I work as a part time nanny and take a lot of occasional babysitting jobs. I used to work for a wonderful family, and I still work for them on occasion. The mom asked me if I could give my number to her sister, in case her sister needed a babysitter. I agreed, I had met her sister a few times, but didn't really know her.
We spoke on the phone about a month ago about a weekend she was going out of town. She has a 6 year old daughter, I was going to stay with her from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning. We exchanged a few emails and worked out the details. She mentioned that she didn't have much money (SO tacky when they do that!!), but she offered me $12 an hour while the child was awake and $30 for the overnights. I agreed to that, and she also said there would be times when her daughter would be at her grandma's so she wasn't sure the exact times. I asked her to email me when she knew the times and days she would need me.
I didn't hear back from her. I turned down other jobs for that weekend in order to save it for her. A week passed with no email, so I sent her an email and left a voicemail asking her again to pin down the times. Another week passed with no response. When I finally got a response, it was a voicemail and she said, "oh, sorry, I meant to call you, I am canceling my trip so I won't need you after all." I was very annoyed that I had turned down those other jobs, probably losing out on $100-$150. Then she called and left another message saying she might need a babysitter for sunday. I said I would do that, and asked her to let me know the starting and ending time. A few days later she called back, said she wanted me to come early Sunday morning and stay all day, overnight, and take her daughter to school the next day. Again she whined about not having much money, she asked if I would do the whole day and night for $100.
I feel like this woman is jerking me around and trying to take advantage of me. If this were some random person I was considering working for, I would probably tell her I couldn't do it after all, or tell her that I already lost money because I saved the weekend for her, and I need her to stick to the price she quoted me. But since she is the aunt of one of my favorite kids, and the sister of one of my favorite MBs (not to mention a great reference!) I don't want to do anything that will make me look bad. The family I worked for never ever pulled anything like this, they were fantastic to work for, and never tried to take advantage. I'm not sure if they know that mom's sister is like this, or if they will just think I am being greedy. How should I handle this?
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