I have a dk parent that has a very flexible schedule, she owns her own dental business and often does not bring her child until anywhere between 10am till 12pm and sometimes a bit later than that. We like to go places, the park, walks, the library, etc. I do let her know when we are going places and where we are going. I feel guilty because she pays me to care for her child and she may feel she needs to run me down to get her child to me. Although she always seems to agree and doesn't seem to have a problem. It just really is inconveniant to all of us with him arriving at no scheduled time. I feel like we are restricted as to what we can and can not do. I love to be able to just get up and go. What would you do? Should I cancel my plans because of one child? Should I give her notice and if she does not drop him before we are leaving, go without him? I worry more about please other parents and not about my business as a whole, I think.

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Got a cell phone?

Have her call you when she's ten minutes away and find out where you are.

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I would give her a call/text/email/whatever and say, "Hey, we're going to X park this morning! We'll be leaving at Y o'clock and getting back at Z o'clock, so if you need to drop dcb off while we're there, you can bring him to us!"

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During summer time we frequently leave the home to go to the park or other places. I require parents drop no later than 9:15. Otherwise they wait til we get back. I don't allow drop off any where other than the DC. I need my attention focused on all of the kids and cannot be distracted by a parent dropping off. I am speaking from previous experience here.

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I had a parent years ago that did that but not because of work..it was because he did not work and felt he could run the show :0(
He was aware that I took the kids for walks etc. but never called when asked to.
There was a few times he showed up at my house when we were out and he was fuming mad calling my cell. The several times it happened I explained to him that when it is nice we always go out in the AM and if he is going ot be late, he needs to either let me know or wait till I get back. Needless to say..after the third time of him flipping out..he got the hint!

Let her know the times & days you are going. Do not disrupt your plans for one child..I am sure you all love to get out. If she can not accommodate the happiness of all involved then she is prob. not the client for you.

However - do you have a contract with her? Does it state specific hours? Or is it random drop offs? If you have it in writing that she can come as she pleases..then you kind of have to wait around for her :0(

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I disagree. She is still willing to accept the child into care, the drop off just might not be at her actual house. So long as the provider has let the mother know where they are, this shouldn't effect their contract.

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I would not deprive the other children their outing because of one parent. I would either call or text and say "we're headed to the park, zoo, or wherever, feel free to drop Johnny off there".

If you need to take your eyes off of the others while making the exchange, have them all come to you and have them sit in a cirlce while waiting.

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I do have a cell phone and I do call or text her to notify her of our plans and I try to notify her a day in advance if possible. She never seems to get here on time, even if she says she will have him here at a specific time, she is always late. I understand that some people are just consistently late but she should understand that it interupts our schedule as well.

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no offense she is this way beacuse you allow her to be. If you start giving a cut off time, then she will either be on time or will show up after your event is over. Trust me when i tell you allowing a parent to drop off at location is a bad idea. You full undivided attention to all of the children is required. Allowing for a parent to drop off will distract you and something could go wrong...

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I require that all children be here by 9am. I used to let parents meet us on our trips to the library/park etc, but I had one day where a little boy (who I had for years and never did this) scream bloody murder at drop-off AT THE LIBRARY! I swore I would never allow it again. I also had to carry his bag all the way home with me, which was a pain. Nope, no more. Having them all here by a decent hour also means that they tend to be hungry/sleepy at the same time, instead of one kid who won't nap because his mom let him sleep in until 10:30am.

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I have the exact same situation over here! I confronted parents about it and said , we have agreed upon a specific drop off time as is stated in our contract and it's important that you stick to that. It effects the programming schedule, and makes the kids who arrive at 6am and 7am do a lot of waiting around. In the warmer months I like to take them to the park in the morning, or even to the library and playgroups- but I like taking them around 9/9:30 so that some of them can have morning naps and the others can have their snacks. I cannot stand waiting around!! I also have to wait around at pickup time, I've had to charge them the late pick up fee twice already- and the kid only just started maybe a month ago.

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I used to allow this as well. Until I could never do anything, waiting for her to show up. I finally had to tell the Mom, if you are not here by 9:00 every am, we will be taking a walk. On days we had scheduled field trips, I would tell them, they had to be here by a certain time, or we would have already left, without her, if need be. It seemed to cure it most days.

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