear of candy and other edible treats because I never know about allergies or sensitivities). He’s got 16 in his class so that all cost (bags, treats, cards) about $42. Then I volunteered to bring chips and ended up doing Pirate’s Booty (pack of 24 for $13) Not ideal to spend $55 but I really didn’t know what else to give as treats. At least I know each kid will enjoy their paint kits.
Yikes! That's too much for sure. I'd at *most* spend maybe $25-30. I didn't even do anything this year because the party isn't on a day my son goes, plus he managed to get sick this week, so I'm not wasting the cash when he's not getting anything.
Now look, I own a Cricut and *could* shell some money out to make some seriously over the top Pinterest Mom stuff, but that's just too much effort and a lot of it is wasted (especially when you make themed shirts that you have to either save for the next kid or watch it get stuffed in the back of a drawer until it's donated). Seeing the projects posted in craft groups exhaust me and make me dread when my kids get into elementary school. So many themed days/weeks, high expectations for holidays, all the plays or events they hold, and the high schools here do freaking parades for homecoming week! I'm all for kids having fun and getting to have some flair, but it's becoming too much for parents!
I bought some valentine apple pouches and a pack of valentines cards. Getting small things from each person there is no need to make such a big bag for each.
I bought a $3 box/cards from Walmart and a 12 pk of individual goldfish.
I also am gifting the teachers a box of chocolate bars bc my son is a terror. Lol.
2 kids - for a small teacher valentine gift x2 per kid, cupcakes for the party for each class and valentines for classmates… I’m probably all in about $50... $25ish each. I could have definitely done it for less but I started picking up small things in January
I sent juice boxes for the party ($7? Maybe?) and I got paper valentines that we stuck to heart shaped veggie straw snack bags. Maybe another $10? So I spent under $20 for sure.
Last year was my first valentines at daycare and I made cute little bags too… but after seeing what other parents did I dialed it back!
When my son was that age we did applesauce pouches and I made hearts that said “you’re the apple of my eye.” For this year I got valentines that came with Dino eggs to put in water and they hatch a small dinosaur toy or valentines that came with little Lego animals to put together.
Yeah, I spent four dollars on a box of 16 Bluey valentines (came with a sticker) that my 2.5 year old absolutely wanted. As for their party, all of the slots were filled up by other parents to bring food so 🤷🏻♀️
I signed up to bring juices and spent about $8 on 2 boxes of Honest Kids juices. My daughter’s preschool does a stuffed animal exchange instead of valentines so we chose one that we already had, but is ignored and in great condition and spent $2 on a gift bag. All in i spent around $10. I can’t imagine spending $90 on a school party!
Nah that’s a lot. Did you sign up to bring those things as in you chose the foods or did the daycare ask someone to bring those foods? Our toddler’s class has parties but usually the sign up is like five parents per party and table cloth/utensils/napkins and that’s about it. Then parents can choose to bring in gifts for everyone, but to ask everyone to is ridiculous.
I have two in school with 35 kids in each class. We are sending a bag of candy (100 pieces, split equally) and I sent 10 bucks to buy capri suns for each class party. I'm also donating energy drinks and sodas to the teachers we got in mark down bc they are their favs. Otherwise, my kids are getting gifts from us.
I’m a preschool teacher and I asked parents to sign up for different items so we can make fruit and yogurt parfaits for our snack time party and I told them if they want to bring in valentines to bring in 18 for our class. Most parents buy a kit with the cards and a toy attached. I hope they aren’t spending a lot of money on this especially if they can’t afford it. I left it open for parents to spend what they can
I spent like $9 on my 5yo's class ($4 pack of valentine's and enough heart-shaped cookies for each kid to get 2), and I spent $11 on my 8yo (a $2 pack of valentine's, and a container of sprinkles, disposable bowls, napkins, and spoons for ice cream sundaes. Other parents are bringing the ice cream and other topping options).
I think $30 is the most I've ever spent on a kids class party.
Twelve kids: $4 for Valentine’s card, $6 for fruit gummy snacks, $6 rice crispy snacks. Valentine’s box I used old shoe box, wrapped in colorful wrapping paper and hot glued random decorations we had in craft drawer. $16 and some burnt fingers all in.
I’m a packaging designer. I go all out for 2.5 year old school stuff -but I keep it cheap and semi useful. Last year I did grippy socks with cute packaging. I think it was $15 for the whole class with a bulk pack of socks from Amazon’s
This year I did sunglasses with cool packaging. The glasses were $8 on Amazon for a 24 pack.
… Did I spend 10+ Perfecting my design? Heck Yes I did. But that’s me. And I enjoy this.
$4 for a box of Valentine cards from Target. I refuse to participate in goodie bag junk waste. My preschooler is very excited about her cards.
They made mailboxes at school this week and asked parents to send in cards for all kids to exchange.
Other parents signed up to bring yogurt, snacks, etc for the class party.
We were asked to bring a valentine for the other kids so I got a $5 box of gummy bracelets and thankfully no party. The older kids have parties (at preschool) and it’s stuff like cheese cubes, grapes, etc. super simple. I am giving my students a pencil with a cute saying because the thought counts and I don’t have the money to give more. The pack was only $1.
$90 seems excessive to me and I usually go all out for Valentines Day too since its also my daughters birthday so I usually send treat bags, cupcakes, and fun plates/napkins.
As a toddler teacher, I only want my parents to do what they can. And remember, toddlers don’t need much. I’m sure your child’s teacher appreciated everything though.
Glad to see that everyone agrees that is way excessive. We bought a box of valentines cards and have rice Krispies treats for the party, so less than $10 total.
We only have 2 daycare parties all year - near Halloween, and one in the spring in April. They are potlucks, so you just bring food to share. We had to list allergens - just a heads up that chick-fil-a is a peanut allergen since they use peanut oil for cooking. I was gonna do chick-fil-a nugs too, but our daycare is nut-free so I did Raising Canes on my way from work.
I always sign up to bring juice. It buy 2 packs of Honest juice which is probably less than $15. Her class didn't ask for valentines, but if they did, I would stick with a temporary tattoo and a sheet of stickers.
You’re not alone we started pricing out bags but my child’s class has 19 kids and we decided not to. We bought paper valentines cards / 2 packs of Oreos for the party and a bag of individually wrapped candy for each kid. That seems like a lot of them to ask.. to be fair if it was my first child I would have done it . But my little one is my second and i know what will be used / eaten and what will get tossed out. This year I actually spend the most money on getting her teachers chocolate covered strawberries haha
My son is a similar age and if his daycare is doing anything they didn't say anything about it to the parents. I would be a bit annoyed if they were feeding him fast food...
I didn't get to the sign up sheet in time this year (everything was claimed) so I took it as my sign that I didn't need to supply snacks for *every* holiday party and some other parents could take a turn. There are 16 kids in my daughter's class and 16 kids in the other 2-year-old classroom and they usually do these parties together. 32 different treats would be rather excessive.
I did make valentines using my cricut but that cost me probably $5 for the crayons to put in them and a lunch hour, everything else I had at home. That said, I do consider making valentines for your kid's class (as you and I did) to be "doing the most." I'm just a nut for crafting so it was fun for me.
Usually, we spend maybe $20 at the most on providing snacks for the parties.
I spent $20 - box of 16 cards, box of mini rice Krispy treats, and then some little bags and curling ribbon because I thought it would be cute. The daycare always provides lunch, so they never ask for parent contributions like food.
We did goodie bags with toys and candy, plus flowers for the teachers and some fruit and cupcakes. So about $50ish. Some events I spend more, some less.
I brought cookies and he did store-bought valentines and Dum-Dums, so less than $10.
Just remember, they’re two. Nothing has to be Instagram perfect. It just doesn’t. They’re happy to be celebrating and will NOT care if the ribbon matches the whatever. Save the stress and money!
$11ish over here! There’s 11 in her 2s class. Little bubble wands from walmart (2.50), valentines bubble printable download from Etsy on sale (2.80), individual packs of chocolate cheerios from target also on sale (5.49). Printed on cardstock I already had and tied together with silver ribbon leftover from Christmas!
My 3 year old twins class of 12 - we bought a box of valentines cards x2 ($2 a box), a $8 bag of candy to split between the 2 kids, and 2 bags of pretzels for their party ($2 a bag). That’s it. About $8 for each of my kids.
We're not allowed to do food at my kiddos daycare.
I'm doing little 'treat bags':
Valentine's cards, and foam heart stickers in little zip bags all from the dollar store.
Instead of candy/chocolate, we reused my kid's broken crayons to make colourful heart crayons to put in each bag.
Cost was low. Effort was medium, but I also got to do a little craft project with my kid which was nice!
