Hey everyone! I don't want to be negative or rant, but rather share an experience I'm currently having to see how you all deal with this.

I look after one DCB about six times a month, but his mom knows that the contract states that she pays me the same day as everyone else, which happens to be every second Monday, regardless if her child is in my care that day.

I have this set up because I have bills to pay that come out at a certain time, and it's much easier if everyone pays me on the same day.

I was friends with this DCB's mom before I started looking after her child, and maybe that contributes to why she's like this, but yesterday she texted me saying, "I'm not going to be able to bring your payment over today. I'm just not feeling well. I'll have to pay the late fee."

I said okay, no problem, hope you feel better soon.

I will be charging her the late fee, but I find the whole "I'm not feeling well" (but well enough to make a ton of posts on Facebook) kind of a lame excuse. She could have gotten her husband to drop the money off. I mean, how would she feel if the person who wrote her check said, "Oh, I'm not feeling well today, I'll try to pay you tomorrow."

I think some people think that because I am doing this out of my home that it's more of a hobby than a business. But this is how I pay my bills! True, my husband has a good paying job, but I still need this job to pay for my phone bill, car insurance, gas, help with groceries, etc.!

It's just frustrating sometimes that parents don't seem to realize that we deserve to be paid on time just like they do. I'm sure they would complain if their bosses treated them the way they treat us sometimes!

Any ideas on how to deal with this? Or just charge her the late fee and move on? (My late fee is $5/day).