IN A Poopie Situation, Long

[Snowmom]

I love that we all see things differently. You have a good heart.

I guess the way that I see it. Is as a consequence to the parent.

This parent disregard all of our request to help with their child's behavior and on some occasions laughed at some of the things the child did while in our care.

I reminded the parent that while I understand they don't have a remote control from afar to control their child while with me, it is their responsibility to help heir child be reminded of the expectations of their behavior. To also support all policies of the childcare and back all rules, or just like failure to make an ontime payment, there will be a finincial consequence.

I don't think it's fair that despite all my efforts and zero on the parents part to resolve this matter means I just have to lose all of the expected income that was already allocated for the month. Which means all the food I paid for the month, insurance, staff, curriculum, Christmas party and so on.

I guess I see it no different than the way we attach money to other things. If you as the parent do zero, you get ZERO back.

I understand both lines of thinking (i.e.: no refunds as a consequence AND return of money for no services rendered).
I just wanted to chime in with my own thoughts: I do think you should absolutely protect yourself (via your contract) when it comes to "no refunds" BUT leave it up to your discretion if you want to refund or not for immediate termination. Which is what the ultimate outcome was.

The reason I say this, is because yes, good relationships can go bad at the drop of a hat. We've seen what we thought were golden parents turn vindictive and mean too frequently.
If you don't have that verbiage in your contract, you open yourself up to potential parents that will act like an a** and break every policy they want just so you'll terminate and they'll get their money back.

[midaycare]

On the few times I've termed, it hasn't gone smoothly. There is begging, pleading, then a whole bunch of anger. Aimed at me.

I do as BC. "Here's your money...take it and goooo!" Both for my conscious and for drama.

[daycare]

You don't have to lose all the expected income for the month, you could provide services with the intention of being done when the month is up.

You chose to terminate care.

You are unwilling to provide care through the notice or paid period.... so this was not the parents choice see where I am coming from?

You said "the parent disregard all of our requests to help with their child's behavior and on some occasions laughed at some of the things the child did while in our care."

My thoughts are that I would have terminated care at that point and not gone any further but because you continued to accept the parent's actions (or lack of actions) and are now terminating care with no option to use services they already paid for, it just looks shady to me.

These are the situations that give parent's ammo to think we are money hungry.

I DO see where you are coming from but I just feel as if my conscious would rest easier if there was no money involved/kept.

As for other fees... I don't charge fees for anything that there isn't a "trade for"....Unless I am forgetting something I can't think of anything I charge a fee for in which there is nothing in return or traded off...

Again, for what it's worth.... this is just my personal opinion and how I feel about it. I think every relationship that can end on a neutral note is a good thing. I don't know all the details but my thoughts are "in general" and not really specific to this particular situation.

I love your outlook, you know that. I do agree with you in that it is different that looking at it in comparison to a late pick up or so on.

In most cases, I have always allowed to let a family finish out their spot or refund money. I guess in this case, the way that everything went down, I feel like I did everything on my part to give chances and as you said, I gave too many.

there was no way I was willing to take the child back after hurting almost every child in our care in one day.

I do see where you are coming from and it is something for me to think about.

I have had other families I have had to term over money, not paying on time and I have always given them the option to still attend or just refund and be done.