Question/Rant:

Has anyone extended their hand out to help someone only to regret having done so? Is there a polite way of declining to ever help again without being mean? I’m the person that hates saying no and turning people away but.... ugh!!!!! I agreed to watch the daughter of my husbands coworkers this weekend while they went to a wedding out of state. To start off were a lot of issues leading up to this weekend all dealing with them and how vague the details were that they’d give us. Getting information about what and when etc was like pulling teeth. Then came the day they were going to leave and they just show up 2 1/2 hours early without warning and then hang around my house that I didn’t have time to clean. I could get into their kids behavior but she’s 5 and I know some kids just act out when parents aren’t around so I’ll just blow over that. Fast forward to today and literally the exact time that I’m expecting them to come pick her up they text to say that there was an “emergency” (it was never stated what the emergency was) and they missed their flight. Now because it’s a weekend leading up to a holiday they can’t get a flight until Tuesday unless they switch airlines. It’s already been 3 days. My daughters have school both Monday and Tuesday. I have to get ready for Thanksgiving. Plus, at 5 years of age, the two younger kids are starting to get sick of each other. I really don’t know what to do. If I was leaving my kids with someone who wasn’t family, I would make sure that person had my flight numbers, phone number for the hotel, and whatever else I could possibly think of. And if for some reason something like this happened, I would be apologizing up and down for the inconvenience. Not mention, probably spending the money to switch airlines so I could get home to my children. Am I crazy? Is it just me? Am I expecting too much from people?