As the classic saying goes, if you play stupid games…

You’re gonna win stupid prizes!

And let’s just say that this nanny knew she was getting screwed over, so she fought back with a vengeance!

Read on to find out what happened.

Mom splits hairs with nanny to save a few dollars and ends up back paying hundreds.

“Karen and Ken are wealthy and extremely stingy. Their kid is Bob.

Henry is an extremely sweet, generous single dad who lost his husband a few years ago and dotes on his kid Steve.

I have been a nanny for several years now and for the most part, I’ve worked with lovely, reasonable families. I have contracts for every family that guarantees the hours that I work, meaning if a family goes on vacation, I still get paid because I’m technically available to work but they chose not to use my services.

Think gym membership where you pay regardless of whether you’ve been to the gym in a month. This is standard on nanny contracts. Another bit on my contract is called the nanny share, so if two of the families want to combine for the day, each of them pays 2/3 of my regular pay rate.

I get paid a little more for watching more kids, and they save a little only paying a portion of what they would have paid.

It’s in the contract!

Karen and Ken’s family went to Hawaii three weeks ago, and per my contract, I was to be paid as usual. Before they left, they asked if I could come in and watch Bob the Sunday after they returned so that they could recover and rest. I agreed and my hours were set at 8 am-4 pm that Sunday.

They went on the trip, everything was wonderful, and they texted me when they landed saying they would see me at 8 am. The next day, when I was about to head out the door at 7:30 am, I received a text saying that Bob were just waking up, so I should just show up at 8:30 instead.

After the day of nannying, Karen asked if I would stay past my regular hours during the upcoming week so that they could have two date nights. I agreed, and Karen said she would reimburse me for all the extra hours at the end of the week since it’d be easier just to make one payment. Totally fine with me.

The week finished, and I ended up staying an extra 8 hours total for the two date nights. I asked Ken to pay me for 16 hours but he said he had to talk to Karen first to double check hours and would pay me shortly.

Here it comes…

When I got home, I received a text from Karen saying, “Hi, thank you so much for covering for us these past few weeks. Ken and I are feeling refreshed and the show was HILARIOUS. Since we were in Hawaii, you were paid for an entire week while you weren’t working. We don’t think this is quite fair as it is a large sum of money, so we’d like to apply some of those hours to your babysitting today and yesterday. We will pay you for 8 hours instead.”

I was furious. I screenshotted the part of my contract that plainly stated I would be paid for any hours that their family was on vacation, and I reminded her that it was in violation of contract.

She reluctantly agreed, and I texted that it would be a total of 16 hours. Karen instantly replied and WENT OFF, texting “On Sunday, we asked you to come in at 8:30, not 8. We are already being generous and paying you for the holiday we took. We expect you to track your hours better next time. This is unacceptable. You need to be as accurate as possible with the hours that we are paying you. We will pay you for 15.5 hours.”

Readers, this was a difference of $12.50. I was going to SS the part of my contract that said any rescheduling needed a 24 hour notice, but instead I went nuclear.

Bob has been tagging along with Steve and me to music class and soccer twice a week outside of Karen’s regular contracted hours since January.

Karen has never offered to pay for those hours, but Henry was fine with paying his full rate for those hours because Steve was having trouble making friends at school and had become close to Bob.

I chose not to say anything about the slight bump in pay because I loved watching them play together.

She was about to get even with these folks.

MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE TIME.

As Karen stated, I needed to be as accurate as possible. I calculated all the hours that Bob has joined us since January (6 hr/week x18 weeks) and the total amount they owed was almost $2,000.

In the group chat with Karen, Ken, and Henry, I said, “Karen stated that it was of utmost importance that I tracked the hours as accurately as possible, so I took it upon myself to double check everything including the share hours.

Thank goodness I did!

I didn’t realize we had forgotten to track all the hours that Bob joined us for soccer and music. Henry, I’m so sorry, Karen actually owes you quite a bit of money. If my calculations are correct, they owe $X to you and to me”

Henry replied, “Karen and Ken, I am so disappointed to hear that she hasn’t been compensated properly this entire time. I don’t need my hours to be refunded for those hours because I wanted Steve to continue his playdates but you need to pay her portion immediately”

It was time to get PAID.

I got a huge chunk of money I wasn’t expecting, and I am now on the hunt for my next nanny family.

I’ll be putting my 2 weeks notice with Karen and Ken as soon as I do.”

Here’s what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person chimed in.

Another reader shared their thoughts.

This individual spoke up.

Another reader weighed in.

And this Reddit user had a lot to say.

She wasn’t messing around and she got PAID.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.