I have an in home daycare and the parents haven't paid in over a month

[Anonymous]

I would say goodbye to the $200 as a "lesson learned" and be done with this lady. Glad you got at least *most* of your money from her.

You are totally in the right here and I'm sorry that your faith in humanity took a little hit here. But better to know sooner than later that not all people (even parents whose love their kids) do not operate with the same level of integrity and trustworthiness as you would show to them. It is a little mind-blowing that she somehow found it unreasonable on YOUR part that you weren't able to wait until her next paycheck to be paid for doing your job!! Would SHE be okay with her employer skipping a paycheck to her and still reporting to work?? I think not...

The ONLY area where I'd say you maybe let emotion get the best of you was in the judgment of charging her for the amount of time that she left her kid with you after the bday party was over. In this respect, her kid was only there as a guest of the party. Not as one of your clients. And we all have had experiences where some flakey mom doesn't show up on time to pick up her kid from the party. And in that case, you just deal. It's annoying as hell, but this blurred the line of mom-to-mom vs. client-to-provider. Mom-to-Mom in this case, you can't just say "thanks for bringing Larla to Larlo's party...but since you picked her up late, you owe me $20!' That's just...weird.

[Anonymous]

+1 to the PP--I'd just eat the $200 as a learning experience. It's not likely to be worth your energy to take her to court. Also agreed that the birthday party part is problematic *unless* her child was not invited to the birthday party but she asked you to provide childcare at that time and you agreed that she could bring the child to the party. Then that would be acceptable. If the child was invited as a guest, then you can't charge for the late pickup, as irresponsible as it was on her part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, you charged her for her kid to attend your kid's bday party? Was the party during the normal day care hours? Did you ask her to pay extra to cover food and entertainment? That's odd.

The party was on the weekend. I do lots of weekend babysitting for her. She showed up an hour late for the birthday party and dropped her kid off. She picked up her daughter 2 hours AFTER the party. I did not charge for the 2 hours during the party. The party was NOT drop off. She was way out of line. I also had to keep calling her because she would not reposed to me. I didn't know where she was. She disappeared from the party.

Is this mom partying and drinking/using drugs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say goodbye to the $200 as a "lesson learned" and be done with this lady. Glad you got at least *most* of your money from her.

You are totally in the right here and I'm sorry that your faith in humanity took a little hit here. But better to know sooner than later that not all people (even parents whose love their kids) do not operate with the same level of integrity and trustworthiness as you would show to them. It is a little mind-blowing that she somehow found it unreasonable on YOUR part that you weren't able to wait until her next paycheck to be paid for doing your job!! Would SHE be okay with her employer skipping a paycheck to her and still reporting to work?? I think not...

The ONLY area where I'd say you maybe let emotion get the best of you was in the judgment of charging her for the amount of time that she left her kid with you after the bday party was over. In this respect, her kid was only there as a guest of the party. Not as one of your clients. And we all have had experiences where some flakey mom doesn't show up on time to pick up her kid from the party. And in that case, you just deal. It's annoying as hell, but this blurred the line of mom-to-mom vs. client-to-provider. Mom-to-Mom in this case, you can't just say "thanks for bringing Larla to Larlo's party...but since you picked her up late, you owe me $20!' That's just...weird.

+1 to this entire post!! Love the bolded--so true!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have any texts or emails where she agreed to pay for the membership?

Yes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say goodbye to the $200 as a "lesson learned" and be done with this lady. Glad you got at least *most* of your money from her.

You are totally in the right here and I'm sorry that your faith in humanity took a little hit here. But better to know sooner than later that not all people (even parents whose love their kids) do not operate with the same level of integrity and trustworthiness as you would show to them. It is a little mind-blowing that she somehow found it unreasonable on YOUR part that you weren't able to wait until her next paycheck to be paid for doing your job!! Would SHE be okay with her employer skipping a paycheck to her and still reporting to work?? I think not...

The ONLY area where I'd say you maybe let emotion get the best of you was in the judgment of charging her for the amount of time that she left her kid with you after the bday party was over. In this respect, her kid was only there as a guest of the party. Not as one of your clients. And we all have had experiences where some flakey mom doesn't show up on time to pick up her kid from the party. And in that case, you just deal. It's annoying as hell, but this blurred the line of mom-to-mom vs. client-to-provider. Mom-to-Mom in this case, you can't just say "thanks for bringing Larla to Larlo's party...but since you picked her up late, you owe me $20!' That's just...weird.

OP here. I know it sounds weird BUT she asked me if I could babysit after the party AND I SAID NO. She did not show up on time because she was taking advantage of me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, you charged her for her kid to attend your kid's bday party? Was the party during the normal day care hours? Did you ask her to pay extra to cover food and entertainment? That's odd.

The party was on the weekend. I do lots of weekend babysitting for her. She showed up an hour late for the birthday party and dropped her kid off. She picked up her daughter 2 hours AFTER the party. I did not charge for the 2 hours during the party. The party was NOT drop off. She was way out of line. I also had to keep calling her because she would not reposed to me. I didn't know where she was. She disappeared from the party.

Is this mom partying and drinking/using drugs?

Yes. She's not a responsible person at all. She has left her daughter in the same diaper and clothes many days. Her daughter is in the same diaper from 5pm to the next morning. I know because I use my sons diapers on her. She also dropped her daughter off a few days ago KNOWING that she had a stomach virus. There are so many things that have gone with this lady. I am so happy to be done with her. Some parents are awful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, you charged her for her kid to attend your kid's bday party? Was the party during the normal day care hours? Did you ask her to pay extra to cover food and entertainment? That's odd.

