Mrs Ahmed - At some stage, you have to learn to protect yourself. I too like to presume people are genuinely good people but hope and wishes don't pay my bills and so I put in place methods to protect myself.

I'm not sure from your post if you actually run a day care with several children or if you provide child minding services to one or two families as and when they need it but regardless, you have repeatedly placed yourself in a weak positions.

There has been an on-going pattern of you providing care, not being paid, being given broken promises about when you will get your fees and yet still, with money still overdue, you have continued to enable this client to take advantage of you.

As some stage you have to sit back and realize that you are being led on and you have a responsibility to minimize your losses.

Stop providing care for people who owe you money! It's really that simple. If they haven't paid you for the last 20 hours, then why are you expecting them to pay you for the next 20? They have already shown you that they are unconcerned about this debt and yet you continue to allow the over due fees to increase.

It's time to play hard ball now. This is not a client because they aren't paying. This is a user.

As a fully grown adult, surely you can see that you are in full control of this situation. If someone is prone to punching you in the face, you wouldn't keep standing in arms reach. If someone is prone to stealing your belongings, you wouldn't keep allowing them access to your things, if someone borrowed your car and kept getting parking tickets they didn't pay, you'd stop them from using your car. So why to goodness, when someone is having you watch their children and isn't paying their fees, are you continuing to watch their children?