Parent 20 mins late and didnt even mention it!

[Tippy Toes]

Hi

Just a lil mad...some parents!

Parent turns up 20 mins late, I open door expecting a 'sorry' but nothing, didnt even mention it.. Would you of said anything? Sometimes I think I am too soft and parents take advantage?

Anybody similar?

Also told her that little one was getting hungry (Only 11 months) so I gave her a bananna (she doesnt pay for food/snacks) and all she said was 'thats ok' not thanks!!!!

:angry:

Am I just over-reacting?

Thanks x

[Minstrel]

Just be casual and say 'oh was the traffic bad' or something like that and as for the snack- bill her for it! that'll teach her to forget her manners

how rude!

[OrlandoBelle]

I have a parent who is constantly 5-10 minutes early. And then she sits there chatting for ages before leaving to go to work. I always say to her as I open the door "Ooh, you're early today" but it doesn't seem to stop her doing it. Then when she collects him she sits there nattering for ages again! It does my head in! Everything has got to be about her too. Not once has she asked me how i'm feeling or what I did at the weekend. If I ever tell her something i've done she twists it back onto her!

On the other hand I had a parent who should start at 8 but has not been on time for about 6 months now. She sometimes turns up at 8:30-8:45am. I have had to leave to do the school run without her before and came back to her sitting on the doorstep. I don't mind that as much. I'm still getting paid for it. It's her problem. But I can't stand the early one!

The things we do for kids!

[suzyblue]

I used to have a parent that was half an hour late every day. She then stayed another 45mins or so and wouldnt go until her son had half beaten my daughter up! Then she would say 'ahh their just like brother and sister arnt they' After a few years of this (!!) I pointed out the overtime fee on the contract. She then said it wasnt her fault that her train didnt get her back in time! I then suggested that she extend her hours on normal rate to cover her actual times and she refused! Then she complained about me to all the other parents. I gave up and after 7 years of this and other problems she finally left.
So the moral of the story is........that Im no help what so ever!!!!

[miffy]

Depends whether it's just a one-off or happens regularly - if it's the second then I'd bill her.

It is very rude of her not to apologise though - no excuse for bad manners.

Miffy xx

[MissTinkerbell]

Agree with Miffy - if regular bill her for it.

I have it in my policy that if I don't get a phone call to explain lateness and it happens more than once I will then charge a late fee of £5 for every 15 minutes late. I point this out on signing contracts and so far so good. If any of my parents are going to be late I have had a phone call explaining why.

[Daftbat]

I always ask parents to contact me if they are going to be late - i tell them that its good to be able to let the children know and that it stops me worrying too about accidents etc as some have to travel up and down the M1 each day. It has tended to work ok

[Trouble]

i have MUG written on my forehead too:angry: :angry: :angry:

[Allie]

Act like a doormat and parents will both walk all over you and happily wipe their feet on you, be firm from the begining and be prepared to loose some families because you will not be used

Luckily most families are lovely


Allie

[Saranotts]

I have a parent who is constantly 5-10 minutes early. And then she sits there chatting for ages before leaving to go to work. I always say to her as I open the door "Ooh, you're early today" but it doesn't seem to stop her doing it. Then when she collects him she sits there nattering for ages again! It does my head in! Everything has got to be about her too. Not once has she asked me how i'm feeling or what I did at the weekend. If I ever tell her something i've done she twists it back onto her!

On the other hand I had a parent who should start at 8 but has not been on time for about 6 months now. She sometimes turns up at 8:30-8:45am. I have had to leave to do the school run without her before and came back to her sitting on the doorstep. I don't mind that as much. I'm still getting paid for it. It's her problem. But I can't stand the early one!

The things we do for kids!

Gosh it sounds like we share the same parents! Always about her and you can have flowers all over the place, birthday cards the lot and she won't notice or say anything but then has asked me on another occasion to make something with the kids for her neighbours birthday:mad: .

Sara

[TheBTeam]

I was told by Ofsted that I needed to have a procedure for non contact/non collection by the parent, and this has to state how long i will leave it before i contact them to find out where they are, i allow 15 mins before i text them, the first couple of times i text them with a polite, just checking all okay and then i start texting with, You are supposed to let me know if you are running late, please can you advise how long you will be please.

This is enough usually to get them to start advising me, and if not I will talk about late fees/extra charge for over hours.

[Tippy Toes]

Thank you so much for all your replies.

I just try to be as helpful as I can and it seems to get me nowhere!

Hopefully things will improve.

[Sarahbelle]

I except that parents will sometimes be 5 or 10 mins late depending on traffic but 20 mins! I would be billing her for the extra time.

[Twinkles]

One of mine was 1 hour and forty minutes late today :( I called her after half an hour and understand why she was late but bit fed up that she didn't call. She will pay the extra but hey it's Friday ( I count the minutes on a Friday ).

[Cazz]

That's just downright rude - turning up late and not even mentioning it :angry: I can't stand bad manners!

I think I would have had to make a comment!! Don't let her get away with it or she'll just walk all over you.

[DCMS]

You may have seen my sunbed post. Mum 18mins late said nothing so I asked if traffic was bad. She looked at me as if I was stupid and said she fancied a sunbed on the way home. I said nothing as was totally gobsmacked :angry:

[Lady Haha]

No, you are not over reacting! I would be really peeved too! I was so fed up with a couple of my parents consistently turning up at five past six (only five mins, but just so annoying when it's every day) that I put in my last newsletter that I charge 2.50 per half hour past pick up time, even if its only five minutes as it does eat into my quality time with my own son. One of them turned up a couple of days later at 5.30pm saying he still had a door to pick up, but didn't think he would be back by 6pm. I could see he was waiting for me to say 'oh, it's okay, go and get the door, we'll wait!', but I just said 'ah, right, okay' and then called his son to come and get his shoes on.....:)

[Mollymop]

No you are not over reacting!! Some time parents take advanage of us, because I am sure they think becasue we love th emindees and enjoy looking after them then it would hurt us to have them a little bit longer than contracted because we are at home anyway and can still get on with what we need to do, etc. I am sure some parents think like this.

When parents are late they ahve always appologised, apart from one parent, he was always 10 mins late. I got fed up in the end and when it go to 15 mins late I would ring and ask if he was on his way.

Luckily they they are not with me anymore, I look back and still feel angry about being taken advantage of.....when they left I didn't get a thankyou card or anything....after a year of hard work (and mindee was) and all the favours and the latness, I got dilly poop for everything I had done.

[Tink]

I'd have charged her for being late. I set out in my policy about lateness. If a parent is going to be late I ask them to inform me as soon as they can, but if they are more than 15 minutes late then I do place an extra charge. After all we are running a business, some parents think they can take advantage but we set our times and they should adhere to it.

[Tippy Toes]

Thank you all for your replies, I have been fuming about this all weekend...
Sometimes I think I must be too nice to them! And they take advantage, am going to try and be more formal from now on...

Thanks again. :)