The party was on the weekend. I do lots of weekend babysitting for her. She showed up an hour late for the birthday party and dropped her kid off. She picked up her daughter 2 hours AFTER the party. I did not charge for the 2 hours during the party. The party was NOT drop off. She was way out of line. I also had to keep calling her because she would not reposed to me. I didn't know where she was. She disappeared from the party.

Is this mom partying and drinking/using drugs?

Yes. She's not a responsible person at all. She has left her daughter in the same diaper and clothes many days. Her daughter is in the same diaper from 5pm to the next morning. I know because I use my sons diapers on her. She also dropped her daughter off a few days ago KNOWING that she had a stomach virus. There are so many things that have gone with this lady. I am so happy to be done with her. Some parents are awful.

Make sure you get the rest of the balance owned OP. You deserve it. Don't let this go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, you charged her for her kid to attend your kid's bday party? Was the party during the normal day care hours? Did you ask her to pay extra to cover food and entertainment? That's odd.

The party was on the weekend. I do lots of weekend babysitting for her. She showed up an hour late for the birthday party and dropped her kid off. She picked up her daughter 2 hours AFTER the party. I did not charge for the 2 hours during the party. The party was NOT drop off. She was way out of line. I also had to keep calling her because she would not reposed to me. I didn't know where she was. She disappeared from the party.

Is this mom partying and drinking/using drugs?

Yes. She's not a responsible person at all. She has left her daughter in the same diaper and clothes many days. Her daughter is in the same diaper from 5pm to the next morning. I know because I use my sons diapers on her. She also dropped her daughter off a few days ago KNOWING that she had a stomach virus. There are so many things that have gone with this lady. I am so happy to be done with her. Some parents are awful.

Make sure you get the rest of the balance owned OP. You deserve it. Don't let this go.

Frankly, I wouldn't mess with this "lady" any further, OP. From her written comments to you, I wouldn't feel safe from her or her possible boyfriend(s). Learn your lesson and move on. She's a problem in every way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait, you charged her for her kid to attend your kid's bday party? Was the party during the normal day care hours? Did you ask her to pay extra to cover food and entertainment? That's odd.

The party was on the weekend. I do lots of weekend babysitting for her. She showed up an hour late for the birthday party and dropped her kid off. She picked up her daughter 2 hours AFTER the party. I did not charge for the 2 hours during the party. The party was NOT drop off. She was way out of line. I also had to keep calling her because she would not reposed to me. I didn't know where she was. She disappeared from the party.

Is this mom partying and drinking/using drugs?

Yes. She's not a responsible person at all. She has left her daughter in the same diaper and clothes many days. Her daughter is in the same diaper from 5pm to the next morning. I know because I use my sons diapers on her. She also dropped her daughter off a few days ago KNOWING that she had a stomach virus. There are so many things that have gone with this lady. I am so happy to be done with her. Some parents are awful.

OP I believe you’re a mandatory reporter to CPS. This sounds like neglect to me. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

NO way. You need to call CPS and report that. That poor little girl. Her mom isn’t taking care of her. 14 hours in the same dirty diaper and not changing her clothes is neglect.

Please call for that little girl’s sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes. She's not a responsible person at all. She has left her daughter in the same diaper and clothes many days. Her daughter is in the same diaper from 5pm to the next morning. I know because I use my sons diapers on her. She also dropped her daughter off a few days ago KNOWING that she had a stomach virus. There are so many things that have gone with this lady. I am so happy to be done with her. Some parents are awful.

I remember when you posted about this. It’s heartbreaking that you seem to be the only caring adult in her life and I’m sure that weighs on you. Please contact CPS as a mandatory reporter and be done with this woman. Sounds like a sadsituation all around.

[Anonymous]

If you were to put it into collections they would take a cut of what was collected. If you went the small claims route there would be a filing fee, and you could loose a day of daycare income to attend court. At this point you can take it as a lesson learned and strengthen your policies & contract, and enforcement of them.

If you want to give it another shot on your own, you can email her saying you have documentation saying she agreed to pay for the membership, and payment for it is still due at the date you previously indicated. If you have text or email for request for babysitting services outside of the birthday party hour, confirm she was not charged for the birthday party, rather she was charged for the care after the birthday. (I would have waved this one.) Or, if you have in your contract fees for late payment such as $10 per calendar day for payment not received, or overtime charges for late pick up such as $1 per minute - did you charge those? If you have those in your contract, and did not add them to her final invoice - you could email her back and thank her for pointing out your error. You could say you meant to wave the childcare services on the day of the birthday, but looks like you made an error and erased the late payment and late fees line for regular business hours instead. If she would like to stick to the previous invoice she is welcome to, or you could send an updated invoice waving the $20 and adding the $80 (whatever the total is I'm assuming it is higher.)

At some point, it comes down to: do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy. If the stress and risk of retaliation seems to much, then walk away and protect yourself more with future clients. For the next few weeks I would be checking online to see if she is bashing your daycare.

[Anonymous]

The neglect should be reported. Unfortunately it really should have been done while the child was in care. Making a call now while in a dispute with the former client over payments not received, makes it look like retaliation. Still report the signs of neglect, as her next provider may do the same, or a previous care giver may have as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The neglect should be reported. Unfortunately it really should have been done while the child was in care. Making a call now while in a dispute with the former client over payments not received, makes it look like retaliation. Still report the signs of neglect, as her next provider may do the same, or a previous care giver may have as well.

Op here. I reported the neglect. Thank you so much for all the help I received. I am going to church this morning and will try to put this all behind me. My daycare is not advertised online. The majority of my clients are from church.