Daycare Child's House Burnt Down....

[DaycareLady]

The baby that is in my care (and her Mom is a friend as well), house burnt down last night they lost EVERYTHING, but thank God they all got out okay!! I am not sure when she will be returning to care....I am not even asking those questions yet...I am not going to charge her for the time she was in care this week or the rest of the week but I am not sure what to do after that. I feel so heartbroken for this family, how could I make them pay when they have NOTHING? The Mom stopped getting EI over a month ago and JUST went back to work YESTERDAY....the Dad hasn't worked in over a year (I know these aren't my issues but I know they have nothing!).
I want the baby to come back sooner rather than later so the poor thing has some familiarity to her life, and she is happy here! Should I just tell the Mom to pay me when she can? Should I just give them some free weeks? I hate that I even have to think about the business part of this. I have been spending all my free time collecting donations and gathering things for them, I can't imagine loosing it all!!
Advice?!

[torontokids]

That's horrible. Do they not have insurance? The best thing for them may be to have the child in care so the child is in a stable environment and the parents can take care of what they need to take care of. I would worry about you getting taken advantage. Maybe not intentionally but it can happen. What do the parents want/need? I would suggest asking them as we can sometimes assume what is helpful in times of crisis but maybe we don't always know the answer as this is different for every family.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Wow ~ my heart goes out to your client .... loosing your entire home must be truly devastating specially when they are precariously juggling moms employment and dad being unemployed

In your shoes I would likely sit down and look at my own budget and see how generous I could afford to be to a client in such a position ... aka how many weeks of care could I budget to donate so to speak and offer to care for the child in the interm without a fee so that they can focus on the insurance end of thing and getting stabilized and so forth ... cause in the flip scenario I know I would appreciate whatever support and help I could get.

Also agree with TOkids .... to avoid being unintentionally taken advantage of I would suggest you have a clear 'end date' in mind when you would need them to start paying for care again to maintain the space. Also if you 'need the income yourself' do not feel obligated to do this for 'free' perhaps a plan for repaying the fees for the services you rendered without fee during their time of need so it is not entirely done for 'free' so to speak either at a discount or in its entirety?

Also I know it is hard for us with our nurturing or caregiver hearts at the root of our thinking but IMO important to remember your business hat in face of compassion ~ if you choose a plan where you are waiving a fee entirely for a short term, working for a partial fee for a short term or whatever important to put it in writing the 'details' and get them to sign an amendment to their current contract and so forth so if for something reason things do go sour in face of your generosity you have yourself covered too!

[apples and bananas]

That's awful, thank goodness they have a kind caregiver in their life like you to help support them.

I too would find a balance between what I can afford to do and what line I need to stick with as far as payment.

I would suggest that they bring the baby when they need to over the next few weeks and let them know that we will work out payment later. It's just important right now that the baby has consistency and they have somewhere to put the baby while they are dealing with this nightmare!

Keep the child close, it gives them a reason to continue to update you.

I believe in reaching out to your community if they need it. And quite honestly, if someone in my community had this problem and they weren't one of my clients, I would offer my services for whatever they need while they get back on their feet.

i hope this gives them a fresh start. And I hope they are the kind of people that will repay you for your kindness when they can.

[mimi]

Tragic and you are so kind to think of this familys needs.

I know other businesses give to charity and/or donate items to the community. From a business point of view, after deciding what your business can afford, could you write off the fee you "donate" to this family? Does anyone know?

[playfelt]

I probably would offer to keep the baby for the next month at no cost - let's face it even if she isn't coming back you probably won't fill the space this month anyways. Then that will give them time to figure out what they are going to do. First for them will be finding a place to live. Where that is will make your decision in that if it is still in your area then you will have to consider options. IF they are moving to a different area because that is where they can get a place then you might lose the child.

IF mom still has a job I am assuming she will return to work as soon as possible. Giving the month of free childcare means it gives them a leg up on expenses so that when they start paying again they have built up a bit of savings. Other option is to then move to half the fee for a period of time - that at least pays you for your expenses plus a bit more. While doing that you should be able to get a sense of what they plan to do, how the process is going and if they are going to be able to cope or not.

Very good chance they will go a subsidy wait list meaning they will leave on short notice if a space comes up which could be next week or 2 years from now.

Guess what I am saying is the human kindness part of me would give them a month to recover at my expense and then well my kindness would start to wane and I would want a new plan in place.

It might be nice to see if some of your other parents are intersted in helping out with things for the family such as baby clothes.

[Inspired by Reggio]

...I know other businesses give to charity and/or donate items to the community. From a business point of view, after deciding what your business can afford, could you write off the fee you "donate" to this family? Does anyone know?

I am not sure how exactly it would work in our industry if there would be a way to 'donate' our services and write it off as an expense ... if you are not getting 'income' for it than there is nothing to 'claim' on your income taxes so to speak ... but I would think you could still write off any food and other expenses associated with the service that you have receipts for and just not claim the income since you 'donated' the service?

My understanding is that order to be an actual 'tax deduction' on your personal taxes the charity has to be a registered not for profit organization and they would give you a 'receipt' for tax purposes with their charitable registration number?

[DisneyPrincess]

Wow i really hope they had insurance, but even then, it is one of the most awful to go through especially in cold winter season I hope the community will help !

Agree with the ladies, to see about your budget. In my case I would probably offer free services for two weeks (kindda covered with the deposit) and after, see what answers they got from insurance and if they family can help as well when comes to cost. Its really hard to say. If they cant afford full rate, perhaps a few weeks at lower rate... you really have to see what you CAN afford !!

Of course, have everything in writing and be as sensitive as possible with the subject.