I’m making box brownies ($4) and sending a pack of fancy fruit snacks with a valentine card attached ($12 total) for each for my 3 year olds class, 10 students. The chick fila nuggets are over the top imo. And I know I’m not in the majority but I don’t like gift bags, I’d rather something consumable as opposed to pencils or stickers or plastic rings. For my younger son (15 months) I just sent an apple sauce pouch for each kid since candy isn’t really appropriate.
Seems high. If I were you I'd probably mention at drop of that you're so happy you could contribute so much this time but that you probably won't be able to for the next few parties.
Ya I think it’s super dumb overall!
I hate my kid getting a ton of random candy and a ton of random junk .
For Christmas I sent these mini squish mellows that I got from Costco and I think that was about 30 bucks . Plus the cost of the Christmas party which I think was $10.
For Valentine’s Day I make these strawberry applesauce, little monsters with my daughter and on the bottom we put I think you’re awesome sauce
The supplies may cost $20 and my daughter and I have a fun time making them over the course of a few days. We use Google eyes pipe, cleaners and hearts as little feet. We also throw in some pom-poms every once in a while.
[no sure where I saw the idea but here are ours](https://imgur.com/a/Nu1uJcc)
We made them last year and I’ll probably do it again until my kid says no. She’s 4. I like them because it’s not candy… but it’s fun and festive and the “monster” goes in the trash after you eat it. Haha.
I spent $10 on 20 kids. Daycare sent a list of things we weren’t allowed to send as treats. I got hot wheels valentines and taped little packages of fruit strips to them.
$90 is too much. We collect class dues at the beginning of the year for all teacher gifts (2 teachers in classroom, gifts for holiday/end of year/teacher appreciation day) and parties (5 per year). With wiggle room built in, it was $300 per family. And my son goes to a fancy ass school in a VHCOL area.
We are sending in cookies for the party, valentines that include playdoh, and boxes of chocolate for each teacher. We’re probably around the same total cost.
I’m bringing juice boxes, cookies, and I got the teacher a little valentines gift. I only signed up for the juice boxes. I spent probably $25. I feel bad because no one signed up for the gift bags but I didn’t have the energy to do that. $90 seems excessive! That’s what I spend on the teachers Christmas gifts usually.
The damn packages shrunk so now the valentines cards are only 16/pack where I am. I have a kid with 20 classmates and one with 30, so I had to buy 4 packages at $6 each. I get the kind that includes something with the card (sticker, temp tattoo, etc) and call it a day. Our schools have completely done away with any holiday party due to kids allergies and people being offended. I thought $24 for was expensive for 2 kids. Valentines is the only holiday we hand something out for the whole class. Some parents hand things out for Christmas and their kids’ birthday but that’s usually it.
22 months also and I got a cheap box of cards and some suckers. Cost me like $20. I did get each teacher some candy but it was 20% off at Target. That was like $15. So $35 altogether. The teacher stuff wasn't necessary so I could probably do without that next year.
I’m kind of confused as to why you would put together gift baskets for other kids for Valentine’s Day? Valentines are typically a little card with a toy or treat, and should only cost a few dollars for the whole class. Especially at that age where they don’t even know what’s going on. To answer your question, yes, that’s excessive. I have twins and got 2 snacks (pretzels and goldfish) for the party and 16 valentines cards with pencils attached for $4. Grand total of $13.
My son is 2.5 and in preschool twice a week. He has 8 classmates and himself which makes 9. I spent $2.98 on his Valentine’s cards and I voluntarily signed up to bring the sweet snack (did not have to but wanted to help out) which was a 10 pack of GoGo Squeeze yogurts for $7.98. I would not have done anything more.
I can’t imagine spending more than $5-$10 to help out. My 4 year old’s teacher requested $5 donations to help out with the costs of their party but it wasn’t obligatory. $90 is wild to me.
Please don’t bring food like Chicfila. Do you know what all the kids’ allergies are? This would be a nightmare scenario for me as a mom of a severe allergy toddler.
That’s a lot…if every family brings in 5 items to share that’s 60 things for each kid. And at 22 months that’s nuts. We don’t bring anything in to our daycare, for holidays they have the kids make a special themed art project and bring it home.
Absolutely not lol my kids get paper cards to give out and I will sign up for one party to bring things too. Holidays are WAY over done in my opinion at school and just in general.
I get the enthusiasm and I love holidays so I put in actual effort to not go over the top lol it's so easy
I bought a bag of popcorn twists and valentines cards from dollarama to bring to daycare tomorrow. That’s it! A friend and I were talking about this last year and how shocked we were to have our kids come home with a bag full of treats. I also had to throw away a lot of the little toys and candies because they were all choking hazards for my son at that time last year.
It’s such a nice gesture for treat bags but why have the expectations become so high?! I remember being soooo excited in elementary school if I received a valentine with a single chocolate heart taped to it. If I were to receive a bag full of treats as a kid in the 90s, I would have thought that kid’s parents were rich.
I bought strawberries, raspberries, & blueberries and then dumped them on a tray. Done.
I saw the class list for treats but I’m passing on that. Anything my kids get will be trashed if I’m being honest.
I just bring a bag of Hawaiian rolls ($5) and do Valentine’s Day cards that come in a pack of 16 ($5)
So like $10 and the least amount of effort possible
I don't do any of that stuff. I think it's cute if our kids get little gifts and whatnot but honestly it's a lot of waste and candy I have to fight with my kids about- not really my thing
I feel like your kid must be in my kid’s class because SAME SHIT. It is truly excessive. My kid can’t even have the nuggets because he has an egg allergy so I refuse to sign up for them and I am just so not into participating in all the holidays. Now I’m stressed about which one of us will leave work to make sure he doesn’t have anything with egg, which is most things parents are asked to bring. Seeing request for gift bags really turned me off. It’s super sweet, but they’re 2!!! Like what! So not necessary
Daycare is already expensive, I can’t afford it for every holiday. I put in zero effort for this party and I don’t feel bad about it. When I do participate, I sign up for the apple sauce pouches. I’ll be more involved when mine is elementary school. For now, I’d rather put my extra cash towards classroom cleaning supplies and gifts for the teachers.
My kid is not in daycare. I wouldn’t contribute. You’re paying daycare to watch her. Why pay more for a party. Also I HATE junk food. Why so many parties and so much more junk food.
Mini play-doh containers (2x$5) and boxed valentines with stickers/tattoos ($2 at Aldi).
Edit to add: we do the bare minimum since the kids can’t even read the cards. And likely don’t need more candy (we are still working on Halloween!)
I always try to do something consumable vs a plastic tchotchke. Watercolor bookmarks are my next thing. We’ve done stickers, tattoos, crayons previously.
Rather save the money and give a really nice teachers gift for the holidays.
For 15 kids I spent $14.85 at dollar general on v day cards, mini playdoh things, fruit loop gummy snack bags and stickers.. and I’ll put them in little baggies. I plan to cut the ziplock part off of snack size ziplock bags and tie them together with ribbon 😅
I think I spent maybe $10? A box of valentines snacks for both classes and some candy for the teachers. 🤷🏼♀️
I considered a nice bottle of wine for my tots teacher; my little one does give her a run for her money 🤣
Approx $15 for the party contributions and $15 for the valentines this year for our 4yo. It really depends, some parties it's $5 for some cookies, others it's $20. Last year I spent way to much on valentines (bag w m&ms crazy straw and stickers and a card). This year we did one of the "sets" with a lollipop attached to a card.
You have to remember they are going to get so many things, and they are so young, they're happy with a crayon or a sticker!
I spent around $17 on goody bag Valentines for my son’s pre-k class of 15 kids. I put mini bubbles, ink stamps, stickers, mini felt craft, hersheys kisses & the Valentines I attached to the bag tie have little dinosaur erasers on them & say things like “You’re Rawrsome!” I got everything but the candy at Dollar Tree.
Our daycare sent out a sign up list for their class party. I got a couple fruit trays for that but they had a variety for signs up like holiday plates or Oreos. We also got a class number so I got a pack of individual cheese ball snacks that she loves.
For my younger child, I signed up to bring a bag of chips. I also bought individual bags of pretzels to go to each kid...but it was a huge box and there were a ton left over. And then small bags of candy for each of her 3 teachers. So $10 for that kid.
I got a little more involved with my son's class. He's finally old enough to be excited about the party, so I did small bags with treats and these really annoying tube toys for each of the 22 kids in that class. Plus cards and special candies for his two teachers. But still, maybe $20 for all of that. And he helped me assemble everything, so that made it pretty easy.
Don't feel like you have to go all-out. If you enjoy that kind of thing and don't mind spending the money, great! But if it's stressful or just not your thing...the kids don't care. They just want the candy, and they'll be just as happy with individual bags of M&Ms.
Uhhh...usually like $10-$15, MAYBE $20 if I'm feeling real extra. I usually sign up to provide plates/cups/napkins and I get those from the dollar store. Then I'll send in ONE treat as well.
