NYE work question

[Anonymous]

Originally I was asked to work on NYE for the family that I work for PT and live with. I wasn't sure that I wanted to work that night, and before I gave an answer, they found another person to take care of the kids for the night. Problem solved, or so I thought.

I just got an email asking if I was available for tomorrow night. I wasn't planning on staying out late as I have been very tired lately and was just going to go out for a few hours early on then come home and enjoy the rest of the night with no one home. I actually worked last night, and the one child that was here was a pain to get to go to sleep. I would not be looking forward to doing that AGAIN tomorrow night, nor deal with the other child that would want to stay up later due to it being NYE (and sometimes his mom just lets him stay up late anyways).

So I am unsure of what to do. The part of the evening with the kids I wouldn't mind would be the hours that I want to go out. Or if I could go out and then come home once they were already heading to bed, I would be fine to take over from that time on. BUT, the reason the mom needs me is she is going out to a concert and would need someone from about 6pm-3am the earliest. If I turn down working for her, then that means she can't go at all anymore, and I would feel like crap coming home at 10pm. It is not a situation where I can lie about how long I am going to be gone for since I live with them and she will hear when I come home. I think if I hadn't just done the late night with the one kid last night, that I wouldn't have had a problem doing NYE, as my plans are not really that important.

So what should I say to her about tomorrow night? Should I just say that I plan on being out until around midnight, but then just come home earlier saying that I was too tired to stay out later? I hate lying, but I know that she will be disappointed to not go to the concert tomorrow night if I can't work. She has had tickets for months now, and had a really big night planned.

[Anonymous]

Just tell her you have plans until 10 that you're not willing to rearrange. If she wants to rearrange her stuff to go out from 10-3 then she can do so, or she can decide to get someone else. This is really short notice for them to tell you, so you shouldn't feel guilty for having plans.

[Anonymous]

I talked to the mom and it seems like they people who had the older child last night had a difficult time with him. They also have a lot of family staying with them and so they would prefer to not deal with him tomorrow night. They will take the younger child though.

I said that I would work since they agreed to pay me $5 more an hour, and I know how to be extremely firm with the boy when needed. As he will be allowed to just watch tv or play video games until bedtime, he shouldn't be too much trouble. Since I could use the money, I decided to go ahead and do it.

The money from the night (about $200) will be able to help buy a few things that I wanted to get, so in my mind that ended up being worth giving up the few hours that I was going to go out for anyways. I can also use that time to read or use the computer etc, so why not?

[Anonymous]

Say you already have plans. DO NOT feel bad. This is NOT your problem!

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you found a solution that made you both happy -- good for you!