My immediate thought was SO MANY. I have termed SO MANY! I am licensed for 12.
I do a poor job of weeding out the bad fits in the interviews. I am just not really able to do so unless there are bright red flags waving all over the place. I am sure I am forgetting some but I will try to recall them.
1. Little girl, age 3. Family wasn't a good fit from the beginning. Mom went on vacation, didn't pay me, and then told me she would only pay me starting the next week since her daughter didn't attend the week before. I packed up their belongings and they weren't invited back. This was during my first few months open so I was horrified and she badmouthed me for YEARS. The entire community came to dislike her and her family had to move due to this.
2. Family with 2 girls (4 and 2). Family wasn't a good fit from the beginning and lied about illness constantly. "Too much watermelon is why she threw up...too much granola...too much candy...etc." Finally, I had enough between that and all the other issues and I terminated them. They were here about 9 months.
3. Family with 2 kids (boy-4 girl-2). I put the boy on a behavior plan due to extremely aggressive tendencies that I couldn't rein in after 9 months. It got worse and so I suspended him. The Dad became aggressive, blamed me for his child's issues, threatened to sue, etc. so I terminated. I was in a high risk pregnancy at the time so I also told them to never contact me again. That little boy still makes me shiver as he was
out of control.
4. Little boy (4). Mom told me he was aggressive towards adults, which I could handle due to knowing he had special needs. She didn't tell me he was highly aggressive towards children. After he tried smashing a child's head with a block repeatedly I terminated. He was here 1 day.
5. Little boy (5). Aggressive and wouldn't stop spanking other children so I had the Mom switch out the little boy for her younger girl. They are still enrolled today and I have their third child.
6. Little boy (3). Wasn't a good fit from the beginning. He purposely irritated the other children, was aggressive, and then bit two children in one day (third day here). I terminated immediately. I am still in contact with the Mom and she opted not to enroll him elsewhere.
7. Little girl (2). Needed one on one care in order to stay safe and I couldn't provide it.
8. Little girl (4). Family wasn't a good fit from the beginning but I thought it'd be fine since they were my friend's best friend. She only paid me half upfront and TOLD me she wouldn't be paying me the rest until later that week. I was a newbie and shocked. The little girl was rude and wouldn't listen. Terminated because they were difficult to work with after a month or two. It was causing me a lot of stress to be bossed around by the Mom.
9. Little girl (3). Wasn't a good fit from the beginning. The little girl just didn't mesh well with me...and I had learned that I could either cope with it or just end the business relationship immediately so after a behavior plan and no improvement I terminated.
10. Little girl (4, almost 5). Escalating sexual behavior that was not appropriate to subject other children to. Child didn't listen either and was manipulative.
4 years in and I've terminated the contracts for 10 families. I don't regret terminating any of them and many I wish I would have just said it wasn't a good fit from the VERY beginning (2-4 weeks in). It causes me a lot of stress and anxiety when I try to make it work with a family or child that doesn't respect me and isn't improving.
