Wanted: One Collection Agent, must be relentless.

I was recently laid off from my part time job, so I am home full time with the kids now. I miss the money, but this was pretty much the plan all along anyway. So since I've been home, I've taken on some babysitting gigs. The first couple were freebies to help out some friends when they got stuck. The last few are paying gigs. Well, they are supposed to be paying gigs.

A neighbor asked me to watch her daughter a few days a week. She just got a night shift position and didn't want to leave her 13 yr old home unattended. The deal was I would pick her up from the afterschool program, feed her snacks, dinner, and dessert. Check to see if she needs homework help, and pretty much just make sure she's somewhere safe for those few hours before bedtime. We would then walk her home at 8:30pm. If her mom works on the weekends she sometimes sleeps over. So this has been going on for a couple of weeks now and her mom has yet to pay me. I keep hearing "I will pay you tomorrow" or "Thursday for sure!" I haven't seen one thin dime yet. It's absolutely degrading to have to beg for the money. I hate asking for it, but I finally called to find out when I would see some cash. The mother wasn't home, but her daughter told me that they needed to get through the holidays before they were going to pay me. I told her that didn't work for me and I couldn't sit for her anymore until I got paid.

That was Sunday. I haven't heard from them yet.

Errr ...It's not fair to make me the bad guy in this. I appreciate that it's hard to be a single mom, but we're a family of five here. We have bills too. She already owes me $75, if she charges any more she'll have an even harder time paying me.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'm not going to chase her down for the money, but I'm sticking to my guns and not babysitting her kid until I get paid. That means her 13 year old, who has a boyfriend, will be home alone.

You gotta love guilt.