So Much For Being Nice

It's rare that I get to show my nice/generous side when it comes to money and my job. After 7 years of providing child care in my home, I do not let things slide like I use to.

I got the "short end of the stick" quite a few times when I first started out. Then a couple of years went by and I realized... HEY! I'm a single mom, I've got two small children and whatever money I get screwed out of, essentially gets taken away from my kids. And it stopped and I became very aware of the fact that I was not taking care of these children for free and if you want child care, you have to pay for it.

Well... I have a single daycare mom who is having some financial issues right now. She is contracted to bring her daughter on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and she has to pay for those days whether or not her child attends daycare. If she wants to add a Monday or Friday, she has to pay extra for that, even if her daughter doesn't attend daycare on any of the other days she's contracted for.

Well, her daughter did not attend daycare on any of her contracted days this week, but she needed daycare today. Normally, she would have had to pay for her 3 contracted days, plus more for bringing her on a noncontracted day.

When I was thinking about this last night, I decided that I would tell her to forget about paying for today and that I understood she was going through a hard time, so this week, I'd just give her the day for free. I was actually a little excited thinking about getting to play "Miss. Nice and Generous" for once. (Insert warm fuzzies here)

You what stinks? When people don't even give you the chance to be nice or generous. The daycare mom came in today and paid me for the week, minus what the charge would have been for today. Basically, I guess she just assumed she wouldn't have to pay it (or decided she wasn't going to pay it), and that really irritates me. And the thing is, she didn't even ask about it. She just assumed I'd take what she gave me when she knows that under normal circumstances, she would have owed extra for the day. She knows this because this is not the first week she's needed extra days.

Oh well, little does she know, I was feeling so good about feeling all nice and generous this week, that I was actually thinking about reducing her weekly rate and not making her pay for all three days unless she actually needed them.

Unfortunately, I think "Miss. Nice and Generous" may have left the building. And from what I hear, she doesn't make these kinds of visits often.