My daughter just got shorted on babysitting money and I'm not sure what to do **UPDATES AND RESOLVED!**

My daughter is a really popular babysitter. She's 15 almost 16, has all her CPR and first aid training, and has been babysitting for almost 2 years now.

Last night (Monday) she babysat for the first time for a family from our church. She charges $10/hr for 1-2 kids. For 3 or more kids, she charges $4/hr per child. She's a little under what most babysitters charge in our area.

This family has five kids, so she should have been making $20/hr. She talked with the family about her rates and they said that was fine. She said that for 5 kids, she charges $20/hr, so for the 5 hours they wanted her, it would be $100. They agreed that this was fine.

She walked from the highschool to the kids elementary school and picked up the kids, walked them home, made a snack, helped with homework, made dinner, gave them all baths, and put them all to bed. The kids are really well behaved. She was "on duty" from 3:30pm until the parents got home at 9pm, so 5.5 hrs. She should have been paid $110. They gave her $5.

She was a little shocked and she said that this wasn't the rate they agreed on, but they said "it's totally fine! We threw in a little something extra because we were late". She didn't know what to say because they're a really nice family and they seemed to think they were overpaying her. When I picked her up she was obviously upset. There's no way they got the bills mixed up either. We live in Canada and our $100 bill is tan and a $5 is blue.

I don't usually get involved but I want to talk to them. I don't know what to say to these people because there's always the chance it's an honest mistake (don't know how but still) or maybe they're really hard done by. The crappy thing is that we have no proof of anything since she talked with them on the phone, not over text, and they paid her cash. They could claim they paid her but that she's lying.

It's just crappy because this family is really well liked at church. I don't want to talk to them about it, but they took advantage of my daughter. It's not like they even gave her half of what they owed. She was paid less than $1/hr!

I told my daughter I'd think about what to do but other than my husband, I haven't talked to anyone about what to do. We are going to give her the money she's owed tomorrow. My husband thinks that this is just a learning experience for her and because the family is from our church, saying something may do more harm than good. I agree saying something may do more harm than good.

From now on, she'll be giving people receipts for payment and communicating over text to protect herself from being shorted again.

Edit: I asked my husband about what he meant by this being a learning experience. We talked to our daughter about it and the learning experience is 1) get things in writing/text so you don't get a "he said, she said" situation. Also, give people a receipt so you have a record of payment. He says that beyond that, we need to figure out a way to talk to these people. What they did wasn't fair.

We've all discussed this extensively. My daughter sent them a text this morning saying essentially, "I'm sorry this is awkward, but I want to chat about the payment from Monday night. I think there was a mix-up. We agreed on $20/hr and you only gave me $5 for the entire evening. 5.5 hrs of babysitting at $20/hr is $110. When would be a good time to square up the other $105?" The lady from church has seen the text but hasn't responded yet.

I told my daughter that if they don't pay her, we will give her the money she's owed, but we will also be sure to tell the family that what they did was really disappointing and it makes us sad that they'd take advantage of someone, especially a teenager from our church.

Update: my daughter just texted me saying they got back to her. The mom says that she thought they agreed on $4, and they gave her $1 extra for her trouble. My daughter said no, they agreed on $100 for 5 hours. The $4 was $4 per hour per child, so $4 x 5 children is $20 per hour. The mom said she's sorry for the misunderstanding but she can't afford to pay her that much. She says that she feels what she paid my daughter is fair. That made my blood boil.

My momma bear has come out and I texted her that I'm really disappointed with how she treated my daughter and lied about it. I sent her a Bible verse too. "You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning.Luke 6:34-35"

Supper update: The woman texted me back and said she didn't know what my daughter told me, but she says she paid my daughter $100 plus an extra $10 because they were late. She says she doesn't appreciate the accusations.

My daughter has screenshots of the woman texting that she paid her $5 and I have the messages claiming she gave her $110 as agreed. My daughter sent her a text with the screenshots and said that this proves she knew how much was owed and that she elected to pay her $5. My daughter said that she feels angry that someone intentionally did this.

The woman hasn't said anything, so my daughter is going to talk to her youth pastor about this and see what can be done. I doubt she'll get her money, but maybe the pastor can help mediate.

I'm really proud of my daughter. It's hard to stand up to adults.

FINAL UPDATE: Our youth pastor is amazing and he chatted with the woman about the situation today (Thursday). He'd obviously already heard our side (and seen the messages that were screenshotted) but wanted to hear her side. My daughter ended up meeting with our pastor and the mom, but I went along because she wanted me to come. The woman said that it was a huge misunderstanding and that she thought her husband had paid our daughter the $110 and she thought she was giving our daughter extra money on top of what her husband gave. Long story short, my daughter left with the money she was owed and they respectfully agreed to never speak of this again and that my daughter will not be babysitting for the woman again.

Once again, I am really proud of this kid. She wanted me to come along just in case, but she actually didn't even need me.