martymonty - unfortunately we cannot control what the parents do, if we are open until 5 then we need to be prepared to keep the kids until the end of the day. I do have in my contract:

"It usually takes approx. 5 minutes to get your child ready and out the door so please remember I close at 5pm and would appreciate if all parents don’t show up right at 5pm to pick up your child."

As for vacation time - I quit worrying about what the parents say. I deserve my holidays (I usually only take 10 days a year and it is never in a row). We all deserve our time off and too bad if they don't like it. I do a monthly newsletter that I email to my families. Maybe that would help remind your families on which days you have booked off. I find that parents need a lot of reminding.