Did i do the right thing

[Rainy]

I have been caring for a little boy who's 6 since September before and after school, term time only.
His parents are nice enough people but i do feel slightly uncomfortable with them, especially the Dad. I would say they are more upper class where as i am working class and i do feel as if the Dad looks down on me and sometimes as if i am something he has just wiped of his shoe (if you catch my drift). They both wear the best clothes and shoes, (named stuff) new cars, big posh house etc.

Anyway I live on a hill that is privately owned (not by me) so has no drainage, paths etc. It is never gritted in the winter and only has access from one end. At the top of it is a big field and we constantly have water running down the hill off the field so in the winter this freezes often making the road quite dangerous. I did explain this to parents at the beginning and said if it was too dangerous i would not drive to school

During the recent snow, my road was a nightmare, we first had a couple of inches on a sunday which then turned my whole road into 2" thick ice all the way down by the following day. I called the parents of 6 year old and said it was too dangerous to take him to school that day. (they probably wouldn't have got up it either)

The thick ice didn't thaw and then we had a further 8" of snow on top of it a few days later.
I kept the parents informed, ringing them every morning to let them know if i could do the school run or not.

On the Thursday morning, i called and said i couldn't do school run. Dad then said "it's ok as we arn't going into work either so we will take him. they obviously waited for me to call them first as then i wouldn't charge. If they had cancelled me i would have charged them.

On the friday, i heard that the school was closed so i wouldn't have been needed anyway but i still phoned them. At the beginning of the next week i gave them a refund for the 4 days i had cancelled. I did not refund the Friday as they had no intention of using me anyway. I decided to refund the thurs although they would not have used me but i had phoned them first so my decision.

Forward 3 weeks. Dad turns up tonight and quite rudely says, "you haven't refunded the friday. I said "no but the school was closed and i was still open if you needed me to have him for the contracted hours and i couldn't take him to school if it was closed". He argued the toss and basically spoke to me like i was one of his pupils (he's a teacher)

When he left i just burst into trears, i'm glad i stood my ground with him but i felt like he was bullying me. It didn't help that i am trying to give up smoking and only on day 3.

Anyway did i do the right thing or would you have refunded the money. We are only talking £15 here and to be honest it would have just been easier to have given it to him but he made me so angry and i didn't appreciate being spoken to like that

[Blackhorse]

apart from not wanting to be spoken to like that which I could go on forever! nobody deserves that!!

If the schools are closed and children dont need to be taken to school I would expect the following.

a) parents drop them off at my house and ask for them to be kept with me all day and then they pay me a full days fee

or

b)they keep the kids home with themselves or with granny or whoever else but I will still get paid the before and after school fee as I was available to work. Not my fault if the school closes

so I think you were right if that is how things are written in your contract/policies. (ie full fees payable if you are available to work)

[dlissaman]

I agree with the previous post.

And well done for standing up to him, you are offering him a service that he has to pay for, if you were available he should pay.

Some parents ......

[miffy]

I agree with Nicole. I think you were more than fair refunding the four days you did.

Well done for standing your ground - wonder why he waited 3 weeks to mention it?

Miffy xx

[Carol]

I agree too with the others
Well done for standing your ground

Carol xx

[Goatgirl]

Hi Rainy,
I think you did the right thing. You were available to work: They paid.

I have charged for everything I was able to do during the snowy weather. "If you can get them to me I'm working" ...One family who couldn't wheel their LO through the snow in the buggy dropped off via taxi rather than lose their money . Mind you, they expected me to push it through to do the school and nursery runs
Don't lose sleep over it. Give yourself time to calm down and just think whether you would change anything in the light of this experience... maybe produce a 'severe weather conditions' policy so you can wave that under the nose of anyone else who wants to tick you off for running a business, not a charity

bws,
Wendy

[jelly15]

You did the right thing. bully, try not to let him upset you

[Jessicasmummy]

I think you did the right thing, I would have done exactly the same.