Agree totally with what you said about gifts and not getting even a thank you. I've stopped spending MY money on things like that now. Those are out of pocket expenses that deserve at least a simple thank you. Same for mother's and father's day. I used to spend a fortune doing awesome crafts and gifts for the kids to give only to find them smashed in pieces in the bottom of the diaper bag, or dropped down my driveway on their way home...they didn't appreciate them, so I stopped doing them. Sad that it comes to that.
I have such a hard time being 'mean' and making the parents stick to my rules..but...it has to change because they just walk all over you when you don't and then you start to resent them and it makes you not want to get up and do your job. The days are already long enough that if you don't want to get up and work it makes it even harder.
This very minute I"m writing up an email to all my families to remind them of the rules (had a parent text 2 hours AFTER their scheduled drop off time to say they decided to stay home with dck today...and the rest of us have sat here inside all morning waiting for her to be dropped off) the little things like that add up so fast...