Developing a friendship with parents
Does anybody run their business trying to develop a friendship with parents or do you keep it strictly business?
I have one set of parents who I could see being friends with although neither of us has really approached the subject of hanging out after hours. I also have another set of parents who live close by and talk about us popping in if we're out in the evening or just mention us meeting up at certain venues.
The friendly, passive person in me doesn't see a problem with this but the business side of me doesn't think it would be right. One of these parents has been late at pick up by about 20 minutes twice now. I haven`t mentioned the late fee because we have such a good bond that I figured I would let it slide the first time. When it happened again I wanted to say something, but didn`t want to put a kink in the relationship. Now I wonder if letting it go a couple times is going to make them think it`s okay. I don`t want them to think that by having a friendly relationship that they can get away with these things, but I also don`t know how to bring it up now and don`t want to come across as rude. I know it`s MY business and I have to do what`s right for me but I really don`t like confrontation.
Would it be rude of me at this point to kind of try and back out of the whole friendship part of things and get it back to being more strictly business?