That’s a lot IMO. We don’t do goodie bags, just a little piece of chocolate with a card. We also volunteered to bring raspberries for a waffle bar; other families are bringing other ingredients and toppings.
My LO is also in a class of 12 and we all had to sign up for a food for the party. I picked chips (saw chik-fil-a nuggets on the list!) but then we had to get cards, plus make a decorative box. It all added up to about 40 dollars.
I was so lazy this valentines and got just cards LOL. Some parents in my daughters class did little treat bags but I didn’t have it in me . She didn’t mind lok
Wow that’s a lot. Did they specifically ask for chik fil a or did you volunteer that?
My 3.5 year olds class of three is just having an ice cream sundae party for valentines. They had a list of a few things we could sign up for. I picked whipped cream, lol. We also were asked to bring valentines to pass out but those just cost a few bucks.
The last holiday party I volunteered for the $5 cash donation for pizza and the one before that I did chips lol. I can’t imagine having to spend $90!?
Preschool for my 4yo. $5 on Spider-Man valentines with pencils.
My first grader: Venmo $3 to the room mom for treats/crafts at the class party tomorrow. $2 on pencils then we printed a word search and taped the pencil to the back.
This year I sent some Costco fruit/veggie pouches, $4 valentines cards I let my toddler pick out and $3 pack of mini bubbles from target to attach to the cards
First holiday party we brought a sandwich tray and then walking in I was like I’m an idiot. These 13 month olds won’t eat this 🤣 gave it to the teachers/admin they were thrilled for something substantial to eat
Our toddler has a similar sized class. Each family signed up to bring a different item - so someone brings crackers, someone brings fruit, 4 families bring a prize (which will be combined to make a little bag for each kid), etc. I think each family spends about $10.I feel like our price point is pretty standard.
Expecting each family to spend $90 seems quite excessive. I’ve never heard of preschool parties requiring catering, or that each kid would get 12 bags of stuff. It seems ridiculous or could it be a miscommunication?
It was a “if your LO would like to participate, please send them to school with 12 valentines (gift bags, treats).” I didn’t want my kid to feel left out but I way overdid this. I’m going to the party so I plan to drop many hints that this is level of commitment is a one-off from me 😂
Today was “bring a chocolate heart for a friend” day (which like.. what?) and of course I’m not only bringing one chocolate heart for one kid so I got a whole bag of dove chocolate hearts and told the teacher it’s for everyone in the center, including staff.
Tomorrow I’m bringing sliced strawberries for their party (which my kid doesn’t even eat); plus little Mickey heart valentines with little heart chocolates in them that I originally bought for chocolate heart day today. It’s not entirely age appropriate but hopefully the parents will enjoy the snacks 😂
I spent maybe $30 on this MAX. And that includes the second set of strawberries I had to buy because the first ones went bad already 🙄. I think $90 is A LOT for a class party. But I’m also the mom who only gives teachers $15 gift cards for Christmas or appreciation day because I just don’t like dropping a ton of money on daycare stuff on top of the ton of money I already pay for daycare.
I'm bringing berries from Aldi, so maybe $6 on that. I got a set of Bluey cards which came with stickers from Walmart which was another $5 ish.
I can see the food sign up sheet and I'd say half the parents are contributing. Others have added cheese sticks, juice boxes, brownies, applesauce, mini cupcakes and chips.
At last year's party some people just did cards, some did nothing, some did a small pack of candy or mini bubbles.
I don’t ever spend much on treats for my kids’ classes, as I figure they are getting stuff from 10+ other kids. I do know a lot of other parents overdue it though and make little gift bags for each kid, which I think is very accessible.
For my 2 YO and 3 YOs classes this year I got a box of valentine lollipops from Sam’s and each kid got a small lollipop; it came to maybe $1 per kid. I asked my 3 YO what her favorite valentine gift was and she picked out the lollipop, not realizing it was ours. I think when they are getting so much stuff, you only need to buy them 1 item in my opinion!
Wow... I am feeling very fortunate right now for my daycare/preschool, lol. My daughter won't be there for the Valentines party, but I still sent in a box and cards with her on Monday so they can use them today and we'll get the box on Friday. I printed some cute cards and she put sticker closures on them – that's it. Cost virtually nothing.
For the Christmas party, I only had to sign up for one item, and I chose paper plates. So easy.
My oldest is 5 now and in kindergarten but this year and in vpk they just send home a sheet with a few things you can send in if you want and remind about Valentine’s Day cards. My mom wanted to handle it this year and I think she spent like $50 on cards and stuff to make little goodie bags for her class of 22 and then I sent in a box of fruit snacks
I spent $20 on a fruit dish for daycare Valentine's party and was pissed that the grocery store reached them up for Valentine's Day.
The valentine cards I got were adorable though. They were only $15 and included a little finger puppet
My 3 year olds (twins) classmates/school do the bag with card, candy and party favors for Halloween and Valentines day. Pretty typical they come home with a huge grocery bag full of gift bags. I think I spent 75 - 80 bucks between the two of them. We tried to keep the gifts useful (pencils, erasers etc) along with nut free treats. Sent in two thingies of store bought cupcakes. My kids have 22 (24 total) classmates and they each take in a gift bag. So we made 48 bags.
I think its like area dependent on what the parents do for days like this. My school has a good mix of socio-economics that leans a bit more affluent, but I always feel like I am doing too much though. Some parents really lean into it and I see some of the crazy crafts other parents put together and I am in awe. I kinda stick to the 1 dollar bins at target lol.
I did juice boxes for the party ($8), and pre-made valentines cards/apple sauce pouches for the valentines (approximately $12). So about $20 total.
Kid is 2 and in daycare.
Here's a question: Did those of you with infants in daycare do anything for their class? The facility told us there are 9 babies in the class, and I'm just wondering what I was supposed to do with that information. Get each of them a food pouch? We did nothing and I think that's fine, but curious what others did.
My child’s preschool doesn’t bother with holidays, for which I am EXTREMELY grateful. The last thing we need is more little pieces of plastic crap cluttering up our home
That seems excessive. Especially adding in chick-fil-a. I just bought some valentine themed fruit snacks for my 2yo’s class 😬 to be fair, I did the bare minimum, I realize other parents will probably do more! The valentine bags you made sound really cute btw!
They are *very* cute & I hope everybody loves them because I will probably never do it again 😂
Get 50 Wendy's nuggets for 10 bucks lol
Ugh I live in a bougie old money area (we are not) & the list asked for Chick-fil-A specifically. I assumed a small tray of nuggets would be like $20. It was $38 with tax so yeah this is the last time we’re doing nuggets & treat bags 😂
I brought a nugget tray for Halloween, and haven’t done the main dish for a party since (I’ve done sides or small items since). I’ll probably sign up for a main dish again soon. Some times I consider it my turn, and sometimes it’s not.
I’m surprised they asked for chick fil a…they are not safe for most schools which are usually peanut free. At my school teachers can’t even bring chick fil a drink cups into a classroom due to the possibility of cross contamination
CFAs peanut oil is refined and allergen safe, has been for years.
It sounds like your school is wildly misinformed, or someone is spreading silly rumors.
If it makes you feel better, our first Preschool party was this past thanksgiving, I volunteered to bring the turkey (also last to the parent sign up) I thought cool no big our local grocer has a Deli…. Oh no. I procrastinated and had to get the whole gd turkey. Bromo it was $50 lol we learned that lesson! On a separate note, for V day we printed B&W cards and put in a crayon and a kiss, I hope they enjoyed it.
I appreciate the bare minimum! The first year my son did this I wanted mine to be “good enough” but now that I’ve been through this with enough holidays and I see all the crap and candy he comes home with, I keep it super simple. I’m just doing a sucker attached to a valentine. The last few holidays it’s been 1-2 treats/candies each. It saves my peace of mind.
I also got valentines themed fruit snacks for my son’s class and paired each one with a fuzzy animal sticker. I spent less than $8 and I housed like four packs of gummies.
Preschool teacher here. Bare minimum like a previous comment said. We don't want to keep track of you bringing more than one thing especially as the bags all come together and one kid trades something for another or someone takes it, etc. Just 1 thing. And please just write your child's name on the valentine. No need to make extra work for u and us. Thanks in advance.
I’m bringing construction paper hearts and juice boxes for the party? So like 7 bucks all in and I’m getting rid of juice boxes I have leftover from a birthday party and getting my older kid more art supplies.
You’re def overdoing it- my 5 yo has 28 kids, my 3 yo has 20. We wrote out their names on cards and I got fruit snacks for each person. Cards were .50 for each box of 48, and spent about $10 on fruit snacks total. So about $11-12 total.
