She wants to pay me on a different day than everyone else -- should I let her?
Hey everyone! All the parents in my day care -- except one -- pay me every second Monday, for the two weeks coming. I've had a LOT of feedback from parents saying, "Oh, I can't pay that Monday, because my pay day was the week before." It seems like it's impossible for them to set the money aside that they will need to pay me and not touch it until the day their bill is due.
Well, I've worked it out with all the parents and everyone has been running smoothly. Except this one mom, we'll call her C. C insists on paying me on HER pay days -- so, for example, this April my pay days were the 14th and the upcoming 28th. But because she gets paid on the 15th and last day of every month, she told me she couldn't pay me until Tuesday (not the Monday), and she won't be able to pay me until the Wednesday instead of the Monday next week.
This is annoying for me because I'd like to have everyone pay me on the same day -- that way I don't have to wait to do my money managing, divvying up my money do my different bills and expenses and bank accounts. Plus, if I want to have any automatic withdrawals set up this wouldn't really be possible unless everyone is paying me on the same day.
I've brought this up to her before but she hasn't really been cooperative. I feel like if you can't manage your money enough to save what you need to pay your day care and not touch it until you pay me, then you have major money management issues!
Should I just put a letter in her child's diaper bag that states that from now on, all parents will be paying me every second Monday (and make a list of dates from now until the new year) or they'll be subject to my late fee ($20)? Or try to talk to her about it again? English is not her first language, and I don't know if that's why but she can often come across as very blunt. (For example, I needed the address of her child's father, and she said, "I'm not giving you that. He doesn't even live in this town." I was kind of taken aback.)
My day-care coordinator who got me licensed says whenever she used to have to deal with payment issues, she wouldn't talk about it to the parent face to face but just put a letter in the child's bag. That way she could keep the face to face interactions strictly positive.
What are your opinions?