I was in your same situation a couple of years ago. I updated all my policies I included late fees and I actually had a parent leave due to me finally charging a late fee after her sixth late pickup and two verbal notices stating I would be charging a late fee the next time. They will walk all over you if you let them and you will continue to hate your job if you don't put your foot down. I also had a parent who had three other children not in my care and they would literally run around my house at pickup time for 20 minutes. One even sat on my dining room table every afternoon for a 2 weeks and the mom said nothing. I sent a notice home stating that siblings needed to stand near the doorway and notified all parents that I would be closing my business 10 minutes earlier every day in order to do cleanup. That same parent read the notice and came in asking if any policies had changed. My response to her was "you did read the notice right?" She left a couple of months later. I've found my backbone and enjoy the job much more now. I had a family interview a couple of weeks ago and they asked how much late fees were. I knew at that point I did not want them here so I told them one dollar per minute. They never called back. Put the issues back on them not yourself. Good luck! 😊

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