Anonymous wrote:OP here. I cancelled on them. I blamed most of it on the sickness thing- told them I was not willing to expose myself to what may be norovirus, as it could potentially keep me out of work for a few days and I could expose my young weekday charge. And it's true! This may be an unpopular opinion, but I wouldn't voluntarily take care of a puking kid for ANY amount of money. Being sick is the thing I hate the most, and I'm 100% unwilling to knowingly expose myself. It's unsafe for me and the family I work for.

They seemed annoyed and confused as to why I was cancelling, they truly didn't see anything wrong with increasing my workload tenfold and letting me know the morning of. They told me I really put them in a bind and asked me if I knew anyone who could take my place. Yeah right, as if I'm gonna send one of my friends into that mess.

Part of me thinks maybe they knew about the extra kids and the late end-time all along, but didn't tell me until the day of, thinking that I wouldn't cancel since I already committed. Oh well. It's really not that big of a loss for me, they aren't a great family to work for. I had to fight them to get a $2/hr pay increase when their 10 month old came along, they always round down when they pay me (if the total is $44, they'll give me $40 and not mention the difference), and they are notoriously late, sometimes an hour or two without giving me a heads up. I won't be sitting for them in the future. Thanks for the advice guys, glad to know I made the right decision.