Hanging About

[bright sparks]

If I didn't terminate immediately for the long day let alone the rudeness, I would at the very least confront her about this without beating around the bush. Can I ask how she managed to stay for 35minutes? Did you not ask her to leave? I appreciate those parents hanging around past pick up time but did you lose your voice? I really am not meaning to be rude, but I simply can't understand how she managed to stay that long unless you didn't say anything to her to tie things up so she would leave. Also if I had been in MY kitchen with a guest, invited or otherwise, I would have seen the child grab the apple and taken it from her immediately and put it back. If I was passive about the incident, I would have still said " Sweety you need to ask not just take if you would like one of Sandbox Sally's apples, but now isn't the time because you need to go home for supper." Sometimes I think because we don't confront things head on, it can result in a way that we allow these things to go on to a certain extent. If we "dance around" the real issue instead of just calling a spade a spade, it just makes things worse. Why not just say, excuse me but it is already very late and I need you to be here on time as agreed and pick up to be very quick. You are well within your rights and it is not rude to say that at all. I would still be polite about the whole situation but wouldn't avoid the point for fear of the parent's response. If the parent still didn't get the hint, which I totally get happens, I would simply say "WOW its 7:05, I am closed so its time for you to go, see you in the morning" and with that I would hold the door open for them to leave. If they missed that hint, then I wouldn't invest anymore time into "STUPID". It's not a condition I have the ability to treat