When someone gives you a service, you need to pay them, no matter who they are to you.

My 14-year-old niece loves to spend time with my dogs; they are her absolute favorites. Most of the time, she would come to hang out at our place and simply ignore us for hours. She would take the dogs out for a long walk, play with them, and even do her homework while lying on the floor with them by her side. She is their best friend, and they love it when she visits, and I love to see it.

After a while, though, it felt like I needed to pay her back for all the work she was doing. I knew she saw it as a privilege and not a job, but she came to my rescue so many times when I couldn’t take my dogs out or was stuck at work and couldn’t feed them in time; it felt wrong not to give back for all the time and work she was giving me and the pups.

A dog walker can get decent pay from this type of job, and my niece should not be treated differently just because she’s my niece. So now, whenever she comes to take care of the dogs when I can, she gets a nice hourly rate that she can use however she likes. Everybody wins.

The fact that the niece in the story below told her aunt and cousins her rates for an acrylic nails job, they agreed to it, and still didn’t pay after she finished, is outrageous. She has spent time, effort, and material on giving them her absolute best, and they now act like she’s overreacting for wanting her hard-earned money for it. 

It doesn’t surprise me that the niece’s mom wants to get involved and ensure her daughter gets the money she deserves, but it is a shame she has to fight actual family members for it…