She wants to put off my full payment -- should I say yes just this one time?

[bright sparks]

The difference between me and the power company is that I only have 4-5 families who make up my paycheque whereas they have thousands. If one of my daycare families doesn't pay, than it's MY bills that don't get paid. I can't run a business if my own power gets shut off.

If a parent needs to only pay half of a bill (and I've been there!!) than they need to phone and make arrangements with the cable, hydro, phone companies because they can afford to have her pay in increments. Her daycare can not and without daycare she won't be going to work to make money to pay the other bills. Just my opinion...

I totally hear what you are saying 5LM and that's why I said there is the advantage of us being business owners and having the ability to assess each circumstance as it comes up. Maybe in a particular instance as a one off, the result of a payment being late won't actually result in the dcprovider not being able to pay her bills. I simply said that I think for me it is worth some consideration. One of those considerations is whether or not it will have a negative impact on me. If this is a first time request and something being offered due to extenuating circumstances and it doesn't cause me a financial problem to offer a break, then there wouldn't be an issue. Regardless of whether or not I felt bad for someone or not, if my bills wouldn't be paid as a result, then there wouldn't be a question of should I shouldn't I.

[5 Little Monkeys]

I totally hear what you are saying 5LM and that's why I said there is the advantage of us being business owners and having the ability to assess each circumstance as it comes up. Maybe in a particular instance as a one off, the result of a payment being late won't actually result in the dcprovider not being able to pay her bills. I simply said that I think for me it is worth some consideration. One of those considerations is whether or not it will have a negative impact on me. If this is a first time request and something being offered due to extenuating circumstances and it doesn't cause me a financial problem to offer a break, then there wouldn't be an issue. Regardless of whether or not I felt bad for someone or not, if my bills wouldn't be paid as a result, then there wouldn't be a question of should I shouldn't I.

I know what you mean, having a parent pay late wouldn't result in me not making my own payments but they don't need to know that. Ask once and be told yes would open it up to being asked more times IMO and I'm not a fan of that. If I was doing this for extra money than ya sure pay me whenever but this is my income. Like I said, I think I am pretty flexible on most things but this is one area that I am not. I actually find it very disrespectful that parents even think it's okay to ask as it puts their dcprovider in a very uncomfortable spot and makes them feel like the bad guy if they say no. I know what it's like to not be able to afford to pay all my monthly bills so I know that most larger companies have payment options. Small businesses don't normally and that is why so many small businesses go under. I don't want to be in that statistic. I think this parent needs to pay her dcprovider so that she has a place to send her child so she can continue to work. IMO, if finances are tough and you are placing a party ahead of a bill, you have budgeting issues and need to fix that.

Hearing sob stories (with the intent to get out of something) is a bit of a pet peeve of mine though because we all have them....we just don't all use it as a crutch. I hate to see dcproviders get taken advantage of! Sorry for my rant