I think one of the things to consider is how did the provider treat you and your vacation days for the past year. For instance I give parents 10 days they pay half rates for to use for things like sick days, vacation etc. and I have 5 vacation days that are paid that I can take whenever I want either a day here and there for sickness or a week off. In that case if a parent has used any days prior to leaving then I would expect to be given the same curtesy and either have my days paid or be reimbursed for the days they used ie the other half of each day off repaid in lieu of my vacation days.

However if a family is leaving there is often a mutual joy and I would probably not stress the days and know I have money already for the last two weeks and just leave it at that.

We plan things based on anticipated income and those that are stretched to the max as in every penny earned is earmarked for expenses are understandably left in a bind when the money is no longer going to be there. Unfortunately it is not the responsibility of the parents to make up for our shortfall. It is important in this business that we plan for shifts in income and have a way to cover our own expenses when we are down in numbers. ie if your family can not survive on you having less than your total allotment of kids then it would be a good idea to work on finding another source of income to supplement so that you are not left unable to pay the bills. The stress of lack of money is going to be a lot more than the stress of picking up a shift as a cashier on the weekend.