Originally Posted by Unregistered:
I understand if there is a contract, but this is clearly a scheme to milk parents for full payment even they are not utilizing the services. If your cable goes out, by law your cable company must pro-rate your bill, and if your child is out for a day or two they should be willing and able to pro-rate your daycare bill. This kind of ridiculous policy encourages parents to bring their sick kids to school, and in turn the whole place turns into a den of sickness. Sorry greedy proprietors, some of us expect to pay ONLY for what we use.
No, no scheme here. You are paying for a spot, plain and simple. Your logic with the cable company is flawed. If a service provider is unable to provide a service that you have agreed upon in the contract, then yes, I agree it should be pro-rated as in the cable company. But this is not what is happening here. The care provider was open and able to provide services the entire five weeks the OP was in the hospital. The parent was calling and giving updates which I assume made the provider think she was interested in keeping her spot, otherwise, why call if she was planning to cut and run? The provider also probably thought it was in poor taste to mention money on these phone calls because the kid was still sick in the hospital, and she probably thought the parent would do the right thing after the kid was better. So when she does finally ask for the 5 weeks of missed income which she could have filled with another family in the time she had held the spot, the parent balks, wants a discount and is now planning on leaving with NO NOTICE. I would require payment by the end of the month too if I did something nice and the parent acted like that to me! What did the provider do to deserve that besides hold the space and expect to be paid for it?
It is attitudes like these and situations like these that turn daycare providers from nice, flexible, generous people into purely business women/men with no exceptions. When you open your heart to families and try your best while trying your best to provide an income for your own family and the best people can say is that we are "greedy proprietors" trying to "milk" the parents? Uhhh, if I was trying to be greedy, maybe I would be charging a wee bit more than 3.50 an hour, hon. But good luck with that.