Snowy Weather and Late Fees

[Leanna]

So now that the snowy weather has come do you hold your parents to their pick-up times? Do you enforce late fees even if they say they were held up because of snow? Part of me says just let it go (the wimpy, spineless yet understanding part of me) and the other part of me says they should plan ahead. What do you do?

[Meyou]

I charge. It's pretty easy to look out a window, see snow and plan accordingly.

[KidGrind]

Traffic is pretty bad here, especially with inclement weather. So when my husband calls me telling me traffic isn’t moving, I’ll cut a parent who is always punctual some slack.

Anyone with a history of being late, no.

[itlw8]

depends on the parent and how late and what happened. ALL parents have to cross the bridge to get here . If there is a bad wreck they will all be late. I play it by ear.

[Blackcat31]

Um, I live in northern Minnesota. Snow is NOT a new thing here.

Parents need to adjust their travel times accordingly.

How many of your local employers give employees a break on times they are suppose to be at work due to snowy roads or winter like conditions?

[Unregistered]

So now that the snowy weather has come do you hold your parents to their pick-up times? Do you enforce late fees even if they say they were held up because of snow? Part of me says just let it go (the wimpy, spineless yet understanding part of me) and the other part of me says they should plan ahead. What do you do?

I give 1st snow of the year for drop off's.

I will give leeway for pickup. If they get off at 5pm and work doesn't let them off any sooner, there's not much they can do. I would rather they are there get there by 6 than try to rush by 5:30 and have an accident.

Even our work will give you some leeway for the first couple storms of the year (it's not even always poor planning; it's that there are ALWAYS a ton of accidents the first couple times, and I could leave at 6am to get to work by 7:30 and STILL be late even though I usually leave at 7am for a 7:30 start.

[cara041083]

I let it go. Snow is something you cant control. When I worked and had kids in daycare, I had bosses that would let you go home early, I wasn't late getting my kids, but I have also had bosses that made you stay your whole shift and didn't care what the weather was or how the roads were. So Im a little more understanding. But if its for any other reason, I make them pay the late fee.

[Solandia]

I don't mind late pickups in bad weather. I live in a rural town, most parents work within an hour commute. A few parents did a 1.5hr commute to "big city". If it snows during rush hour, it is not uncommon to be 1-2 hours later than normal. ****y, and I would have been suspicious/irritated if my dh didn't have that same exact commute for years. There was one snowy afternoon that took over 4 hours for dh to get home.

If both parents work in the city, I do expect them to have a local pickup person in case of an accident or muliple hour delay like that due to weather. IF they do not have one, I will do it, but I absolutely expect to be compensated for my time.

[Play Care]

Um, I live in northern Minnesota. Snow is NOT a new thing here.

Parents need to adjust their travel times accordingly.

How many of your local employers give employees a break on times they are suppose to be at work due to snowy roads or winter like conditions?

I tell my parents it's about planning. Often they have family locally that can pick up in case they can't get here. They need to plan.

[littlemissmuffet]

No breaks, I charge. It's even in my policies. We have snow storms frequently, and parents need to plan accordingly. There are always storm warnings hours before the storm actually arrives, so there's no excuse. If they have to leave work early, so be it.

[WImom]

I don't charge when there is bad weather as long as they are coming from work. If they are in work out clothes or I can tell they have been at home I will charge.

[Josiegirl]

I'd let it go. Driving in wretched weather is stressful enough, trying to rush to pick up their child just adds more stress. Besides I live on a hill that, some years, cannot be climbed if it hadn't been plowed recently.

[daycarediva]

I typically charge, especially if they are chronically late. I give a little more wiggle room (10ish minutes) to their contracted pick ups. I then charge my standard $5/15 minute increment and $1/m after 6pm.


We had a nasty snow storm here last week and I had a parent pick up 30 minutes late, in her pajamas, trying to get me to cut her a break because of the weather.

Poor planning on her part does not mean I work longer hours for free.

[Lorri]

I let it go. There are so many road some of the parent has to drive on that isn't cleared. I would rather they take their time then in up in a accident

[Josiegirl]

I typically charge, especially if they are chronically late. I give a little more wiggle room (10ish minutes) to their contracted pick ups. I then charge my standard $5/15 minute increment and $1/m after 6pm.


We had a nasty snow storm here last week and I had a parent pick up 30 minutes late, in her pajamas, trying to get me to cut her a break because of the weather.

Poor planning on her part does not mean I work longer hours for free.

Haha yeh, in a case like that there would definitely be fees attached! OR maybe they had jammie day at work?