I Hate Flakers!

[MamaBear]

Ugh... I really hate flakers!

I had a call from a lady @ 3pm telling me how she needs a new daycare asap. She said she had to pull her 2 yr old son from his current daycare yesterday and would not be taking him back. I asked why and she said because the daycare lady sent her son home sick yesterday and his temp was only 98 degrees. I asked if there was anything else wrong and she said no. Sounds fishy to me.

I reluctantly scheduled her to come to my house for a tour at 4:30pm when all my kids would be gone. So I get all ready for her and at 4:40pm she still wasn't here. I wasn't going to waste my Friday evening waiting for this flake, so I called her cell # that was on my caller ID.

She sounded shocked that I actually called her. I asked if she was coming still and she says "oh... I'm sorry. I meant to call you and cancel." I said "oh really? Did you find another daycare" She says "oh yeah. Sorry". I said "Well thanks for not calling me and letting me know you werent coming" and she says "oh your welc..... Oh sorry". I guess she realized half way thru what I had actually said! haha

I am SO sick of flakes! BIG red flag though that she first says she pulled her son out of his daycare yesterday but then in her next sentence shes saying that the daycare lady sent him home yesterday because he was sick... but according to her - he wasn't sick. Does she only think he could be sick if he has a fever? Would she have gotten ticked at me every time I would have to send him home too? She said she wasn't even giving her daycare lady a 2 week notice. Crazy!

So I guess I should remember the old quote: "Rejection is God's best Protection"... She probably would have been lots of drama. But I STILL hate flakers! It only takes 2 seconds to call and cancel! SHEESH!

[DaycareMama]

It never seems to fail. All " I need daycare today" people flake. I almost have myself convinced to stop wasting my time with them

[cheerfuldom]

agree with the PP. The most urgent ones are almost always the flakes. Their emergency is supposedly everyone else's emergency.

[PitterPatter]

agree with the PP. The most urgent ones are almost always the flakes. Their emergency is supposedly everyone else's emergency.

EXACTLY! AND I feel bad and obligated to help out so I do. I am a ****er I know BUT I am getting better!

[SilverSabre25]

Ugh, that ****s. At least it sounds like you're better off.

I'll be the voice of dissent though and say that I've had quite good success with *landing* the "I need daycare NOW!" people, but they aren't always the best of clients and they often don't stay long. I've had...5 or 6 of those in the past 18 months since I opened. That's about half of my total number of clients, and I might be forgetting one or two urgent ones. I still have two of the urgent ones with me after 9 months and they are my two awesomest families. One of the others was an awesome family but only needed me short-term. The rest...well, were cruddy clients to work with.

I guess the moral of the story (for me) is that when I get those "Can we start tomorrow?" people, I need to keep advertising 'cause they have a good chance of not working out, but I shouldn't write them off completely.

[wdmmom]

In my experience, most of the "flakes" that need care IMMEDIATELY tend to be those that have childcare but their current provider is going on vacation, taking maternity leave, taking an extended period of time off, etc. and these people have been given ample notice but haven't taken action or it's a way for a parent to show that they are in control to the provider.

I've had a few come and go and some of them stay a week or 2 and others stay for 3-6 months. Either way, I've learned to identify the families that are career and family oriented and that has worked for me.