Originally Posted by Holiday Park:
Do you think I should be bold enough as to offer one more week with the stipulation of having payments for both weeks upfront asap ? I could also offer to have her as a "Drop in" client instead which will be less strings attached, other than havig to reserve&pay for days in advance, and after explaining there is no guarentee with a drop in .
If your contract say two week's notice I would offer it to her. She is obviously a scatterbrained parent and not a bad one...kwim?
If you feel that you can use your backbone and stand up and enforce your policies without fail, I would even go so far as to offer her the drop in status like you said, but it does require being really firm for it to work.
If you are just plain old tired of the hassle, let her go for not replying and filling out new contract like you said. You already gave a deadline and she didn't do it so according to your own e-mail, that means she isn't staying. If she didn't read it, that isn't your problem.
I usually work with parents and find ways to give them the "out" if that is what they want to do. I had a similar situation this summer. Mom didn't want to commit to a set # of days per week so I put her on drop in status. She was mad but not half as mad as she was when she figured out that drop in doesn''t doesn't get priority over others when scheduling so there were days not available to her that she wanted.
She came back and said
"Well, can I just sign the agreement you wanted me to sign earlier?" and I said no, that offer has passed. She was mad so she left. I didn't term her but was tired of her wishy-washing-ness so I let her figure it out the hard way.
You are the only one who knows whether you should keep her or not. Will she follow through if you stand firm? Will she get mad and leave? Will she always be an issue and try to play dumb so she can getout of policies? Will you be able to stand your ground?
When you answer those, you will know what to do. It isn't always easy but it is always up to you. Do you want to do the work to keep her on track or just be done. kwim?