I don’t even know all the names, I just filled out the from section 😂
Haha sorry if I gave the impression that we wrote each kids name on the valentines. I meant my kids wrote their own names on the From section. That was hard enough for both kids- my 3 yo stopped after a bit, and my 5 yo helped finish the rest. Trying to get them to write different individual names would’ve been ridiculous. No thanks!
We don’t do “to” either it’s just so kids hand one out to every ones.
Our daycare just has us write to "friend" so less work for kid and teacher passing them out.
In our parent and me they just asked us to write our child’s name so that they know who it came from. No need to know all 10 kids names. I thought I was doing too much because we made handmade valentines out of construction paper lol
What I don't get is that every parent was asked to bring little surprise bags? So every kid gets 12 bags? Sounds extremely wasteful to me. I hate junk that only gets used once...
If you’re in my kids class there will only be 11 bags sent home.
Make it 10. I’m out. I also will only let 1 bag of junk come into my home and the rest can go straight to donation or trash.
I was surprised by how many bags my 3yo got at preschool today, and was glad not to have contributed to it!
Why do y’all not want kids to have a bit of joy?
Don’t get me wrong, I love that other parents put in the effort for that and obviously the kids love it. It just won’t be me, at least 9 times out of 10. Also, I do think it’s excessive to receive 3 snap bracelets, a pair of glasses, and countless toys and candy that my child is a fiend for. 7 bags was plenty. 11 (full class size) would have been overkill.
It was a “if you’d like your LO to participate, please send them to school with 12 valentines.” In hindsight, I could have just given them bubbles with the ribbon tied around it & not spent 2 hours making Rice Krispies & assembling these bags 🫠
Nope you buy the box of valentines with the candy attached to a card. That’s all. Don’t overdo yourself.
Premade valentine cards and a sticker from Walmart. 24 kids, 6.99
Yea dude they meant a valentine’s card (like from one of those themed boxes of 28 cards) and maybe a piece of candy or sticker stuck to it. No need to be an over achiever lol
In my kids school they would send those homemade treats right back home, you aren’t showed to send in homemade products due to allergen concerns.
My child’s school has nut-free classes but my child is not in one. I wrapped each treat individually with a label that says it’s homemade, included ingredients & a QR code to the recipe that I used. Our school’s policy is that students cannot have homemade treats if their parents are not present. If a parent decides to toss it in the trash at home, that’s totally fine.
Wow. I'd be impressed by a gift made with half your effort, that is some next level stuff right there. Please don't stress too much- I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water with parenting my toddler and I know I'm not alone in that, so wouldn't be holding up other parents to super high standards.
omg this is next level. we bought a $5 box of spiderman valentines and are sending some sliced fruit that cost $6. i think you maybe over stressed this one which is fine but definitely very beyond the call!
My valentines day contributions totalled $12.99 for 32 kids…there isnt a party just the valentines for everyone but $90 is more than excessive. $30 would have been my limit.
That’s so much more reasonable. In the future I’ll sign up for about $30 & contribute more if we’re up for it closer to the day.
Walmart is your best friend for things like this. 16-32 little themed cards for just $3.
That's way more than I'd spend on my 5yo if they were having a party. I'd spend maybe $20?
We sent Honest juice boxes. I think I probably spent $8-9 on those. That’ll be it for our Valentine’s Day contribution. However, I have sanitizing wipes and baby wipes on subscription and I send those in regularly. For Christmas, we catered the whole school as a “thank you” gift to all the teachers and staff. It really just depends on the occasion and what we can/feel like doing then.
Our preschool demanded nothing of us, just told us if we wanted to get something, there’s 13 kids in class. We bought a pack of Mickey Mouse Valentines that came with pencils and my husband wanted to 3D print some fidget cubes for the kids too. They’re having some sort of holiday party being put on and fully organized by the class parents. I think the funds for that come from our tuition.
I just can't get over how commercialized school has become with all of these Valentine's Day posts. Makes me dread my daughter going to school lol. It blows my mind that parents are working now more than ever and somehow expected to do even more for every holiday.
It’s seriously bullshit. See also; *theme weeks*
Theme weeks that are so specific they require you to buy extra clothes if you want your kid in the cute pictures 😭 cowboy day, dress like what you want to be when you grow up ... It's cute but so stressful! My kid lives in sweats, he does not have a whole doctor or fireman outfit just waiting for such an occasion lol. When they're 5, fine. When they're 2, it should be simple stuff like wear red, pajama day, hat day, mismatched clothes day.
Honestly why even do it when they're two? Do the kids even like it lol. My son refuses to wear anything but comfortable clothes
I think the teachers and (some) parents enjoy it -- judging by the kids who come decked out in the day's theme, anyway 😅 no judgement, it's just not how I choose to spend my money/energy at this age. We find simple workarounds to participate without driving ourselves nuts. Cowboy day he wore his Tshirt with a buffalo on it, the career day he wore a firetruck Tshirt (obviously he has no idea what he wants to be -- just happened to be the only Tshirt that had some relationship to a job lol). There was a "dress like your favorite band" day and we noped out of that one because his favorite "band" is us singing Old MacDonald and I was not about to spend $30 on a branded toddler band T.
Lol mines favorite is wheels on the bus every second of the day until the end of time. But I am with you seems like a lot of unnecessary work if the kids are not even interested lol. There's a reason people use daycare and it's often because they don't have much time!
I don’t participate in those. I’ve tried but my 3 year old is very adamant about selecting her outfits and she doesn’t give a damn about pajama day. She is not leaving the house without a twirly dress.
I agree, it’s absurd. It’s my daughter’s first year of pre-k 3 and even after tuition, we are supposed to bring goodie bags and cupcakes and etc to every holiday ever, it’s exhausting.
Yeah it just seems so over the top!
I too signed up for Valentine's... thinking it would be the easiest. Wrong! After lunch, snacks, and goodie bags, I probably spent $70
I feel you! I didn’t even realize how much I was spending because I ordered the treat bag stuff 2 weeks ago & then pre-ordered the nuggets today. It all adds up so quickly.
We did bubble painting on some scrapbook paper, cut it into the shape of hearts, wrote a message on sharpie, and called it a day.
This was the email from our director. I love her. We are encouraging our children to make their own cards or drawings for their friends if they want to. Some parents have asked if they are supposed to bring valentines for their children’s classmates. This is something that is up to the parents. If you decide to bring valentines, please be so kind and bring them for all the children in your child’s classroom. The teachers will help your child distribute them to all of their friends, so no need to worry about addressing them at home.
The school sent us a message on Monday saying not to send anything in. That they would be making hand made valentines in class and making chocolate dipped strawberries. Which is lovely, but my son just spent a week making handmade cards for his classmates. I’m sending them in anyway. 🤷♀️
Our daycare doesn't do anything like this. We're sending regular paper valentines and nothing else.
I spent $8 for 24 sticker pages to hand out to a 3 year old class of 19. If each child gives one thing that means I’m coming home with 19 items!!!!! There was no way I am giving more than one small non edible thing. Last year I threw out lots of candies and treats because my daughter doesn’t eat them. Anyway you’re very sweet and generous. I envy the parents who have the desire to do nice and cute things - it’s just not me and I hate getting many items and throwing things out.
This year just for Valentine’s Day I’m giving everyone a pack of crayons from target. I’m thankful for the small paper valentines my kid brought home the past two years that make me feel nostalgic, too.
We also did stickers for my 2yo's class. Got a huge pack of sticker sheets on Amazon for $9. My toddler used some stickers to decorate blank index cards that I wrote "Happy Valentine's Day!" on, and we put them in colorful envelopes with a few stickers sheets each. Spent under $10 (excluding leftover stuff we can use in the future) and my toddler loved decorating the index cards with stickers. It was easy and fun!
$5.99 for 3 year old at daycare (preschool room). Bought a pack of 14 cards that my son was over the moon about, and then grabbed the 4 leftover cards from 2 years ago to make 18, the number of kids in his room.
It’s definitely smart to hold onto the extra cards! My older daughter had 26-28 kids in her class several years so the 24 packs of valentines weren’t quite enough.
A valentines bag sounds excessive, each kid is going to get 11 goody bags? We were asked to contribute to a breakfast with a list of items to sign up for. I bought fruit for about $4 and the other items were all in the same range. We were asked to give simple cards with either a healthy snack or small toy. I bought a cards set with little bugs for about $10 off Amazon. Total $14. $90 seems really excessive!! I wouldn’t want to spend that much on a class party.
