Please help.... trouble with parent

[beccigonsalves]

Please help, I look after a 5 year old girl and im having trouble communicating with her mum, she never returns my calls or text messages, is alway late and never lets me know and to top it off she never pays me on time. The trouble is since i started looking after her little girl when it comes to paying me she will always round it up so i feel like i cant charge her for being late plus she did say at our initial interview that she might not always be able to get here on time as she works in a nursery and sometimes parents are late to collect their children meaning she will be late to collect her girl but i did ask her to let me know but she never does and sometimes im waiting past 7pm for her to be collected!! What should i do as im starting to get very annoyed with this and as im still very new to childminding i dont know what to do!!! Please help thank you

[caz3007]

Suggest to her that you review the hours she needs and if you are happy to work until 7, suggest thats her childs finishing time. Other than that insist that she calls you, as you do have a life and its not fair on the child, you saying to her mum will be here in a minute to find thats not the case.

Late payments - write a letter to all parents stating that you will be charging a late payment fee as you need payments promptly as you need to pay your own bills.

Its all about respect and she isnt respecting you. Put it all in writing and nip it in the bud now

[Mookins]

does the nursery where she works charge for late parents?
i personally dont take "rounding it up" cos like you would then feel guilty when it comes to charging late fees.

7pm thats terrible, what time is she contracted for? the poor little mindee must get upset,

start to get strict, she surely cant have late parents EVERY day!!

xxx

[Tealady]

How much is she rounding it up by? does it cover your time? If it doesn't you should be billing her.

I would suggest a contract review, say you feel your current agreement is not working as it doesn't cover the hours you are working, and either get her to contract you to 7.15 / 7.30 or you have a late fine in place,so that if she is late, on top of your fees she pays you a fine.
I work mine so that if they are late by more than 10mins then I charge then £5 fine plus my usual hourly rate for that time. I don't work past 6.00 so anything after that time is classed as "unsocial hours" and I charge time and a half up to 8.00 and double there after.

Regarding payment, what do you have in your contact regarding late payment? Make sure you start using any charges / penalties you have and if you have none, add them at the contract review.