Default Style Register
Daycare.com Forum
Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>And The Award For WORST DAYCARE PARENT EVER Goes To...
cillybean83 11:33 AM 12-18-2010
So, I had one of my daycare parents quit without payment on Dec 8th. She didn't pay for the previous week because she "decided to go visit her mom"...um ok that's fine but you have a contract stating that if daycare is open, you pay for your slot. The previous week (thanksgiving week) I had gallbladder surgery, daycare was closed, no one had to pay.

Well, this parent decided that if I closed daycare during Thanksgiving week, then she would just extend her stay at her moms for an additional week. I explained that daycare was open bright and early Monday morning, everyone else showed up, she could have too, but she made the decision not to, that's on her not me.

So, December 7th she drops her kid off, and again doesnt pay! Her husband picks their daughter up that night and he speaks NO english so it isn't worth discussing with him IMO so the next morning, hubby drops their daughter off again. So now I see what's going on here, she's sending her non english speaking husband to drop off/pick up knowing that I can't discuss payment with him. Well, that didn't stop me, I was like "your wife has not been paying me to keep your daughter. I need to be paid or else I can't keep watching her" so he says "ok i tell her"...but he doesn't go for his wallet to pay me, which further annoyed me....but i'm like he might not have even understood what i meant, i'll call her during her lunch break.

Well, 10 minutes later I get a call from her and she is LIVID, screaming at me about how dare i discuss her business with her husband (um, what?) and that she would bring me my #^&!^ money and our friendship was over, blah blah blah...so I'm still calm, I'm like "I don't have a personal issue with you, I just want to be paid for my services, I watch your daughter 55+ hours a week, all I ask is to be paid on time" she *loses her mind* and starts screaming and swearing again "oh so now i'm a bad mother, you have to watch my kid to much, if it's too much for you to watch my kid, then i won't bring her back!!!" so I (somehow, still calmly) say "that's fine, you aren't required to bring her back, but you are required to fulfill your contract, pay 1 months tuition in place of notice, pay for the week you missed last week, and for the day your daughter was here this week, I won't charge you for this week since this she was only here one day, and we'll part ways" she screams into the phone "you won't get a dime from me again EVER" to which I reply "then it's time for you to come pick up your child, have a good day" and I hang up. Her husband comes to get the baby and apologizes about a hundred times, his wife is blowing up my phone every 10 minutes and i finally just ignore her calls and she stops.

I send her an email, ignoring her psychosis and just stating what she owes me, the amount was $590 but I removed $250 because she had prepaid $650 back in October because her dad gave her money, and instead of paying $120 a week, she had been paying $70, and $50 of the prepaid amount was being applied to her bill weekly, well she still had a balance of $250 on her account so I applied that to what she owed, making the final balance $240, I told her she had a week to pay it, if payment wasn't made in full after a week, a fee of $5 a day would accrue on her account. She wrote back that I owed HER $400, because she wasn't paying a cancelation fee because she didn't break her contract because i told her to come get her kid, and that she had $400 in her account not $250, and I owed her $20 for a brand new box of diapers (even though everyone here takes turns buying diapers and wipes) and that i had 24 hours to drop off her daughters onesie and sippy cup or she was filing a police report because if i don't bring her stuff to her then that means i stole it. Oh, and that she hired an attorney because she was never given a copy of her contract so she didn't know what it said. Well, she was given a copy of her contract, she signed, initialed, and dated that she was given a copy, and she signed, initialed, and dated that she received a copy of her handbook that spells out in very simple terms all of my policies regarding supplies, termination, late payments, etc...but for good measure i sent her copies of those too.

Ok, I think we can all agree that no attorney is getting involved in something that is under $500, so I wrote back that I was done communicating through email, she had her say, I had mine, it was finished, that she should expect a package that required signature confirmation, I listed out everything that was included in the package, and I was done.

