I would be really mad if a dc family made me miss mass entirely (no later service to attend), and I would charge every bit of the late fee and have an honest convo with them. I, too, am a practicing Catholic, and would be quite peeved to miss Ash Wednesday.

If they caused me great inconvenience and forced me to go to a later service, I would still have the convo for sure, but probably let the fee slide IF it was a first occurrance and I really valued their business. And I would make that crystal clear, too, that it was a ONE TIME pardon.

That said, I have learned not to have early outs or late starts anymore, but to just take the whole day off. I got tired of them asking for a discount because of it, or "forgetting" about it like yours did. I used to do a late start to attend an annual Mother's Day mass at my sons' Catholic school, but after one parent showed up to drop off at regular time then beg me to take their child to church with me, I started taking the whole day off. And this year will be the last year. Our youngest child is in his last year of Catholic School after having children there for 11 years. Very sad to be closing this chapter of our lives!

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