How would you handle this dcm?

[mickyc]

For myself I would just reimburse her for the one day that you were unavailable. I would talk to her about it and explain that because you have no kids and still technically open (being paid) that you can take her child providing you receive 24 hours notice to change any plans may have made and that she runs the risk of you being closed on those days depending on what plans you have made and if you do refuse to take the children that you will reimburse her for that day.

As a parent if I was paying for a full time spot I would expect to be able to use the spot when/if I needed it. I have a family that attends my daycare that had a similar issue with her previous daycare as well. She asked to keep her son there for an afternoon that he wasn't usually there and the provider said no that she had errands to run. The mom ended up pulling her son out and coming to my daycare. Her thought was she isn't paying her to run around and do errands (she was paying for a full-time spot).

I am available to all of my parents when I am open. If I close I let everyone know and in this case I think you should have let everyone know you were closed on that particular day for an appointment (which you were not able to cancel if anyone needed care) and not accepted payment from anyone for that day regardless if they normally are away and still pay.