That's when she started calling again, calling after 10 pm to wake up my kids, calling when I was a church leaving voicemails that she's sitting in my driveway, threatening me, etc...she's a basket case

Well, she refused the certified package twice so it's coming back to me, so I'm going to keep this one for court, it's sealed and the judge can open it for themselves to see what i had originally sent her, that she refused, and I'll make another package and send it to her business, she's an owner so it isn't like she can claim that i was putting her business out there to her boss or something...I hate that I'm going to have to go to small claims but I'm confident I'll win. When it's all said and done, with late fees, lost wages, and filing costs, she's going to owe me nearly $700. I told her I would be filing in small claims on 1/17/11, roughly 30 days after her late fees kicked in. I was told that if I wait too long, the judge will put a cap on how much I can charge for late fees.

Just thought I would share my horror story with everyone, and I'm curious as to how others would handle this situation, it's by far the worst experience I've ever had in daycare!
Reply
Michael 01:30 PM 12-18-2010
Well.....welcome to the Daycare.com Forum! That was some intro. The forum slows down on the weekends but come Monday expect a lot of comments.
Reply
cillybean83 01:32 PM 12-18-2010
haha yeah i guess it was! I've been lurker around as an unregistered user for a while but i like it here and wanted to join, you guys have a lot of really useful information!
Reply
nannyde 02:09 PM 12-18-2010
YIKES

One thing: Any time you have a running balance you need to calculate it weekly and have the parent sign the "balance" sheet EVERY week. That way there is no misunderstanding.

Make sure you provide the Judge with a sheet with a weekly balance total so he can see pay in and fees deducted.

If you are licensed or registered be prepared for an inspection or a child abuse allegation. Parents who owe money retaliate with complaints. Make sure you have all your other paperwork ready to go and greet the inspector with a smile.
Reply
JeepGirl6 03:54 PM 12-18-2010
Last week I went through about the same thing with a parent. Her child was being very disruptive, hitting, kicking and pulling hair. After talking with the parents 5 times about the incidents I decided enough was enough and I told her she could bring him for one more week and then I was done because other parents were getting upset with me their children were getting hurt. I told her that I did everything I could for her son and nothing has changed. She was very rude to me, I was being professional the entire time. She told me that her son doesn't sleep at my house because he knows that I treat him differently and he knows he gets time outs every time he is here. He is 19 months, he has been crying when I put him down for nap for the past 6 months...She wanted me to leave him in the pack n play for an hour, no matter if he was crying, playing or sleeping...I do not believe in letting a child cry for that long....Her husband told me that he wanted my Fiance to come upstairs and disipline their child...that is not my fiances responsibility..let alone he would not feel comfortable with doing that...She also said to me "You're going to get another child just like him and not know what to do with him either and your just going to get rid of him" I know how to help children when they are acting out but her child would not listen to me at all. She also told me that I need to go talk to professionals because she doesn't feel I am doing my job because she doesn't know what to do with him at home so I should know what to do with him at my home. I have my Associates Degree in ECE..I know what I learned in school and I use it. Well anyways she canceled the check for that week so I mailed her a bill though the mail stating what she owes me, the bank cancellation check fee and her past due fees. If she does not pay it by December 27th I will be taking her to small claims...so we will just have to see how it goes

Hang in there, you have other parents to back you up if she threatens you or tries to report you for any reason. Keep a log of what has been said to you and E-mails to show you have proof of what is being said. Keep us posted
Reply
Abigail 07:52 PM 12-18-2010
Wow, I feel really bad for you! What a hassle some parents make things. Besides, the husband/dad had every right to know they had an unpaid balance because wasn't he on the contract too?

I guess I've never heard of pre-paid balances, but it shouldn't be too tough to figure out. Even if you never had her sign every week, it should add up to be correct on paper since you said you have everything documented. If you have a caller id, you could save all the times she has called or write them down too as proof of her bothering you.

