Bad experience please help me parents are not paying me after more than month

[Mrs Ahmed]

I am doing daycare since 7 yrs but never had this experience.One of the parent she dropped her kids for baby sitting at my place, at the end of the week I asked her about payment (because I take payments every Friday and if parents want they can make biweekly), she said oh you did not babysit them for week.I said ok give my payment next week she said ok. Then next week comes and she said Friday I said ok. Then she said I pay weekly to full time and biweekly to part time.
Then Friday comes and she has to go for the hospital( she is pregnant) she was having some contractions, I felt bad and I did not ask for money I cared for kids morning till 11 pm, she said doctors said there is something wrong.Next day she again came she said I want babysitting today( it was weekend) I did babysitting for 6 hours. In between she called and I asked her are you going to pay me today she said yes, then she came to pick up the kids and I asked her about payment, can you guys believe what she said hey I just got from hospital,I felt embarrassed and I said nothing:(
Fourth week comes she said oh I want to invite your family on my party I said ok I will ask my kids and she said I have something for you its kind of multipurpose gel I was quiet and she said I am gonna make you payment today or tommorrow and she never even gave that gel too:rolleyes:, i need babysitting today I said ok then again 2 days passed.I called her and she said do you know it is 10 o' clock of night I said yes, I babysit your kids till 11 pm and 10 pm, ok can I help you? I said pay my money.she said I will when I will get paid.
Can anyone tell who got paid after month if they have their own business(according to her)
So the problem is that does anyone know what can I do in this whole situation.
The most frustrating thing in all these circumstances was, one of extended family member passed away and I cared for her kids I did not go to my other job and what I got nothing, Is this a time to do favor to anyone?

[Wonderwiper]

Honestly....my only advice is to stop saying yes. This lady has found someone who looks after her kids for free!!!! Why would she pay you, you keep doing it for free!

Do not open your door for these people. Enough. You never look after those kids again.

Find new families to work with.

ALWAYS GET PAID IN ADVANCE!!!!!!!

[giraffe]

Stop providing care until you receive payment

[bright sparks]

Looking back at some of your older posts it seems that you have had a history of people taking advantage of you and I was wondering if you have a contract? Is this something you are doing as a business or for extra money? I ask this as you mention another job. I think if you took some time to write up a contract and list of policies and took a deposit from families and had them sign your contract they would stick with the rules more and your business would run much better. In addition always take fees in advance. There are lots of members who can help you with this process.

[Artsand crafts]

No pay no care. If someone does not pay on Friday in advance they will have to pay $30/day for late payment fees. If they still show up on Monday without payment and no late fees I do not take the kid. Don't work for free EVER, I do not care about the reasons. Bright Sparks is right, you should have a contract in place.

[Mrs Ahmed]

thanks but can you give any idea where I have to report. I was also wondering if some one could help to print some contract.

[Mrs Ahmed]

But what if she does not pay me she owes me more then 800$?

[Mrs Ahmed]

if she is not paying after a month how would she pay me later.

[Mrs Ahmed]

I think after so many painful experiences and when this time my husband said stop doing favors to ppl who never care you, I think I have learned something.

[5 Little Monkeys]

If you don't have a contract, this may be a very expensive lesson to learn. Stop care immediately until she pays in full, get a contract written up and make sure all clients read and sign it before care is given. Always get paid in advance!

Good luck!!

[bright sparks]

thanks but can you give any idea where I have to report. I was also wondering if some one could help to print some contract.

http://http://www.simplydaycare.co m/home-daycare-forms.html

This is a great website full of lots of options that can be downloaded to form a contract, policy book and every possible business form you can imagine.

PM me your email address and I will send you a word document outlining how to set up a home daycare contract also.

As for recovering the money, you need to google small claims court in your area. There should be instructions on how to file a claim to recover money. Unfortunately I don't know whether it is worth pursuing as it sounds like you had no formal arrangement to provide childcare, and likely no written documentation to support the claim so in a court you couldn't prove anything so would waste your time and cost you more money in the long run. I'm sorry to say this may be a very important and expensive lesson to be taken from this incident. I am very sorry you have had to deal with people like this. Do not allow these people to bring their children back into your care. If they insist, make sure they bring you a cheque at time of drop off and take a trip that day to the issuing bank and pay the $10-$15 to certify the cheque. If the funds are available this may be your greatest chance of recovering any money, otherwise stop saying yes to them. You are allowing them to treat you like this by letting them continuously get away with treating you so badly. Good Luck

[Mrs Ahmed]

Hi,
Please I need contract if you could send that on.
shafaashfaq@ymail.co m
thanks

[mattsmom]

There are some good examples of daycare contracts here :

http://childcareandbeyond.t ripod.com/contracts.html

Hope that helps :)

[Rachael]

Mrs Ahmed - At some stage, you have to learn to protect yourself. I too like to presume people are genuinely good people but hope and wishes don't pay my bills and so I put in place methods to protect myself.

I'm not sure from your post if you actually run a day care with several children or if you provide child minding services to one or two families as and when they need it but regardless, you have repeatedly placed yourself in a weak positions.

There has been an on-going pattern of you providing care, not being paid, being given broken promises about when you will get your fees and yet still, with money still overdue, you have continued to enable this client to take advantage of you.

As some stage you have to sit back and realize that you are being led on and you have a responsibility to minimize your losses.

Stop providing care for people who owe you money! It's really that simple. If they haven't paid you for the last 20 hours, then why are you expecting them to pay you for the next 20? They have already shown you that they are unconcerned about this debt and yet you continue to allow the over due fees to increase.

It's time to play hard ball now. This is not a client because they aren't paying. This is a user.

As a fully grown adult, surely you can see that you are in full control of this situation. If someone is prone to punching you in the face, you wouldn't keep standing in arms reach. If someone is prone to stealing your belongings, you wouldn't keep allowing them access to your things, if someone borrowed your car and kept getting parking tickets they didn't pay, you'd stop them from using your car. So why to goodness, when someone is having you watch their children and isn't paying their fees, are you continuing to watch their children?