Help on a situation of a 2 weeks fee!!!

My sister has a daycare and ask me for advice but not too sure about what to tell her, so I though of this site.

She signed with a couple and held their spot with a HOLDING FEE DEPOSIT which is 2 weeks of care, which is on the contract (holding fee contract, not contract of child care) which will go towards her first two weeks of care of the child- but non-refundable if they decide not to put their child in her care. As holding a spot for 5 months without income and refusing other potiential clients, which is also written on that contract.
But when she started with the child, she had a terrible first day and the parents were pretty rude with her and so decided to let them know that same day, it won't work out and they need to find alternate care until they find a suitable provider..she then felt bad and said she may bring the child for the two weeks to give them time to find another daycare, they refused.
They then send her an email asking for their full deposit ( which was a holding fee not a deposit) my sister says that it's was her security fee since she losted 5 months of income holding this spot which is a 3 day a week. She also said she'd give it another try since it was a spure of the moment notice but they refuse again.
They're saying she didn't give two weeks notice and they expect to get their full weeks deposit- which my sister think she shouldn't because it was a holding fee, but it says it will go towards their first two weeks of care:S
but she did offer for her to return for the rest of the remaining days and also offered to give it another try! Any help or advice would be great:D

She though of giving half of the holding fee/ or give it back but keep one day as she cared for the child.

Well, you may not like my opinion, but here it is.

She said the deposit was for the first 2 weeks of care, it will also hold their spot for 5 months. If the caregiver was not willing to provide care for at least the 2 week deposit then she should return the deposit.

As a client I would be shocked that a cargiver would hold a deposit, loose income for 5 months and give up after day 1.

As a fellow provider I'm shocked that she held a space for 5 months! wow... that's a lot of lost income. And a big commitment if something goes wrong in the first week (as it seems to have )

If I help a spot with a 2 week deposit then I decided the child was not a good fit I would offer the deposit back, at least the remianing of what wasn't paid.

Regardless of her offering to complete the 2 weeks after she's already admitted defeat, the clients couldn't possibly have enough faith or trust in this provider to continue.

i hope this provider has learned a valuble lesson about holding a space for that long!

As a provider myself, I was shocked as well she held the spot for that long. She decided to give her the remaining of the deposit minus the one day she cared for the child. My sister learned to not hold a spot for that period of time.

Tough lesson to learn. It cost her alot of money. She should return the deposit less one day care.

Im shocked she gave up after one day....how can you expect a new child and family to transition in one day? If I was the dcp, I would be livid!

Yeah, I agree with others. She had to return the deposit minus the one day of care she provided. There are so many things wrong with this situation! Holding a spot for so long and turning away other families...terminati ng the family after only one day (how can she possibly know in one day that it isn't going to work out? Unless the child tried to murder another child or something extreme???)...and then not wanting to return the deposit. If I were the parent, after the provider said it wasn't going to work after one day...I would not send my child to her for the remaining two weeks. I would worry about the safety and care of my child if the first day went that badly.

Her holding contract says that the holding fee applies to the first two weeks of care and is not refundable if they decide not to place the child with her.

They did place the child with her and she gave up after only one day. I understand that the mother was rude about something but she could have taken into consideration that mom was stressed about going back towork. Not acceptable to be rude but in reality we daycare providers have to look after parents as much as the kids sometimes. Since the provider terminated after one day, chances are the parents dont feel comfortable bring the baby for 2 weeks scpecially since she didnt ofer to do the 2 weeks until afterwards. Ultimately the provider did not want to provide care and in my opinion she needs to return the deposit, minus the 1 day. I dont think that by feeling bad and then offering to do the 2 weeks that warrants her keeping the deposit.

Sometimes we learn our lessons the hard way and we know not to repeat the mistakes. I charge a NON REFUNDABLE deposit when people aren't starting right away which is applied to the LAST week of care if they start right away. I charge $200/month to hold a space but I won't hold it more than a month or two. Yes, I learned this lesson the hard way. Snuggles, your sister needs us!

My sister did learn her lesson, but she unfortunelty decided to leave the homedaycare world:( even though she's been only doing this for 1 year. I did my hardest to help as much as I can, as I worked with two agencies in the past, but didn't really know much about deposit/holding a spot ect...as the agencie did the looking for me. I feel for my sister, as like some of you said she did learn from her mistake and does feel horrible on what she did, but she come to a decision that this wasn't for her.
Thanks again momof4- we do learn from our mistakes!!! and nobody's perfect

She is planning on returning deposit- she just needed input on this situation which I though of this site, so some of you can give advice as we are all doing the same line of work.
Also, just to let everyone know, I took in the little girl she let go, couple of days into it but Im sure everyone will survive the transition:)