Parents Always Late To Drop Off

[Crazy Baby]

Always late dropping off! I may have complained about this before but it is still a huge issue. This DCD is always late. He will text me and say we are going to be late, I have to ask him what time he will get here and he says by 11 (contracted drop off is 9:30). That means that we have to wait around for him because he might be here at 10 or 11:15. I was going to make him change his drop off time in a new contract, but the family just put in their two week notice. Thank god I won't have to deal with this anymore although I am sad to lose the child.

So I guess my question is how do you deal with late drop offs? Would you have just termed this family for always being late? I would like to avoid this behavior with future families. I had previously spoken with the parents on numerous occasions but they think that texting to let me know an approximate time is acceptable and makes everything OK. It is a huge pain to never know when your kids are going to show up and having to change up the flow of your day.

They are moving the child to a preschool so I wonder how they will deal with timeliness there. Are preschools usually stringent on drop off time? Am I making too big of a deal out of this?

[midaycare]

I have this child, only she is always here by 10:00. But it could be as early as 8:30.. and I don't get a text. That's totally my fault though. Dcg was my second child to sign up. I had a pretty good contract and had read this forum for awhile, but I didn't think about this circumstance.

It doesn't bother me too much though. An 11:00 drop off would.

[Blackcat31]

Always late dropping off! I may have complained about this before but it is still a huge issue. This DCD is always late. He will text me and say we are going to be late, I have to ask him what time he will get here and he says by 11 (contracted drop off is 9:30). That means that we have to wait around for him because he might be here at 10 or 11:15. I was going to make him change his drop off time in a new contract, but the family just put in their two week notice. Thank god I won't have to deal with this anymore although I am sad to lose the child.

So I guess my question is how do you deal with late drop offs? Would you have just termed this family for always being late? I would like to avoid this behavior with future families. I had previously spoken with the parents on numerous occasions but they think that texting to let me know an approximate time is acceptable and makes everything OK. It is a huge pain to never know when your kids are going to show up and having to change up the flow of your day.

They are moving the child to a preschool so I wonder how they will deal with timeliness there. Are preschools usually stringent on drop off time? Am I making too big of a deal out of this?

If children are not here within 30 minutes of their scheduled drop off times, they are marked absent and no longer have the option of services for that day.

IF a parent texts or calls prior to their drop off time and lets me know then that is different but "running late" in my book is a no more than 30 minutes. Anything more than that (unless there are some pretty unique circumstances) is simply disrespectful and rude....especially on a regular basis. Once or twice in a year but not regularly.

[KidGrind]

Always late dropping off! I may have complained about this before but it is still a huge issue. This DCD is always late. He will text me and say we are going to be late, I have to ask him what time he will get here and he says by 11 (contracted drop off is 9:30). That means that we have to wait around for him because he might be here at 10 or 11:15. I was going to make him change his drop off time in a new contract, but the family just put in their two week notice. Thank god I won't have to deal with this anymore although I am sad to lose the child.

So I guess my question is how do you deal with late drop offs? Would you have just termed this family for always being late? I would like to avoid this behavior with future families. I had previously spoken with the parents on numerous occasions but they think that texting to let me know an approximate time is acceptable and makes everything OK. It is a huge pain to never know when your kids are going to show up and having to change up the flow of your day.

They are moving the child to a preschool so I wonder how they will deal with timeliness there. Are preschools usually stringent on drop off time? Am I making too big of a deal out of this?

For this reason alone I only do contracted times, I explain to parents that it’s like an appointment. I give a 15 minutes window, so at the 16th minute the child is considered absent and will not be able to attend that day. Late drop offs interrupts our activities and schedule.

I do not allow drop offs off my premises.

[daycarediva]

No drop offs after 9. We go on about our day. At 9 I lock up. Parents are aware of this, and I do make exceptions (appts, unforseen issues eg car trouble).

[Indoorvoice]

I have had a couple families who do this. At first it really bothered me, and trust me, I do get how annoying it is to have disruptions. However, a lot of my families work from home or have flexible work schedules and can't be bothered with getting anywhere on time so I have adapted. I now do not let it affect my day and make it harder on them. As soon as it is 10 minutes past their drop off time, the door gets locked and they can't just walk in. My doorbell is disconnected so they have to knock and hopefully I hear it from the playroom in the basement with all the fun stuff going on with the kids who got here on time! Usually I don't hear the door so I get a text that they're waiting at the door and I take my time putting the dog outside before I open it. Then I greet them with a smile and say "oh I didn't think you were coming! If you let me know when you're coming I can put the dog out and have the door open for you!"

[Crazy Baby]

Yeah I might have to start doing the absent after a certain time thing.

It is absolutely ridiculous that this parent thinks it is OK to say "oh well we will be here anytime between 9:30 and 11:30." Like it is no big deal for us to have to wait for his child for that long. I usually leave the house with the kids anyway hoping that one day the parent will have to be waiting on me because I am not home. It hasn't happened yet.