I sure hope everything works out. Good job on stating a specific date for filing for small claims.
Reply
cillybean83 08:45 PM 12-18-2010
I was kind of confused by the prepaid thing to to be honest...She said she wanted to pay some up front so she didn't have to pay as much every week, so I asked her if she just wanted to pay off 4-5 weeks in advance and owe nothing, she was like "no no, I just want to knock a little off each week"

I was talking to my brother (he's a lawyer) and he said that the fact that I'm acknowledging that she prepaid X amount of dollars will go a long way with the judge. I asked her when she prepaid if she wanted me to sign anything stating that she prepaid some, or if she wanted a revised contract showing what her new weekly amount would be for the next X amount of weeks, and she was like "no no it's fine, just write the regular receipts and that's enough" so i just wrote her receipts as paying $70 instead of $120 and made a notation that the remaining $50 was deducted from her "account"

I could (although I wouldn't) tell the judge "oh her account was exhausted, there were no funds left" but I'm honest and legit with my business, all I want is what she actually owes, I wouldn't try and screw anyone over, which is why it's so annoying that she is doing exactly that to me!

The other thing that drives me crazy is that she is a small business owner herself, she owns a nail salon...i'm sure she wouldn't want to work on someones grimy feet for half an hour then have them walk off without paying her...but she was more than willing to do the equivelant to me.

So far I've played nice, but if she wants to play dirty and call state and make accusations, the girl has a lot of skeletons in her closet that could get her in a lot of trouble with the IRS, immigration, the cosmetology board, she could lose her business...she has worked the system and is one of those people who thinks she should get everything she wants handed to her on a silver platter which is why she got so angry when i didn't bend to her and give her what she wanted...

Hopefully the outcome will be a good one, but somehow I think it will end pretty ugly....and the sad part is that it's all because she didn't want to pay a silly $240 that she owes, I've seen her spend more than that on a wallet!
Reply
SilverSabre25 05:51 AM 12-19-2010
Yuck, some people. Hopefully she'll get what's coming to her, and you'll get what you're rightfully owed. I don't know that I could have handled something like that as calmly as it sounds like you have! I'm sorry you're going through this; she sounds like a real piece of work.
Reply
dEHmom 06:19 AM 12-19-2010
CillyBean,
So sorry to hear this has happened. And i agree, If they want to play dirty, we can play dirty too.

Because of horror stories such as this, I make sure all my payments are PRIOR to care, and most if not all parents are fine with that. If there's any difference, it gets carried over to next week (if they have a credit for any reason, or if they owe more because they are late), or they pay the late fee when they show up. I just found this a much simpler way. No pay, no stay. No chance for someone to rip me off.

Also, I don't know if you seen where I posted about the deposit and cancellation, but I was given a cheque for $200 as a deposit for 2 children. I cashed it immediately, but am still waiting to see if it bounces. They showed up right as they knew I was walking out the door to give me the deposit. I should have certified it, or went to their bank but I never thought of that. The next morning they call at 9am saying they changed their mind. I told them you paid already, you might as well use your money! Haven't heard back from them yet, but I said call me first week in January to schedule a few days. But you can bet that if they did cancel their cheque, I will be taking to small claims court, $50 to file the claim, for a $200 cheque, plus $30 NSF charge, time lost due to court, income lost because they guaranteed they were taking 2 slots etc. Definitely easier for them to just leave the cheque as is, and walk away if that's what they decide to do come January. Still praying they haven't cancelled it. Besides, I'm sure I can use the stub stating deposit date/time, and take the cancellation of the cheque time into consideration as well.
Reply
Lilbutterflie 05:46 AM 12-20-2010
Wow, I can't believe this lady! I'm so sorry she has treated you this way. That's why a lot of us are now requiring "Pay before you play" these days. Good luck in court!! Hope you get absolutely every penny you are owed!
Reply
DCMomOf3 06:04 AM 12-20-2010
Wow. I hope she decides to pay you and get it over with instead of going to court. That will cost her more in the long run. Just thinking of parents who yell at providers for something like that makes my head hurt.

Best of luck to you, and welcome!
Reply
nannyde 06:22 AM 12-20-2010
Get geared up for an investigation. She's got all the signs of someone who wants to be able to involve child protective or the DHS to validate her removing the child right away.

It's a VERY common reaction to money disputes. It doesn't cost her a thing to have the State or Child Protective investigate you. It can only help ... not hurt her position should you go to court.
Reply
Tags:bad parent
Reply Up