Pickups

[Mambia]

How are your pickups? Quick or prolonged? I have a dcp who prolongs pickup as much as possible meaning when mom comes, she watches and allows her dck to continue playing for about 15 min which is getting really annoying as I have 5 other kids to watch and expect children to leave within a short few minutes after I've run through their day with the parent. How do I politely speed this up? Any suggestions? My setup is such that I don't have a seperate entrance or can put up a gate, etc

[Judy Trickett]

I shepherd the child to the door. All interaction while a parent is in my home is done on the mat at the front door. Neither the child or the parent leaves the mat area. It is quick and the parent comes in and puts on the kid's shoes and coat and I relay the day to the parent at this time. I would say from knock on the door until they leave is about 4 minutes, tops.

[smileyface]

I have the kids ready to go for their pick up time. I already have them in their jackets and shoes, so I just have a brief conversation with the parent at the door and away they go. If you already have them in their shoes and jacket ready to go, it may help them to just leave. I've never had anyone actually come in and hang around that long after they get here... kinda strange... normally parents just want to get home at the end of the day.

[Mambia]

Yes you would think a parent would be eager to collect their child and go home!!!! Not in this case. Please trust my judgement when I say this dcp is a piece of work-wonderful person who loves their child very very much but also makes it very clear that this child rules the house!!! I just feel if I am rude about dismissing too quick that she will be offended. At the same time, I have a business to run and acknowledge that there is a liability for me should one o the other dck get hurt while I am not supervising because I'm still seeing her out while her child continues to play. I think I just have to be stern and say "ok bye see you tomorrow". I have tried numerous tactics to speed up this pickup and nothing works. Arghh just so frustrated!

[JennJubie]

I had one parent that loved to talk during pick up. I took care of it by having their child ready to go by the time they got to my house. I open my door, stand in the doorway, hand over child and diaper bag and say good bye. Done. And if parents starts blabbing, I say I need to go, politely but firmly and say it as I'm shutting the door.

[Wonderwiper]

Ha ha...I actually really like chatting at pick up time!! However, I'm set up so that I hand the kids over the gate and the parent gets them ready. So I am still in the playroom but can chat while parents get ready.

If you can't have that set up I would have the child ready to go, hand off at the door and see them out!!

[Crayola kiddies]

I had a parent that used to take her shoes off and come and sit at my table !!!!!!! So I installed a gate and had him ready with shoes and coat on and when she walk in I said " oh there's mommy we'll you have a good night and see you tomorrow" then I walked thru the gate and she left ..... Problem solved !!!

[KellyP]

I allow 10 minutes max per pick up. If the parent and child are still in my home after 10 minutes, I begin charging a late fee. I have multiple children and families to deal with. If each family took 15 minutes to pick up, I'd be working and additional couple hours per day.

At the end of the day, I just want parents to take their child and go. If they need to discuss something with me, they can arrange another time to do it. I also won't talk about a child in front of them other than the daily behavior/activities run down that most of us do at pick up.

[playfelt]

When a parent arrives normally all the kids rush to the door area anyways and then it is as simple as me answering the door and then allowing only the correct child to come to the foyer area - have a gate. I stand there and chat a bit about the day while child gets dressed for going home. I step in if child acts up as I want it to go smoothly and quickly and all of us parent included are tired and just don't feel like dealing with it. I speak to child reminding them that when they are at my house they do as they are told basically. Most often a parent is grateful for the help. Those that aren't well too bad it is my home and your kid can't act like that here. My house my job to remind child of the rules not the parent.