Before I was a provider, my daycare woman would close for all sorts of reasons. I would pay her anyway. Then she had an actual emergency, where she needed to take off for a week (minor surgery). She told me she could watch 2 of my children, but not my baby when she came back for the first week back from surgery. She couldn't lift. My problem was, if I needed to stay home with one of my kids, then I couldn't work, so why should I pay her for any of them that week. I was in a bind, and had looked around for other daycare from time to time, but there was not much better out there. I wound up paying her 50% of her weekly salary. I did not ask her what was due, just wrote the check out for what I thought appropriate. I still felt this was too much, due to the fact that I wasn't getting paid for taking the time off. I had used all of my sick time, and my husband is self-employed so he wouldn't get paid either. I had no family close, so that wasn't an option. She still takes a ton of time off, but fortunately for my kids, I now stay home with them and do daycare myself. Mostly due to all the time I was staying home with them anyway. I as a provider, I have NEVER closed for a sick day. I work when I'm sick because I know how inconvenient it is for the families to stay home. I did open late one day last year for my sons graduation (by 2 hours, it was in the a.m.) and I had one parent who wanted to short my check. Mind you, I NEVER charged her for the late fees when she got stuck in traffic and showed up 10-15 minutes late, which in turn, made my kids late for their athletics. I can't say how happy I am that they are gone. I watched their son for 3+ years, tried to potty train him, with no assistance from home, and treated him as part of my family. Just to have the parents feel that I didn't deserve to see my son graduate. I try to be very picky on the parents I choose. It is a two way street. I do favors for them and they reciprocate, but I will not watch kids with unappreciative parents anymore.

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