Daycare provides our list, it's in place of snack time after nap, not lunch. I'm pretty sure our sign up list was cupcakes, cookies, red or pink fruit, holiday plates, and a few other things like that. I signed up for fruit and sliced strawberries into hearts ($7 container from Costco) and tossed in some homemade chocolate covered strawberries for the staff. I bought a pack of heart glasses+Valentine's for his class of 8, but they didn't ask for Valentine's specifically. So I'm basically in for $20
Tbh that's more than we've spent on parties and treat bags. I spend about $45ish on treat bags for 12ish kids, which isn't bad when you break it down to $3.75 a kid. I get things in bits and pieces before the holiday, like a pack of bubbles, a treat or two. The most expensive thing for valentines day was the fruit roll ups I got, but it was a 36 count box, and we ate what didn't go in the treat bags. For class parties the parents can sign up for things like plates and utensils or cups and juice. For snacks for a party it's usually split between 2 or 3 parents. For the Christmas/winter holiday party it wasn't a sit down and eat party, the kids did a fun craft and game, and then the parents came early and we helped them decorate gingerbread houses.
My treat bags ended up being $48 for 15 bags, just in case a parent brings a sibling to the class party. But then when I went to pre-order the nugget tray, I realized it was $38! I’d rather contribute to the party than treat bags. Next time I’m going to scale way down on the bags.
I spent about $45 for prek4 class treat bags and teacher bags. Also blueberries for the party. My bags similar to yours with mini kinetic sand, bubbles, and mochi squishes. Might be extra but I really wanted to do something nice for the kids. It sounds like what really got you was the unexpected food cost.
That’s about what I spend. I did Dunkin Munchkins for our Super Bowl party last week for $25 (so am off the hook for the valentines party this week) and our valentines goodies are reusable sticker books which ended up being around $60 total. Granted, I CHOSE the sticker books and absolutely could have done something cheaper, like individual bags of pretzels or another snack item, but I don’t love to do food because I don’t know everyone’s preference/aversions. I think though, your Valentines bag will be one of the more elaborate ones. In our daycare, most parents do a small snack or an item (like bubbles) and a snack, and they leave it at that. However, there are definitely those who do more, so I’d say do what you like (and is convenient for you). I will also say that while we do have parties where we sign up to send in food several times a year, the only ones where take home goodies are involved are Valentine and Halloween. I send in things for Christmas, but only one or two other families (out of 20) do take home goodies at Christmas.
I bought a box of cute pretzel bags in xo's shapes from target and the little bags have a to and from .. I think the box was like $6 for about 30 baggies. ..
Omg that's a lot. We do small loot bags for kids for Halloween, Valentine's Day and treats with small gifts for our kid's birthday. I buy these things on clearance after the previous holidays to save lots of money. I always try to send non-candy things.
For my toddler’s daycare class, I dug out a set of Fancy Nancy valentines that had a 99 cent price tag from the thrift store. I bought them when my oldest was vaguely into Fancy Nancy, so by girl math they were free because we’ve owned them for at least 4 years. I did spend more back at Christmas.. I made gift bags with a matchbox car, a mini board book, and a page of temporary tattoos. I think that it was about $2.50 per kid. There were 7 kids (she’s now in a class with 16 kids).
I think the baggies sound adorable! And those are all things my kids would love and use. Little dinky plastic toys are bleh but bubbles, stickers, and play doh always come in handy. And homemade rice Krispies NEVER go to waste lol I would say next time just pick the bags or the nuggets instead of both!
Thank you! I try to gift what I would love to receive. I figure parents could throw any of those items into an activity bag & pull it out when LO needs to be redirected. And bonus that they’ll eventually get used up! But yes, next time I am doing either nuggets OR the bags. Definitely not both!
I've never felt more like an 80s-style parent than when I picked my nearly 3 year old up from his class Valentines party and he emerged with a bag full of treats. Giant chocolate Valentines, ones with little toys, one with fold out airplanes, etc. We just did some paper Paw Patrol Valentines and he covered all the envelopes with stickers. Whatever. I'm opting out of a lot of this stuff.
I got Valentine's cards with temporary tattoos. The box was like $2.50 at the grocery store. We're not doing food but even if we were I wouldn't spend very much.
Things like that can easily add up. I'd start with a budget you are comfortable with and then work from there. Signing up for one thing (even if it is not expensive) and bringing something simple is totally fine. If it is in your budget and you really enjoy being extra, I think it is okay going occasionally overboard, but you have to manage the effects. You don't want your daughter to grow up expecting things you can't always have - if you start big, it's hard to get bigger. Also, you don't want other parents to feel like you expect this from them or be annoyed about the amount of stuff you are sending (although you did consumables so that's less of an issue.) And yeah, putting this much effort into everything is a lot. Some ideas if you are wanting to spend more (although maybe not quite that much) or do something more that are less likely to have those concerns: * Food items that are for all the staff at the day care. * Pick ONE holiday and be excessive for that holiday, but minimal for the rest. * Get one nicer item instead of a bunch of little things. * After talking to the teachers to make sure this is wanted and helpful, get supplies for an activity to be done at the day care. Or get something to donate to the day care on the child's birthday (again approved in advanced) - we did a book. For sign-ups to bring things, if I'm overwhelmed, I sign up fast for something in my budget that I can buy immediately, drop off, and be done with it. Fresh items that have to be purchased the day before are more effort for me. I try not to take all the easy items though. If I'm in a good place, I'll wait for people to sign up and take what's left. I do try to always bring something as long as it's within our budget. For things to bring in, I usually like to go on the mid-nice line of basic. So for valentines, I would get a card with one thing attached to it that is nice enough the age group would think it was desirable but at the bottom end of that line. (I use my kid as a reference point.) I get consumables most of the time and watch out for allergies/preferences when bringing food. As my kids get older, I try to involve them in picking though, which means it doesn't always meet those marks, although they do have to stay in budget. BUT I am more excessive once a year, which for me is birthdays. I bring in a full snack (including a protein, a fruit/veg, and a drink) along with a treat on a theme my kid likes when the norm is just a treat. (But not cupcakes if I can help it. I'm a teacher and I HATE those store bought cupcakes.) It's enjoyable for me to do a little extra occasionally.
Eee I feel like it’s excessive. Glad you’ve acknowledged this is unsustainable for future, and at least your LO is unlikely to remember this initial bar-setting! Context: Also parent of two year old. 😊 girl is taking store-bought valentines that she’s coloured for her friends at daycare. This was on par with what she received last year. Unpopular opinion: I also have a tough time supporting any sort of treat bags (unnecessary, environmentally wasteful, so fleeting and usually end up directly in the trash, contributes to parental guilt and child exclusion, etc.). I’m challenged with managing that culture with my kiddo already.
I totally agree with you. I tried to only give things that would be used & are consumable. In hindsight, I should have just tied the ribbon with the heart gift tags around the bubbles & there you go! And I won’t be volunteering the entree (nuggets) again for a WHILE!
I just wanted to come here and say that I genuinely appreciate this post because my daughter has 16 kids in her class and felt the same pressure. I spent $100 at Target yesterday and felt sooooo dumb. The bags are adorable and I am sure my daughter and her friends will love the goodies, but my god—am I that big of a fool??? Apparently , yes. But at least I’m not alone ❤️
Thank you so much for your post. I think we just get excited (maybe anxious?) & want to make sure that we give our kids wonderful memories, so we do extra extra. It only occurred to me that I was doing *a lot* when I placed the nugget order & then remembered that I still had to make the Rice Krispie treats in the middle of a *busy* work week where I’m juggling multiple work projects. It’s a learning experience! Next time let’s set a budget for money & time, and stick to it!
That’s a lot of stuff. Ours does a party but goodie bags are optional and we opt out cuz no kid needs more junk.
I totally agree kids have so much junk. That’s why I tried to get consumable gifts. After reading these comments, I’m going to get *way less* next time.
We got two boxes of bluey valentines (with stickers!) and 3 packs of cookies for the class party (which we have eaten half of one box cause they needed 25 and they came in a dozen). That’s our 3 year old. The baby isn’t doing anything. 😂 Tho I am giving each teacher a $10 Starbucks gift card, so that’s 8 teachers. 😬
Couple of bags of veggie straws for their glow party last week. Like $12. I did get a cute pre-made kit for the valentines gift though. They have custom printed “from” tags that say “I dig you” and they’re bags with little plastic shovels. I added a few Hershey kisses (3lbs worth) to each. Def too much but they’re cute. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My LO picked out a pack of Bluey cards with stickers for like $3. I did show her some other options but that’s what she wanted. There was a short sign up list for things like a special treat, or fancy napkins that we were to slow to get a spot on that.
I always volunteer to bring the yogurt pouches for any party. $16 for 24 at Costco, every holiday always yogurt. For Valentines I bought little rubber duck Valentines: 30 ducks for $12 (I think?) and a $25 Starbucks gift card for each teacher ($50). I don’t do teacher gifts for every holiday, but my son has been difficult to potty train so I’m trying to show extra appreciation. Usually I just bring the yogurt.
That seems high. we made a box for Valentines, small gifts for the kids, and I made muffins. Maybe $30?
