Time For Them To Face The Music And Pay Up

(I work at a private music school. I had two students who were both quite young that came for lessons for a few weeks. One week they stop showing up for their lesson time and, after more time goes by, we put another student in their slot so that my time isn’t wasted. After nearly a month and a half of not seeing these children, they show up in our waiting room with their mother, who I have never seen before, as their other parent always dropped them off prior to this event.)

Me: “Hi, it’s been a while. I’m [My Name].”

Mother: “I’ll try and remember that.”

(At this point, I knew this wasn’t going to go very well.)

Mother: “Just so you know, my kids don’t practice. I just want them to be exposed to music, you know?”

Me: *pained* “Sure thing. I totally get you.”

(I bring the first kid into my classroom and start teaching them. A few minutes later, my boss knocks on my door.)

Boss: “Who do you have right now?”

Me: “[Student #1 and Student #2] are here.”

Boss: *shocked expression* “Oh?”

(She goes to speak to the mother, which I am not present for, but based on what my boss told me, I imagine it went something like this:)

Boss: “You were away for so long that we filled the spot with another student. I’m terribly sorry. I’ll teach them for today, since [My Name] has to teach the other student right now. Could we reschedule their lessons and find a day that works for both of us?”

Mother: “That’d be really difficult.”

Boss: *checking records* “Also, it looks like payment didn’t go through for the last month of lessons. Do you have a way to pay for that today? We can take credit card.”

Mother: *shocked* “It didn’t go through? I’ll have to ask my partner what happened.”

Boss: “So… would you like to schedule a different lesson time for them?”

Mother: *icily* “We’ll be in touch.”

(My boss taught the daughter while I finished up the son’s short lesson. The mother left without paying for the month of lessons from before OR the time she had taken up today. We haven’t heard from them since and my boss took great pleasure in removing them from our student roster.)