Advice Need ASAP

[daycare]

I think that if you have your heart set on helping this DCM out then what you wrote as your letter is fine if that's what you plan on "telling" her but not if it's what you plan on handing her in the form of a letter. Tell her what you wrote in the OP but write a more business like letter once you have decided on an agreement about how the payments are going to work out. Seeing as to how she'll be starting tomorrow you don't have a lot of time to work out a payment plan with her to get her caught up so you should figure it out real soon.

If I were in your position and if I were willing to work with her I would only let her pay in 2 week increments after the fact one time. Meaning I would only let her pay for two weeks (after I already provided two weeks of care) once. She would need to pay in full for those two weeks. The next week she would need to pay for the previous week plus around $100 but no less. I would continue to require her to pay weekly plus $100 or more and eventually she'll get caught up and you will have a month's reserve saved up for her. Once that happens the following month will be paid for and during that month it will be her responsibility to save up for the next month's tuition.

This may take a long time however, to catch up I mean. Just think about it. If you were to charge lets say $600 a month this is how it will go:
Week 1: She doesn't pay.
Week 2: She pays $300 for the previous two weeks.
Week 3: She pays $150 for the previous week + $100
Week 4: She pays $150 for the previous week + $100
Week 5: She pays $150 for the previous week + $100
Week 6: She pays $150 for the previous week + $100
Week 7: She pays $150 for the previous week + $100
Week 8: She pays $150 for the previous week + $100
Week 9: The next four weeks are paid for but she still needs to pay $150 for the previous week (she's been a week behind)
She finally now has enough to pay for a month in advance= $600

It will take her 2 months to be in the position to be able to pay in advance. If you have her pay $75 extra a week instead of $100 it will take her 2 months and a half. If she pays only $50 extra it will take about 3 1/2 months.

Then don't forget about the termination deposit. Do you require one? Most of us require a 2 week deposit. If you do too she will need to continue to make extra payments until this was paid off also. What do you think?

Personally I wouldn't let her not pay anything. I'd require that she at least pay me weekly in advance for the first 2 weeks or until she got her first full paycheck. Once that happened then I'd require her to pay me weekly plus the extra $100 until she had enough in reserves to pay for an entire month in advance and enough to cover the termination period. I'm not against helping people but I personally would not offer child care without receiving payment up front. You're already bending the "monthly payment in advance" rule for her, she should understand that you can't except her child unless she at least pays weekly in advance. Just my personal opinion.

OMG you rock...

I love this... This is exactly what I will type up and tell her this has to be the way or I can't help her.

Thank you so much.

trust me, I am not being a push over at all. I do have a very formal business contract that I will require her to sign. Her child already started this morning. We will have a meeting at pick up to go over how she will pay.

[MarinaVanessa]

Cool. Keep us posted as to what you agreed upon and how she takes it. I hope everything works out for you.