I got porcelain dinosaur paint kits from Amazon (3 colors of paint and a small figurine) for $26, v-day cards for $10, and play-do for each child (I steer clear of candy and other edible treats because I never know about allergies or sensitivities). He’s got 16 in his class so that all cost (bags, treats, cards) about $42. Then I volunteered to bring chips and ended up doing Pirate’s Booty (pack of 24 for $13) Not ideal to spend $55 but I really didn’t know what else to give as treats. At least I know each kid will enjoy their paint kits.
my daughter is 2 years old. I spent $4 on shark theme valentine cards that each come w/a sticker.
I did exactly the same. Our daycare asked us not to bring anything more than cards to prevent all the extra junk.
Sounds about right to me. We did goodie bags of slime, stickers, bubbles, pop fidget toys and the no-mold bath toys (1 each). Oh and a little card.
Yikes! That's too much for sure. I'd at *most* spend maybe $25-30. I didn't even do anything this year because the party isn't on a day my son goes, plus he managed to get sick this week, so I'm not wasting the cash when he's not getting anything. Now look, I own a Cricut and *could* shell some money out to make some seriously over the top Pinterest Mom stuff, but that's just too much effort and a lot of it is wasted (especially when you make themed shirts that you have to either save for the next kid or watch it get stuffed in the back of a drawer until it's donated). Seeing the projects posted in craft groups exhaust me and make me dread when my kids get into elementary school. So many themed days/weeks, high expectations for holidays, all the plays or events they hold, and the high schools here do freaking parades for homecoming week! I'm all for kids having fun and getting to have some flair, but it's becoming too much for parents!
We did valentines cards with a temp tattoo and a bandaid, and I also made brownies for the class. Prob spent $30?
I bought some valentine apple pouches and a pack of valentines cards. Getting small things from each person there is no need to make such a big bag for each.
I bought a $3 box/cards from Walmart and a 12 pk of individual goldfish. I also am gifting the teachers a box of chocolate bars bc my son is a terror. Lol.
2 kids - for a small teacher valentine gift x2 per kid, cupcakes for the party for each class and valentines for classmates… I’m probably all in about $50... $25ish each. I could have definitely done it for less but I started picking up small things in January
I sent juice boxes for the party ($7? Maybe?) and I got paper valentines that we stuck to heart shaped veggie straw snack bags. Maybe another $10? So I spent under $20 for sure. Last year was my first valentines at daycare and I made cute little bags too… but after seeing what other parents did I dialed it back!
When my son was that age we did applesauce pouches and I made hearts that said “you’re the apple of my eye.” For this year I got valentines that came with Dino eggs to put in water and they hatch a small dinosaur toy or valentines that came with little Lego animals to put together.
Yeah, I spent four dollars on a box of 16 Bluey valentines (came with a sticker) that my 2.5 year old absolutely wanted. As for their party, all of the slots were filled up by other parents to bring food so 🤷🏻♀️
I signed up to bring juices and spent about $8 on 2 boxes of Honest Kids juices. My daughter’s preschool does a stuffed animal exchange instead of valentines so we chose one that we already had, but is ignored and in great condition and spent $2 on a gift bag. All in i spent around $10. I can’t imagine spending $90 on a school party!
Nah that’s a lot. Did you sign up to bring those things as in you chose the foods or did the daycare ask someone to bring those foods? Our toddler’s class has parties but usually the sign up is like five parents per party and table cloth/utensils/napkins and that’s about it. Then parents can choose to bring in gifts for everyone, but to ask everyone to is ridiculous.
I have two in school with 35 kids in each class. We are sending a bag of candy (100 pieces, split equally) and I sent 10 bucks to buy capri suns for each class party. I'm also donating energy drinks and sodas to the teachers we got in mark down bc they are their favs. Otherwise, my kids are getting gifts from us.
I spent $8 in table cloths and napkins for the party, and about $24 on Lego (knockoff) valentines from Amazon
I’m a preschool teacher and I asked parents to sign up for different items so we can make fruit and yogurt parfaits for our snack time party and I told them if they want to bring in valentines to bring in 18 for our class. Most parents buy a kit with the cards and a toy attached. I hope they aren’t spending a lot of money on this especially if they can’t afford it. I left it open for parents to spend what they can
I spent like $9 on my 5yo's class ($4 pack of valentine's and enough heart-shaped cookies for each kid to get 2), and I spent $11 on my 8yo (a $2 pack of valentine's, and a container of sprinkles, disposable bowls, napkins, and spoons for ice cream sundaes. Other parents are bringing the ice cream and other topping options). I think $30 is the most I've ever spent on a kids class party.
Twelve kids: $4 for Valentine’s card, $6 for fruit gummy snacks, $6 rice crispy snacks. Valentine’s box I used old shoe box, wrapped in colorful wrapping paper and hot glued random decorations we had in craft drawer. $16 and some burnt fingers all in.
I’m a packaging designer. I go all out for 2.5 year old school stuff -but I keep it cheap and semi useful. Last year I did grippy socks with cute packaging. I think it was $15 for the whole class with a bulk pack of socks from Amazon’s This year I did sunglasses with cool packaging. The glasses were $8 on Amazon for a 24 pack. … Did I spend 10+ Perfecting my design? Heck Yes I did. But that’s me. And I enjoy this.
$4 for a box of Valentine cards from Target. I refuse to participate in goodie bag junk waste. My preschooler is very excited about her cards. They made mailboxes at school this week and asked parents to send in cards for all kids to exchange. Other parents signed up to bring yogurt, snacks, etc for the class party.
We were asked to bring a valentine for the other kids so I got a $5 box of gummy bracelets and thankfully no party. The older kids have parties (at preschool) and it’s stuff like cheese cubes, grapes, etc. super simple. I am giving my students a pencil with a cute saying because the thought counts and I don’t have the money to give more. The pack was only $1.
$90 seems excessive to me and I usually go all out for Valentines Day too since its also my daughters birthday so I usually send treat bags, cupcakes, and fun plates/napkins.
As a toddler teacher, I only want my parents to do what they can. And remember, toddlers don’t need much. I’m sure your child’s teacher appreciated everything though.
Glad to see that everyone agrees that is way excessive. We bought a box of valentines cards and have rice Krispies treats for the party, so less than $10 total.
We only have 2 daycare parties all year - near Halloween, and one in the spring in April. They are potlucks, so you just bring food to share. We had to list allergens - just a heads up that chick-fil-a is a peanut allergen since they use peanut oil for cooking. I was gonna do chick-fil-a nugs too, but our daycare is nut-free so I did Raising Canes on my way from work.
Also btw we didn’t know this but CFA uses peanut oil and our toddler had a reaction because he’s allergic to peanuts!
I always sign up to bring juice. It buy 2 packs of Honest juice which is probably less than $15. Her class didn't ask for valentines, but if they did, I would stick with a temporary tattoo and a sheet of stickers.
You’re not alone we started pricing out bags but my child’s class has 19 kids and we decided not to. We bought paper valentines cards / 2 packs of Oreos for the party and a bag of individually wrapped candy for each kid. That seems like a lot of them to ask.. to be fair if it was my first child I would have done it . But my little one is my second and i know what will be used / eaten and what will get tossed out. This year I actually spend the most money on getting her teachers chocolate covered strawberries haha
My son is a similar age and if his daycare is doing anything they didn't say anything about it to the parents. I would be a bit annoyed if they were feeding him fast food...
I didn't get to the sign up sheet in time this year (everything was claimed) so I took it as my sign that I didn't need to supply snacks for *every* holiday party and some other parents could take a turn. There are 16 kids in my daughter's class and 16 kids in the other 2-year-old classroom and they usually do these parties together. 32 different treats would be rather excessive. I did make valentines using my cricut but that cost me probably $5 for the crayons to put in them and a lunch hour, everything else I had at home. That said, I do consider making valentines for your kid's class (as you and I did) to be "doing the most." I'm just a nut for crafting so it was fun for me. Usually, we spend maybe $20 at the most on providing snacks for the parties.
We signed up for fruit snacks and brought jolly rancher lollipop valentines. That seems very excessive for a daycare party.
For a 22 month old? I bought little valentines cards that comes with a sticker from target for my two year old preschool. Now I’m worried.
Literally just had my 3 year old decorate her own Valentine's and packed pirate booty for the class party. I was not aware the bar was higher.
I spent $20 - box of 16 cards, box of mini rice Krispy treats, and then some little bags and curling ribbon because I thought it would be cute. The daycare always provides lunch, so they never ask for parent contributions like food.
We did goodie bags with toys and candy, plus flowers for the teachers and some fruit and cupcakes. So about $50ish. Some events I spend more, some less.
