Sticking to your handbook rules, a vent

[Sandbox Sally]

I offer nine hour days. Anything more than that, my fee increases. It is in my contract.

In keeping with the title of this thread, a question to all of you:

Do you enforce your contract rules each and every time? This is why I ask...I bend the rules and don't enforce my late payment/late pickup fees, so long as it's not a habit, and as long as I don't feel taken advantage of. Someone on another forum recently suggested that, because I do not enforce my rules every single time, that I am sending mixed messages to the parents, and that it's MY fault that they pay/pick up late, since I am not enforcing the rules.

My husband agrees. He thinks that I should make the parents pay every single time they are late with fees or for pick up, otherwise they're going to get bent out of shape when I *suddenly* ding them with extra fees, whereas if I enforced it every time, including the first time they are late, they would expect it, and not make a fuss.

What do you all think? What do you all do?

[sunnydays]

Personally, I have never had a late payment, so haven't had to deal with that, but for late pick-up, I have never yet charged a fee. I rarely have parents arrive late, but if they do and it is within 10 minutes and is nto a habit (they have a good excuse and it almost never happens), than I do bend the rule and I don't charge them the fee. If it ever became a regular thing for any parent, I would warn them and then charge late fees. Even though I have bent the rule for parents on a few occassions, it has not become a habit for any of them so far. If there is an accident on the road or a snowstorm etc, I am not going to be strict with the rule.

I offer nine hour days. Anything more than that, my fee increases. It is in my contract.

In keeping with the title of this thread, a question to all of you:

Do you enforce your contract rules each and every time? This is why I ask...I bend the rules and don't enforce my late payment/late pickup fees, so long as it's not a habit, and as long as I don't feel taken advantage of. Someone on another forum recently suggested that, because I do not enforce my rules every single time, that I am sending mixed messages to the parents, and that it's MY fault that they pay/pick up late, since I am not enforcing the rules.

My husband agrees. He thinks that I should make the parents pay every single time they are late with fees or for pick up, otherwise they're going to get bent out of shape when I *suddenly* ding them with extra fees, whereas if I enforced it every time, including the first time they are late, they would expect it, and not make a fuss.

What do you all think? What do you all do?

[Stacey55]

I think that I am pretty reasonable and flexible with my dc parents, I have never charged a late fee in all the years I have done daycare. I think most parents are appreciative of my daycare servces. I understand that at times parents are late due to traffic and at times a meeting at work will run late, but I did draw the line this time since the dc parent wanted to go to the gym, that is not work related or traffic related and where did it get me? lost revenue. I feel that she was trying to take advantage.

It's sad because her little guy really loved coming here and would cry when it was time to leave. I hope her other daycare will be a better fit to her gym hours.

Anyway maybe we are too soft, but being hard azzed has it's disadvantages, as I found out.

Have a great day ladies and again thanks for your responses.

[Inspired by Reggio]

.........I should make the parents pay every single time they are late with fees or for pick up, otherwise they're going to get bent out of shape when I *suddenly* ding them with extra fees, whereas if I enforced it every time, including the first time they are late, they would expect it, and not make a fuss.

What do you all think? What do you all do?

I personally would NEVER let anything slide that I know if it became a 'habit' in my program I would become stressed ... aka anything that is my 'deal break' ... late payment of fees, late pick up, not having the proper clothing here, not arriving to care by 9 am and so forth ... if anything like that occurred in my program I would address it right than and there with the client just like I would with a child because I agree that consistent enforcement is KEY to having people treat you the way you want be treated!

IMO clients or adults are no different than children in this respect .... when you do not address poor behavior right away than yes clients start to assume that it is 'allowable' behavior despite the policy that states otherwise and than will get frustrated when you suddenly crack down with the inconsistency of having been 'allowed' to behave like that!

Think of them like children who grow up with inconsistent rules about jumping on the couch for example cause I see that in lots of home so it is something we can all relate to ~ most families have a 'no jumping on furniture' rule ... however in many homes children experience the following .... Monday I was allowed to jump on the couch and you ignored me, Tuesday I was allowed to jump on the couch and you ignored me so why TODAY are you all up in my face about jumping on the couch ~ go away and let me jump on the couch cause it is fun .... promptly followed by a huge tantrum of anger from the child if you do not actually LET them jump on the couch and more than likely next day they will 'try to jump on the couch' hoping it is the day that it gets 'ignored again'

IMO an adult who actually gets pissy about being called on their poor behaviour, even when they know it was wrong, is still in that same childhood mentality of entitlement ~ yes I know it is wrong but you let me do it for so long I feel entitled to do it now cause it worked for Me and so I am going to throw a tantrum when you tell me NO and than I will likely keep 'trying' to ignore that rule in future in hopes it is another day you will 'ignore it' .... however when the child is consistently sent the message we never jump on the couch they eventually stop 'trying' to jump on the couch and accept that yes indeed this is the way things are here ... and this is what needs to happen in your program if you do not want to constantly be dealing with poor client behaviour!

However that said while I do 'address it' right away it does not mean I enforce the 'consquence' of the policy right away .... I also use compassion and common sense as guiding factors as well cause sometimes shit does happen beyond our control that makes us act disrespectfully when that was no our intent!

So I do a 'one reminder' practice with most things in my program if the client honestly 'forgot' and was apologetic and so forth when they realized they'd been disrespectful to something they'd 'agreed to' in their contract ~ when they get the reminder they are told 'if this happens again X will happen' so it is CLEAR the behavior will not be tolerated!

IMO there is no point having a policy in place if you are not going to enforce it consistently and no point in having a policy if there is no 'consequence' for violating the policy cause in the absence of a 'consquence' it is not a policy it is technically just a REQUEST and that leaves it up to the client to choose not to do it .

So for example instilling a late fee for being LATE is not actually a deterrent to preventing clients from 'being late'! In fact for many clients paying the late fee makes them feel 'entitled' to BE LATE whenever they want

So unless you LIKE the overtime you need more to the policy than that if you do not want to deal with clients being late, if it stresses you out and causes your family inconvenience on a regular basis you need a 'X strikes your out' policy that makes it clear that repeated 'lateness' will result in termination of the contract and forfeiting of their security deposit and than you need to be prepared to enforce it should they try to push late behavior on you!