Taking advantage of me?

[cassandram]

I live in Vancouver and feel totally trapped by the daycare here...

I hate to lean on the statement "I am a single mother," but I am, and it's getting very hard to to well at my job because of my daycare situation.

My main concern is that my in-family daycare provider takes holidays on my expense whenever she chooses. I read the fine print of my contract and it says something like "I can take holidays occasionally when I need them..."

Well, it's only been eight months and so far she's taken:

• six sick days
• three weeks of holidays
• american stats
• canadian stats

All on my paycheque (ex, no discounts). I don't mind one or two weeks, plus Canadian stats, but above this seems unreasonable. I know she'll probably inform me she's taking more time off at Christmas.

The thing is, she doesn't ask either...she just informs me she'll be taking time off and refuses to give me a discount. Money is very tight for me and my baby...we do not get a subsidy. She happened to take off the busiest week of the year for me. I have no family here and can not find a back up sitter during her vacations.

I myself have had zero vacation this year. Very depressing...

Any advice for me? I've tried to negotiate, but she will not budge.
Obviously I'm looking elsewhere. But what are the standards I should expect?