Every holiday season, there are countless newspaper articles enlightening the general public on which service sector employees should or should not receive a gift or be compensated with a generous holiday tip of some kind. In my opinion, it has gotten completely out of control, and I, for one, do not appreciate “society” pressuring me into doing something I would not normally do otherwise. It is the same reason I absolutely refuse to celebrate “Sweetest Day.”
That said, my wife and I really like Lily’s speech therapist, and we did give her a $10 gift card to Starbucks this past year, but only because WE felt it was the right thing to do. The question I am seeking to answer in this blog, however, deals with the practice of gift giving at times other than holidays or birthdays.
For example, as regular readers of this blog are aware, my daughter Lily recently had her feeding tube removed. No doubt, this milestone was due in large part to the outstanding work that Lily’s therapist did with her. Naturally, my wife and I only felt it right to show our appreciation for a job well done. However, we did not know whether expressing our gratitude with a gift was appropriate in a client/therapist relationship. After all, an argument could be made that the therapist was just doing her job, and for her, seeing Lily without her feeding tube would be reward enough.
Ultimately, though, we decided to give her a gift. However, my wife and I agreed that it should not be a monetary or materialistic gift such as a coffee mug or another gift card. Instead, we thought the gift would be more meaningful for all parties involved if it were sentimental. So we created a collage with different photos of Lily taken at various stages during her therapy. The last photo, of course, was one of Lily without her tube. Lily’s therapist loved the gift, and now it is on the windowsill in her office.
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