between daycare and babysitting?
I started to watch a few children in my home, in the hopes of getting licensed and starting an in home daycare. And to pick up a few extra quid!
Anyway, I watch an infant from 6am-11pm Saturday and Sunday. When I first agreed to watch said infant(I will name J), I didn't realize that it would be on the weekends and that it was that insane amount of hours in one day. But, I was committed and getting $100 a week for it.
Thursday, I talked to the mum and told her she needed to give me an extra $25 a week. I was going to have to pay another mother to bring my son to his swim lessons every week so I didn't have to load up 5 kids to do it and that extra cash would take care of that. She said it was fine...until she showed up Saturday morning. She went through a big speel on how she was broke, was living in a shelter with her baby, the father wasn't helping, etc. I felt bad for her, naturally, bought the sob story.
She then proceeds to tell me that she quit her job! She is starting a new job though so she still needs me to watch J. I ask why, if she didn't have to work today, she was dropping him off so early. She said she needed to pack up her things at the shelter as she was applying for Section 8 housing and she needs to be out of the shelter quick if she gets it.
She paid me in advance for the weekend so nothing I can say about it so I shrug my shoulders and she says that because of this, I will only have Jacob til 4 at the latest. Great, I thought, I can have a peaceful dinner with the kids, maybe bring them out.
She calls at 3:30 to let me know that she is gonna go out with friends and she swears she will be back by the usual time. I am not happy about this, but since she paid me in advance, how can I say no? I do tell her that her son has been very upset all day, nothing I can do will calm him down and he has gone through 3 outfits so she needed to drop more by.
When she finally gets there, she sees how upset he is, but I guess it doesn't bother her. So off she goes for the night. Well that night also happened to be the night we had a good snowstorm AND my furnace broke. I rang her at 9pm, phone went straight to voicemail, big shock there, to let her know what had happened and that it was rather cold in my house. She needed to come get her child cause I was contemplating going to a friends or my mum's house to stay warm.
She calls me back at 10:45pm to let me know that she just got the message and had too much to drink so she needs to sober up before she can drive to get Jacob! I am fuming at this point. The baby won't stop crying and I am beat!
Long story shorter, I wait until 11:30pm. She is still not there, so I lock the door, turn off the lights and go lay down. The phone rings about 12:30, its her, saying she is outside. I let her in, she starts apologizing. I am not in the mood for arguing and am too tired to discuss that night so I tell her we will discuss it another time. I also tell her to not even think about dropping J off at 6:30 the next day. I need some sleep and she won't be going to work, so there is no need.
When she comes back this weekend, I will need to say something to her, I just don't know what. My mum suggested telling her that I am a daycare, not a babysitter. I will watch her child while she goes to work, not partying. I am unsure what exactly to say, but I know I want it to stick and not be open for discussion or debate.
Thanks to anyone who read this, it felt good to type it out and get it off my mind.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Is there a difference
Brought to you by Heather at 7:06 AM
Labels: crabbyness, life, money
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3 comments:
That's a tough situation.The mom doesn't sound very responsible at all.It's tough to do childcare because you become attached to the children yet you want to tell their parents to get with it.It's sad.
as I said on the forum..she would be out the door. If she's not willing to care for her infant and isn't letting you do so, besides the other stuff, I would drop her. There are plenty of people that need suitable care for their infant.
That is awful. And how wrong and irresponsible of her. Ugh.
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