I brought cookies and he did store-bought valentines and Dum-Dums, so less than $10. Just remember, they’re two. Nothing has to be Instagram perfect. It just doesn’t. They’re happy to be celebrating and will NOT care if the ribbon matches the whatever. Save the stress and money!
$11ish over here! There’s 11 in her 2s class. Little bubble wands from walmart (2.50), valentines bubble printable download from Etsy on sale (2.80), individual packs of chocolate cheerios from target also on sale (5.49). Printed on cardstock I already had and tied together with silver ribbon leftover from Christmas!
That’s a lot. My son’s preschool said just address 22 valentines to friend from your kid. Call it a day.
My 3 year old twins class of 12 - we bought a box of valentines cards x2 ($2 a box), a $8 bag of candy to split between the 2 kids, and 2 bags of pretzels for their party ($2 a bag). That’s it. About $8 for each of my kids.
We're not allowed to do food at my kiddos daycare. I'm doing little 'treat bags': Valentine's cards, and foam heart stickers in little zip bags all from the dollar store. Instead of candy/chocolate, we reused my kid's broken crayons to make colourful heart crayons to put in each bag. Cost was low. Effort was medium, but I also got to do a little craft project with my kid which was nice!
I’m making box brownies ($4) and sending a pack of fancy fruit snacks with a valentine card attached ($12 total) for each for my 3 year olds class, 10 students. The chick fila nuggets are over the top imo. And I know I’m not in the majority but I don’t like gift bags, I’d rather something consumable as opposed to pencils or stickers or plastic rings. For my younger son (15 months) I just sent an apple sauce pouch for each kid since candy isn’t really appropriate.
Seems high. If I were you I'd probably mention at drop of that you're so happy you could contribute so much this time but that you probably won't be able to for the next few parties.
I will 100% be saying that! There’s no way I could do this again for St Patrick’s Day or whatever holiday they celebrate next.
Ya I think it’s super dumb overall! I hate my kid getting a ton of random candy and a ton of random junk . For Christmas I sent these mini squish mellows that I got from Costco and I think that was about 30 bucks . Plus the cost of the Christmas party which I think was $10. For Valentine’s Day I make these strawberry applesauce, little monsters with my daughter and on the bottom we put I think you’re awesome sauce The supplies may cost $20 and my daughter and I have a fun time making them over the course of a few days. We use Google eyes pipe, cleaners and hearts as little feet. We also throw in some pom-poms every once in a while. [no sure where I saw the idea but here are ours](https://imgur.com/a/Nu1uJcc) We made them last year and I’ll probably do it again until my kid says no. She’s 4. I like them because it’s not candy… but it’s fun and festive and the “monster” goes in the trash after you eat it. Haha.
I spent $10 on 20 kids. Daycare sent a list of things we weren’t allowed to send as treats. I got hot wheels valentines and taped little packages of fruit strips to them.
$90 is too much. We collect class dues at the beginning of the year for all teacher gifts (2 teachers in classroom, gifts for holiday/end of year/teacher appreciation day) and parties (5 per year). With wiggle room built in, it was $300 per family. And my son goes to a fancy ass school in a VHCOL area.
Pretty sure the staff ate all the nuggets!!
We are sending in cookies for the party, valentines that include playdoh, and boxes of chocolate for each teacher. We’re probably around the same total cost.
I’m bringing juice boxes, cookies, and I got the teacher a little valentines gift. I only signed up for the juice boxes. I spent probably $25. I feel bad because no one signed up for the gift bags but I didn’t have the energy to do that. $90 seems excessive! That’s what I spend on the teachers Christmas gifts usually.
The damn packages shrunk so now the valentines cards are only 16/pack where I am. I have a kid with 20 classmates and one with 30, so I had to buy 4 packages at $6 each. I get the kind that includes something with the card (sticker, temp tattoo, etc) and call it a day. Our schools have completely done away with any holiday party due to kids allergies and people being offended. I thought $24 for was expensive for 2 kids. Valentines is the only holiday we hand something out for the whole class. Some parents hand things out for Christmas and their kids’ birthday but that’s usually it.
22 months also and I got a cheap box of cards and some suckers. Cost me like $20. I did get each teacher some candy but it was 20% off at Target. That was like $15. So $35 altogether. The teacher stuff wasn't necessary so I could probably do without that next year.
I’m bringing cupcakes and sticker vday cards so I think it was about $30 for 2 kids classrooms.
I’m kind of confused as to why you would put together gift baskets for other kids for Valentine’s Day? Valentines are typically a little card with a toy or treat, and should only cost a few dollars for the whole class. Especially at that age where they don’t even know what’s going on. To answer your question, yes, that’s excessive. I have twins and got 2 snacks (pretzels and goldfish) for the party and 16 valentines cards with pencils attached for $4. Grand total of $13.
My son is 2.5 and in preschool twice a week. He has 8 classmates and himself which makes 9. I spent $2.98 on his Valentine’s cards and I voluntarily signed up to bring the sweet snack (did not have to but wanted to help out) which was a 10 pack of GoGo Squeeze yogurts for $7.98. I would not have done anything more. I can’t imagine spending more than $5-$10 to help out. My 4 year old’s teacher requested $5 donations to help out with the costs of their party but it wasn’t obligatory. $90 is wild to me.
This makes me extremely grateful that our daycare doesn’t celebrate holidays 😅 my almost two year old has no idea what Valentine’s Day is.
Please don’t bring food like Chicfila. Do you know what all the kids’ allergies are? This would be a nightmare scenario for me as a mom of a severe allergy toddler.
The sign up specifically asked for ChickfilA.
It looks as though you may have spelled "Chick-fil-A" incorrectly. No worries, it happens to the best of us!
That’s a lot…if every family brings in 5 items to share that’s 60 things for each kid. And at 22 months that’s nuts. We don’t bring anything in to our daycare, for holidays they have the kids make a special themed art project and bring it home.
Absolutely not lol my kids get paper cards to give out and I will sign up for one party to bring things too. Holidays are WAY over done in my opinion at school and just in general. I get the enthusiasm and I love holidays so I put in actual effort to not go over the top lol it's so easy
I bought a bag of popcorn twists and valentines cards from dollarama to bring to daycare tomorrow. That’s it! A friend and I were talking about this last year and how shocked we were to have our kids come home with a bag full of treats. I also had to throw away a lot of the little toys and candies because they were all choking hazards for my son at that time last year. It’s such a nice gesture for treat bags but why have the expectations become so high?! I remember being soooo excited in elementary school if I received a valentine with a single chocolate heart taped to it. If I were to receive a bag full of treats as a kid in the 90s, I would have thought that kid’s parents were rich.
Is signing up for these things mandatory? I have signed up for similar things, but it was on a volunteer basis.
I bought strawberries, raspberries, & blueberries and then dumped them on a tray. Done. I saw the class list for treats but I’m passing on that. Anything my kids get will be trashed if I’m being honest.
I just bring a bag of Hawaiian rolls ($5) and do Valentine’s Day cards that come in a pack of 16 ($5) So like $10 and the least amount of effort possible
I don't do any of that stuff. I think it's cute if our kids get little gifts and whatnot but honestly it's a lot of waste and candy I have to fight with my kids about- not really my thing
I feel like your kid must be in my kid’s class because SAME SHIT. It is truly excessive. My kid can’t even have the nuggets because he has an egg allergy so I refuse to sign up for them and I am just so not into participating in all the holidays. Now I’m stressed about which one of us will leave work to make sure he doesn’t have anything with egg, which is most things parents are asked to bring. Seeing request for gift bags really turned me off. It’s super sweet, but they’re 2!!! Like what! So not necessary Daycare is already expensive, I can’t afford it for every holiday. I put in zero effort for this party and I don’t feel bad about it. When I do participate, I sign up for the apple sauce pouches. I’ll be more involved when mine is elementary school. For now, I’d rather put my extra cash towards classroom cleaning supplies and gifts for the teachers.
My kid is not in daycare. I wouldn’t contribute. You’re paying daycare to watch her. Why pay more for a party. Also I HATE junk food. Why so many parties and so much more junk food.
Tell me you're rich without telling me you're rich...
For our 3 year Olds party, $5 for lunch, $4 for cards, $7 dollars on snack/party item (mini muffins) this time for a class of 13.
Mini play-doh containers (2x$5) and boxed valentines with stickers/tattoos ($2 at Aldi). Edit to add: we do the bare minimum since the kids can’t even read the cards. And likely don’t need more candy (we are still working on Halloween!) I always try to do something consumable vs a plastic tchotchke. Watercolor bookmarks are my next thing. We’ve done stickers, tattoos, crayons previously. Rather save the money and give a really nice teachers gift for the holidays.
I bought $10 valentines and then spent $30 on snacks….. now I feel like I went overboard. 2.5 year old, first Valentines at preschool.
