Amateur Owner I do not believe you were harsh by asking to be notified when the family needed the additonal 1/2 an hour. I would ask the same thing.

I am only open 7:30 - 4:30, so anything beyond those hours are late fees. I haven't charged a late fee in a long time a year or more, mainly because I have good families and they do a lot for me. A Timmy's hot chocolate does butter me up, lol. But, with that being said the few times in the year where my youngest has dance competitions and I have no idea whether it will affect daycare or if I will have to take a day off, my parents NEVER complain, even if I only give a weeks notice. So I figure some of the relationship is give and take.

Now if my dc families were being consistently late or early, then I would have some issues with it, But right now, I have a family picking up late maybe once every other month by about 5 to 10 minutes.

I love my sleep, so I have to be notified in advance if a family wishes to come early and because I am not fully awake in the mornings, if a family starts sneaking in earlier and earlier then I have been known to get a little cranky. If no notice is given, my door gets unlocked at 7:25.