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.

Quote Originally Posted by Alphaghetti View Post
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?