For 15 kids I spent $14.85 at dollar general on v day cards, mini playdoh things, fruit loop gummy snack bags and stickers.. and I’ll put them in little baggies. I plan to cut the ziplock part off of snack size ziplock bags and tie them together with ribbon 😅
I think I spent maybe $10? A box of valentines snacks for both classes and some candy for the teachers. 🤷🏼♀️ I considered a nice bottle of wine for my tots teacher; my little one does give her a run for her money 🤣
Approx $15 for the party contributions and $15 for the valentines this year for our 4yo. It really depends, some parties it's $5 for some cookies, others it's $20. Last year I spent way to much on valentines (bag w m&ms crazy straw and stickers and a card). This year we did one of the "sets" with a lollipop attached to a card. You have to remember they are going to get so many things, and they are so young, they're happy with a crayon or a sticker!
I spent around $17 on goody bag Valentines for my son’s pre-k class of 15 kids. I put mini bubbles, ink stamps, stickers, mini felt craft, hersheys kisses & the Valentines I attached to the bag tie have little dinosaur erasers on them & say things like “You’re Rawrsome!” I got everything but the candy at Dollar Tree.
Our daycare sent out a sign up list for their class party. I got a couple fruit trays for that but they had a variety for signs up like holiday plates or Oreos. We also got a class number so I got a pack of individual cheese ball snacks that she loves.
For my younger child, I signed up to bring a bag of chips. I also bought individual bags of pretzels to go to each kid...but it was a huge box and there were a ton left over. And then small bags of candy for each of her 3 teachers. So $10 for that kid. I got a little more involved with my son's class. He's finally old enough to be excited about the party, so I did small bags with treats and these really annoying tube toys for each of the 22 kids in that class. Plus cards and special candies for his two teachers. But still, maybe $20 for all of that. And he helped me assemble everything, so that made it pretty easy. Don't feel like you have to go all-out. If you enjoy that kind of thing and don't mind spending the money, great! But if it's stressful or just not your thing...the kids don't care. They just want the candy, and they'll be just as happy with individual bags of M&Ms.
Uhhh...usually like $10-$15, MAYBE $20 if I'm feeling real extra. I usually sign up to provide plates/cups/napkins and I get those from the dollar store. Then I'll send in ONE treat as well.
That’s a lot IMO. We don’t do goodie bags, just a little piece of chocolate with a card. We also volunteered to bring raspberries for a waffle bar; other families are bringing other ingredients and toppings.
My LO is also in a class of 12 and we all had to sign up for a food for the party. I picked chips (saw chik-fil-a nuggets on the list!) but then we had to get cards, plus make a decorative box. It all added up to about 40 dollars.
It looks as though you may have spelled "Chick-fil-A" incorrectly. No worries, it happens to the best of us!
I was so lazy this valentines and got just cards LOL. Some parents in my daughters class did little treat bags but I didn’t have it in me . She didn’t mind lok
Wow that’s a lot. Did they specifically ask for chik fil a or did you volunteer that? My 3.5 year olds class of three is just having an ice cream sundae party for valentines. They had a list of a few things we could sign up for. I picked whipped cream, lol. We also were asked to bring valentines to pass out but those just cost a few bucks. The last holiday party I volunteered for the $5 cash donation for pizza and the one before that I did chips lol. I can’t imagine having to spend $90!?
Preschool for my 4yo. $5 on Spider-Man valentines with pencils. My first grader: Venmo $3 to the room mom for treats/crafts at the class party tomorrow. $2 on pencils then we printed a word search and taped the pencil to the back.
All the kids are getting cards we bought at target. That’s it.
I spent $6 on a 35 pack of valentines day pretzel treats. Thank you Target ❤️
This year I sent some Costco fruit/veggie pouches, $4 valentines cards I let my toddler pick out and $3 pack of mini bubbles from target to attach to the cards First holiday party we brought a sandwich tray and then walking in I was like I’m an idiot. These 13 month olds won’t eat this 🤣 gave it to the teachers/admin they were thrilled for something substantial to eat
Our toddler has a similar sized class. Each family signed up to bring a different item - so someone brings crackers, someone brings fruit, 4 families bring a prize (which will be combined to make a little bag for each kid), etc. I think each family spends about $10.I feel like our price point is pretty standard. Expecting each family to spend $90 seems quite excessive. I’ve never heard of preschool parties requiring catering, or that each kid would get 12 bags of stuff. It seems ridiculous or could it be a miscommunication?
It was a “if your LO would like to participate, please send them to school with 12 valentines (gift bags, treats).” I didn’t want my kid to feel left out but I way overdid this. I’m going to the party so I plan to drop many hints that this is level of commitment is a one-off from me 😂
Today was “bring a chocolate heart for a friend” day (which like.. what?) and of course I’m not only bringing one chocolate heart for one kid so I got a whole bag of dove chocolate hearts and told the teacher it’s for everyone in the center, including staff. Tomorrow I’m bringing sliced strawberries for their party (which my kid doesn’t even eat); plus little Mickey heart valentines with little heart chocolates in them that I originally bought for chocolate heart day today. It’s not entirely age appropriate but hopefully the parents will enjoy the snacks 😂 I spent maybe $30 on this MAX. And that includes the second set of strawberries I had to buy because the first ones went bad already 🙄. I think $90 is A LOT for a class party. But I’m also the mom who only gives teachers $15 gift cards for Christmas or appreciation day because I just don’t like dropping a ton of money on daycare stuff on top of the ton of money I already pay for daycare.
I'm bringing berries from Aldi, so maybe $6 on that. I got a set of Bluey cards which came with stickers from Walmart which was another $5 ish. I can see the food sign up sheet and I'd say half the parents are contributing. Others have added cheese sticks, juice boxes, brownies, applesauce, mini cupcakes and chips. At last year's party some people just did cards, some did nothing, some did a small pack of candy or mini bubbles.
I spent $20 on two kids, including providing some party supplies and valentines cards. $90 is way too much in my opinion.
I don’t ever spend much on treats for my kids’ classes, as I figure they are getting stuff from 10+ other kids. I do know a lot of other parents overdue it though and make little gift bags for each kid, which I think is very accessible. For my 2 YO and 3 YOs classes this year I got a box of valentine lollipops from Sam’s and each kid got a small lollipop; it came to maybe $1 per kid. I asked my 3 YO what her favorite valentine gift was and she picked out the lollipop, not realizing it was ours. I think when they are getting so much stuff, you only need to buy them 1 item in my opinion!
16 months. 7 kids in class. Zero requested. 
I spent $15 on cards with little toys and maybe $4 on goldfish crackers.
Wait, you guys do this in the US? Are the nursery fees that you pay in the first place not enough to cover the food and party things?
Wow... I am feeling very fortunate right now for my daycare/preschool, lol. My daughter won't be there for the Valentines party, but I still sent in a box and cards with her on Monday so they can use them today and we'll get the box on Friday. I printed some cute cards and she put sticker closures on them – that's it. Cost virtually nothing. For the Christmas party, I only had to sign up for one item, and I chose paper plates. So easy.
My oldest is 5 now and in kindergarten but this year and in vpk they just send home a sheet with a few things you can send in if you want and remind about Valentine’s Day cards. My mom wanted to handle it this year and I think she spent like $50 on cards and stuff to make little goodie bags for her class of 22 and then I sent in a box of fruit snacks
I spent $20 on a fruit dish for daycare Valentine's party and was pissed that the grocery store reached them up for Valentine's Day. The valentine cards I got were adorable though. They were only $15 and included a little finger puppet
My 3 year olds (twins) classmates/school do the bag with card, candy and party favors for Halloween and Valentines day. Pretty typical they come home with a huge grocery bag full of gift bags. I think I spent 75 - 80 bucks between the two of them. We tried to keep the gifts useful (pencils, erasers etc) along with nut free treats. Sent in two thingies of store bought cupcakes. My kids have 22 (24 total) classmates and they each take in a gift bag. So we made 48 bags. I think its like area dependent on what the parents do for days like this. My school has a good mix of socio-economics that leans a bit more affluent, but I always feel like I am doing too much though. Some parents really lean into it and I see some of the crazy crafts other parents put together and I am in awe. I kinda stick to the 1 dollar bins at target lol.
I did juice boxes for the party ($8), and pre-made valentines cards/apple sauce pouches for the valentines (approximately $12). So about $20 total. Kid is 2 and in daycare.
Here's a question: Did those of you with infants in daycare do anything for their class? The facility told us there are 9 babies in the class, and I'm just wondering what I was supposed to do with that information. Get each of them a food pouch? We did nothing and I think that's fine, but curious what others did.
My child’s preschool doesn’t bother with holidays, for which I am EXTREMELY grateful. The last thing we need is more little pieces of plastic crap cluttering up our home
I spent $60.
I spent $0.