Hilarious 'Best Teacher Gift Ever' Goes Viral
A photo of what’s being dubbed the “Best Teacher Gift Ever” has more than three million views on Imgur since it was posted Wednesday on Reddit entitled, “The most honest gift to a teacher I’ve ever seen.”
The image shows a wine bottle with a photo of a young boy on it, and a label that reads: “Our child might be the reason you drink so enjoy this bottle on us.” Commenters have been flooding Reddit and Facebook, where it’s making the rounds, to remark on how imaginative — and understanding — this type of gift is compared to typical teacher ‘Thank You’ gift cards or food.
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“I used to be a teacher,” shared one Redditor. “This would be way better than all of the other junk we get (other than thank you notes, those are pure gold and we never forget them).”
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“I beg friends not to give their kids teachers anything that comes in a mug,” adds another commenter. “I can only imagine how many mugs teachers end up with!” A different respondent piped in to confirm that it’s typically about a dozen, in fact: “My mum was a teacher and she would get 10 to 15 coffee mugs per class.”
The mother who created the gift, Stacy Dutton, tells Yahoo Parenting, “It’s amazing to me that it went viral!” A mom of two and art director at Evermine, a personalized labels and stationary company in Portland, Oregon, Dutton designed the bottle in April prior to National Teacher Appreciation week in May. “I rely pretty heavily upon the teachers at my son’s daycare and they truly deserve some appreciation,” Dutton blogged about creating the custom present. “Now that my son is entering his ‘terrible twos,’ I wanted our gift to be a little more lighthearted. I know all the teachers at his daycare on a very personal level, and knew they would all find our gift to be funny.”
One expert insists that bottles of booze have become the go-to gift for more and more givers because of this fun factor. “It’s very popular because it allows people to express themselves with humor on the wine bottle, rather than in a card,” Michael Cousins, director of operations for Personal Wine, a company that produces and ships custom labeled bottles of wine similar to the one in the viral post, tells Yahoo Parenting. “We have noticed a lot of parents using pictures of their kids, 5 to 10 years old, and gifting them to teachers, grandparents, and friends. There is also a large number of young adults gifting bottles with the same template and changing the text to, “I know I am the reason you drink."
Cousins’ company has seen a “huge increase” in sales as a result of the post on Imgur going viral. And he thinks that social media plays a big role in that, as it makes poking fun at the stress of parenting more acceptable. “People are sharing the realities of parenthood,” says the Austin, Tex.-based business owner. “They’re acknowledging their child’s mischievous behavior.”
(Photo: Personal Wine)
So when it comes to the teachers, caregivers, babysitters, heck, everyone in the trenches with an into-everything toddler — like the one shown above in one of Cousins’ popular label offerings — he says, “We get phone calls from the parents wanting to come up with new, creative ways to say, ‘Thank you!’”
(Top photo: Reddit / martyz)
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