I have also thought about charging late drop-off fees. I charge for late pick-up and I never have a problem there.

[childcaremom]

No drop offs after 9. We go on about our day. At 9 I lock up. Parents are aware of this, and I do make exceptions (appts, unforseen issues eg car trouble).

I implemented this same rule after running into a similar issue. Dcd did drop offs, liked to come in to get dcg settled (yeah, I've changed a lot of policies since this family : and came anywhere from on time to an hour late. I tried telling him that it cut into our day, affected our schedule, that dcg was missing out on activities and a chance to acclimate to care (even without his help ) to which he replied that he would 'try' to make it on time. The only thing that worked was to change my policies and enforce them. It only took being locked out of care once for them to get it.

It is not an unreasonable request, at all. I agree that it is rude to show up late and do expect communication if a family is running late. Our day gets under way at 9. Arrivals are too disruptive once we get underway.

[AmyKidsCo]

I'll be the voice of contention...

I don't really care if a child is dropped off late, as long as I know. If they miss a meal they wait until the next meal. If they miss an activity, they'll get to do the next one. But we never go anywhere so it's no big deal to me. The only time I get annoyed is if have to go to the bathroom and am waiting for a kid.

[e.j.]

I don't really care if a child is dropped off late, as long as I know. If they miss a meal they wait until the next meal. If they miss an activity, they'll get to do the next one. But we never go anywhere so it's no big deal to me. The only time I get annoyed is if have to go to the bathroom and am waiting for a kid.

This is how I usually feel; it's not big deal as long as I know they're going to be late. The only time it really bothers me is when they're late because they slept in and it affects nap time for everyone.

[Play Care]

Chances are that if the provider is upset about it, it's because it's disruptive to the schedule. The child probably isn't napping because they've slept in, or they're crabby because they were not fed before being dropped off, or perhaps the provider transports kids to school as part of their services and needs to know when kids will be arriving, etc.

I have no issues with late arrivals provided I know about it ahead of time and can plan accordingly. Usually it's for an appointment or something and then child was up at their usual time and fed before coming here. Otherwise my contracted cut off time is 9:00.

I think by the time a provider vents on here about it, it's become a Very Big Deal. ::

OP, I would have locked them out. It sounds as if it wasn't a good fit anyway so there you go. I only take kids whose parents are working - my families need to drop off by 8:00 so they're not late to work.

[NillaWafers]

I don't have someone who drops off super late, but she is always 30-40 minutes behind and I get up at 6am (while pregnant) for her! It drives me batty. I have actually started getting up at her drop off time, if she is ever actually on time - I'm in my PJs, sorry lady

In your situation I would definitely start saying sorry no drop off past this time, especially since you go places.

[Laurel]

Always late dropping off! I may have complained about this before but it is still a huge issue. This DCD is always late. He will text me and say we are going to be late, I have to ask him what time he will get here and he says by 11 (contracted drop off is 9:30). That means that we have to wait around for him because he might be here at 10 or 11:15. I was going to make him change his drop off time in a new contract, but the family just put in their two week notice. Thank god I won't have to deal with this anymore although I am sad to lose the child.

So I guess my question is how do you deal with late drop offs? Would you have just termed this family for always being late? I would like to avoid this behavior with future families. I had previously spoken with the parents on numerous occasions but they think that texting to let me know an approximate time is acceptable and makes everything OK. It is a huge pain to never know when your kids are going to show up and having to change up the flow of your day.

They are moving the child to a preschool so I wonder how they will deal with timeliness there. Are preschools usually stringent on drop off time? Am I making too big of a deal out of this?

I had a working parent who did this. Her work schedule changed frequently as she worked retail. We went on walks to the park or just around the neighborhood. So one day I told her that if I was home all the time it wouldn't matter what time she dropped off but we go on walks. I told her that we leave at 9:30 so if she was planning to be later than that then she should call me. Otherwise, we would leave at 9:30 and I told her she could ride around the neighborhood streets and look for us and he could walk along. From then on she called.

[Laurel]

I have this child, only she is always here by 10:00. But it could be as early as 8:30.. and I don't get a text. That's totally my fault though. Dcg was my second child to sign up. I had a pretty good contract and had read this forum for awhile, but I didn't think about this circumstance.

It doesn't bother me too much though. An 11:00 drop off would.

Contracts are made to be changed. That is why my contract was only two pages long and I had no handbook. I would rather add rules as needed than try to think of every scenario that could possibly happen.

In this case I would just say what I said to my client on my other post. You can call if you will be later than X time or we may not be here as we go on walks.

Making rules as you go along that are not arbitrary is easy. You just tell parents that such and such isn't working for you so you are informing them of your new rule.

[rosieteddy]

No one was able to drop off after 10;30 at my program.If we were out they found us.