Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Tipping camp people

DD went to the same day camp last year and I did not tip. It is an a la carte kind of camp. I can sign up for 2 week swim camps, 1 week munchkin tennis, or odd things like Rainforest camp or Oceanography that run a week. And she goes 9-12, though you can add on. Great camp and flexibility.

This year, we went for 4 weeks straight of swim camp and she had a fabulous instructor. There was only one other child, another girl that went for the 4 weeks at that time. On the last day, and parent observation. We are near where we gather to get our children and I see the other mother with an envelope. She said she asked and the staff encouraged tipping. I turned to DH and he quickly produced 2 twenties which I gave to the instructor as I thanked her.

Is this common? She did a week of oceanography, which was in their preschool facility but I was confused to the staff and didn't tip and she did a week of Munchkin tennis but I told the instructor we were coming back -- DD did another 2 weeks of swim -- and she goes to tennis this week. We did tip the second swim instructor and I plan to tip her tennis coach end of this coming week. But I am sure very few people do this.

What does everyone do?

Ren

The trend towards tipping everyone, everywhere is one of my pet peeves. Waitstaff are payed beneath minimum wage, counter help is not. Now I'll grant you that minimum wage is inadequate, but the difference between waitstaff minimum and other minimum wages is to account for the fact that tipping of waitstaff is expected.

Daycamp has an alternate minimum wage in some places too, and it might be worth checking out whether or not staff are being paid at camp minimum or at a level more commensurate with other jobs. Either way, I think that tipping of camp staff, teachers, etc... is a highly questionable practice. At our camp (I worked as a counselor 6 yrs, and as assistant director/director for a combination of seven yrs.) tipping was absolutely prohibited. Our belief was that there should be no appearance of anyone buying special treatment/favoritism for their children via tipping. Camp is expensive enough to begin with--especially if you are sending multiple kids. To add a pressure to tip on top of that is (I think) disrespectful to families.

I don't think it is inappropriate to give a thank you gift, but I think such gifts should be small (a $5 coffee card or bookstore certificate; a container with sticky notes and pretty paper clips for a teacher; etc.) and definitely not mandatory. And I have to say that as a teacher, I agree with Master of None--a letter to a supervisor is a far more meaningful to me than a gift card or cash. I always know it is a genuine, vs. pro forma kind gesture.

I'm not wild about tipping either, especially for teachers and other professionals.

Tipping felt a little out of control at my kids' last school: there was a collection at Christmas, a collection to pay for teachers' tickets to the annual fundraising ball, and, of course, the big finish at the end of the year. You couldn't sign the cards unless you left a tip, so of course it was obvious if you didn't.

This was a private school that didn't offer financial aid, and the tuition was a hardship for some people (we definitely wheezed our way through our last year there).

I've read here and there that the teachers aren't necessarily wild about the practice, either (comments from teachers out there?).

Val

Wow, glad I picked ds up at the bus stop for his last camp. Camp before that was boy scouts, no mention of tipping at either.
Camp is expensive enough, I agree.

This was our identical experience last year. We were told that after paying a ridiculous tuition, the teachers' salaries were still low and we were supposed to supplement with holiday and end of the year gifts. I hated it. Why not just raise tuition some more instead of have a weird favoritism thing? Plus the specialty teachers usually did not receive "thanks" despite being lower paid and generally more highly trained.

The teacher in me doesn't mind small gifts- a $10 coffee card, a set of new dry erase pens. One year I had a family that gave me a $500 Amazon card and expected that they were going to get $500 extra in service. Teaching is not a fancy restaurant... I used the money to buy books for my class. They were very unhappy at the end of the year and even said to my boss "we bought her a fantastic present, assuming she'd be more available for us." Yuck.

Pee-yew! What losers.

How did your boss react?

Val

My boss was fantastic. She always had our backs- a really wonderful principal. She basically told them that it was a public school and while she appreciated they took care of her teachers so well, that access could not be bought.

I met with these people no less than 6 times in a year... and their child was a very sweet, capable normally developing kid. They just liked to "keep tabs" on her. I finally told them we did not need to meet monthly just to discuss progress since we had a completely visible online grading system.

Thanks for all the responses. As mentioned, it didn't occur to me last year to tip. But when we did give out gift to the swim instructor, a college student, she was pleased. It was only $40 but every dollar counts when in college. So I feel OK about this.

With teachers, I think that can be a different story, since if a Christmas gift, the student would still be in the class after the gift. With my story, it was the end of the session and strictly appreciation.

Strange that no one had a similar experience with camp. I thought there would be one.

Ren