How to quit feeling guilty

[Fun&care]

I have one parent with no back up. She has been upset at me before for taking time off sick. She thought I would supply a substitute provider on those days (a family member). I have in my contract that sometimes I will for an appointment etc. She seemed to think my substitute would be available all the time. I only use her for when I am away for short periods of time and would never leave the kids in her care for a full day. If I need a full day then I am closed.

She was pretty quiet this morning and didn't say much to me. Ah well, she will get over it.

Families like this are just sooooo not worth it. I had a mom once try to make me feel guilty for taking vacation ( even though I gave like 5 months notice). I just changed the subject quickly, basically ignoring her whining and she stopped and never complained again. There is no way I am going to explain myself or worse apologize for taking time off, and then feel sorry for them because they didn't find backup. If they dont have backup, NOT.MY.PROBLEM. although they know from the get go that I don't have backup.

Honestly I think that having a "backup" has done nothing but confuse your clients because you say sometimes she is there, sometimes not...if you don't call on her that often is it even worth it?

[mickyc]

It did confuse this parent at the beginning. I did explain to her the time I was sick and she was upset I took time off that there is no way I would expect my backup to work a full day. She knows now that I will close if I need a full day off. She does cover if I have an appointment or if I need to take my daughter to the doctor or go see her Christmas concert.

I do still feel bad for closing early on Friday just because I only gave two day's notice. I also just had 8 days off. Oh well. If anyone had a problem with it, nobody said anything this morning.