So...a timely and topical problem has come up in my school.

I have a little girl who is moving at the end of this month. I've suspected the mom hasn't told me the whole reason as to why they are leaving but I figured it was because I changed my vacation to 3 weeks unpaid this year and she didn't like that I made her sign a new contract. Fine with me, and I don't ask or pry into my client's business so I just operate on the information they give me.

I run a secular school which is no secret. I don't address holidays in my program at all. Even at Christmas we celebrate "winter" and do crafts accordingly with snowmen, candy canes etc. But this DCM is Christian and the DCG lectures all the DCK's on god all the time. I just redirect when it comes up. We change activities or go outside or something. But lately it's gotten to where the DCG brings it up everyday multiple times. She's one of those kids who narrates my day and asks constantly "what are you doing?" or "why are you doing that?" If I ever respond "I don't know" she asks "Because god made it?" or "because god said so?" But I just change the subject. I never address the comments at all and stay neutral.

For background we are not Christian though I have respect for all religions. I practice Buddhism but do not address or teach that in my school.

Last week DCG was talking a lot about god and my son finally said that there was no god, that there was a big bang that created the universe. Which is really crazy bc the only time we have ever talked about evolution with him was at a museum last summer where they had a display of evolutionary skulls and of course he asked about them. He's super curious and super bright and apparently he remembers every single thing I tell him. So at that point I redirected their play and the subject was dropped.

Later when we were alone I explained to him that different people believed different things which is great bc wouldn't the world be boring if we were all the same? I explained that DCG believes in god and Christianity and whenever we hear someone saying things like that it's ok just to ignore it if we don't believe in it, not start an argument.

So...they are no shows yesterday and today. No call, no email, no text. She's been coming almost a year and they have never not been in contact with me. My natural inclination is not to contact clients who are no shows. I've only had it happen once before and I feel that if they need me, they know where to find me and how to contact me. I'm available to work but if they choose not to come that's their business. But if she's upset somehow I'd at least like the opportunity to address it. Going forward with this kind of thing I only contact by email, no phone.

This is totally assumption on my part mind you. But it's the only thing I can think of that would have happened. Friday at pick up everything was totally fine.

Thoughts? Suggestions? MarinaVanessa, suggestions on an email to send? You're so good at those

Thanks all!

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Okay, here's my (un popular) opinion:

I would reach out to dcm and first ask is everything is okay with dcg and that you've missed her the past couple of days.

If she brings the subject up I would say that dcg often discusses God around the other children and while that's fine, its also fine for other children to discuss their beliefs and that you won't discourage it but will try to redirect the children if they begin to argue.

If she had a problem with that solution, tell her that you understand her desire for a Christian environment and let her be on her way.

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Thanks CedarCreek! I think it's solid advice.

I did just send a short "are you guys alright?" email checking in. Like I said, my thoughts are still speculation and I don't know that there hasn't been some other emergency that prohibits her somehow from contacting me at all. Hopefully there is not an emergency but anything can happen.

This is just the only issue I can think of that would make them just stop coming. I know they feel very strongly about religion but not directly from them. My daughter who is almost 20 used to babysit for them and DCM only allows DCG to read her bible at bedtime. Then my daughter got pregnant and DCM stopped calling for babysitting. Could be coincidence.

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Hopefully there's nothing serious going on that would prevent her from calling. That's really odd. All of my families call when they aren't coming in. (except for a new one that i'm about to throw my policy book at)

You're daughter getting pregnant reminds me of when I was pregnant when I was 17. My moms friend was rubbing my belly and she goes "oh you didn't even invite me to the wedding! When was it?"

I just laughed and said that there wasn't one, nor was there going to be one.

Her face:

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Yeah it's kinda funny the reactions you get to being pregnant in a conservative area. We're in Austin but it's still conservative in my opinion. I had DD at 19 so I had the experience too. She's due in less than a month and I'm getting really excited to meet this new family member of mine!

But yeah, the fact that DCM suddenly stopped calling for babysitting after finding out she was pregnant when they were using my daughter weekly was kinda

I agree, I really hope there hasn't been some kind of awful accident! Now that that idea is in my head I'm kinda anxious about what's happened to them. Especially because in almost a year they've never not been in contact when there is an absence.

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I'm kind of surprised that if they are very religious they didn't look for a Christian daycare in the 1st place...I wouldn't worry too much about it since they are leaving at the end of the month anyway.

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I totally agree with this!

I'm curious to hear if she ever responds back to your email.

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