Hello,

I am wondering what wisdom I can find here regarding the situation of a parent chronically late to pick up their two children. It has been 15-20 minutes late EVERYDAY for the past 3 weeks. The story is: they had a house fire this summer and have had to relocate to a hotel downtown whilst waiting for major repairs. This means driving back to our neighborhood to drop off children in the am, driving back downtown for work and then battling rush hour traffic to get back here. I close at 6, which I alteady think is a generous hour given they are done work between 5 and 5:30. Should I expect the father (mom doesn't drive and works retail shifts) to leave work early for p/u everyday or should they be paying me extra to stay late? If so what would you charge? I am very sympathetic to their situation but have my own family's needs to consider. I don't want to do this longterm and they don have an end in sight at the moment. Any advice?
Also, until recently this has been a cash transaction. I let them know that as of the commencement of the school year we would have to have a contract, which they agreed upon, so nothing is written and I don't want to cause them further stress but....