Originally Posted by nanglgrl:
Mine was pretty mild but very peculiar. I had an infant for a few months and things did not start off well. First the child was not bottle trained at all and screamed all day. She acted like the bottle was a torture device. Her scream was the worst. After a lot of back and forth (I was very truthful with mom about the screaming) I found out the mom was exclusively breastfeeding and that the child had never even had formula. Mom didn’t want to pump. She seriously thought the child could be at my house for 8 hours and not eat.
We went about trying different formulas and bottles but it was obvious the child was not getting any bottle training at home so it was minimally successful.
During this period there were a few days I had to close 1/2 hr-1 hr early. Parents were notified well in advance. They were also notified (and it was in their contract) that these early closures did not change their bill. I don’t charge by the hour.
One day the mom showed up to pick up almost an hour late and well after everyone else had left. I told her what the late charge was and said she’d have to pay it the next morning at drop off. The next morning she hands me the child and I asked for the late fee. Then she said “I wanted to talk to you about that” and hands me a piece of paper. On the paper she had written down any time she had dropped off late or picked up even 5 minutes early..these were times not requested by me..and the few days I had closed early, and then proceeded to tell me how she didn’t owe me a late fee because I owed her time. I told her that wasn’t how it worked while seriously wondering what the heck was going on. This lady had several doctorate degrees and is incredibly smart. Her family is very well known in our community. I felt like I was being punked.
She basically refused to pay. I still can’t believe how calm I stayed. It was so weird. In an act of goodwill (or maybe because I didn’t want my reputation tarnished) I offered to watch the child for the remainder of the week (prepaid in advance) and forgive the late fee so she could find care that better suited her needs. She then said she was afraid that since I was mad at her I would take it out on her baby. I had been holding the baby the entire time. There was never any yelling, just me explaining that wasn’t how this worked, my contract and how we might not be a good fit. I felt like my body was taken over by an Angel because I was unbelievably calm dealing with her entitled, “I’m the boss of you” attitude. I finally just told her that it didn’t sound like we were going to agree and that was fine but it meant we wouldn’t be able to work together, handed her the baby and shut the door.
A few days later I received an email from her detailing what she thought I owed her for the prepaid week. I sent her an email back basically saying “um, nope” and that was the last time I heard from her.
Owed her time for picking up her kid a little early. Oh my that is a new one.
