Why Does It Bother Me SO MUCH....

[Christian Mother]

My first arrives either just before 6:15am or just a little after but she is really good about message me the night before or that morning to let me know if she is going to be late. Today she came just a couple min. early and I was totally fine with that. My door was locked, lights out, and alarm on...but I don't have any problems with 5 min early arrivals. I try to get everything done that weekend before the kids arrive and if I miss something I just carry on while they get dropped off. I put the news on so the children will go into the play room to start getting toys out or I'll put on cartoons if I need them to be out from under my feet for a few min. I just work around them. If I've noticed in the past 2 wks consistency in a early drop off or late pick up I will let that parent know I think it is time to redo our contract and find out if new hrs need to be contracted if not then I will expect to be paid for the news hrs or min. I understand and parents don't like late fees but one thing I am big time is overtime...if I am working more then what we contracted I expect to be paid for it. So I will charge an extra $5. That will hold the parents accountable for there time management. Sometimes it can't be helped that there going to be late and i do take that into effect but if it is something planned and they know they will be late they understand I will charge.

[caligirl]

Well this mom lives 2 blocks away. Her school starts at 8:30. WITH traffic it takes her 15 minutes to get to school. She said a few weeks ago when this first started, and I made a comment "wow, you are a little early, I wasn't expecting you for a another 5 minutes' that if she didn't get to this particular stop light by 7:15 then she'd be stuck there for 5 minutes......well, the stop light she is talking about is a mile away...it only takes her 3-5 minutes to get there....no reason to get to my door before 7am.
And I am only complaining because this has happened many, many times over my DC years. This isn't the first time. I changed my hours two different times to accommodate a parent....I opened at 6:30 for them instead of 7:00...they slowly started creeping in earlier and earlier until one morning I heard my doorbell at 6am, after I had just gotten out of the shower. I went to the door just because I didn't want to wake up the rest of my family....said 'you do know what time it is right?' and told her she was now 1/2 hour early and I was not ready for her child......she said 'oh, I can just sit in the playroom with her until you are ready'......to that I said 'no. please just wait in your car. I need this half hour to myself'.......what I wanted to say was 'if you have 30 min to kill here at my house, why don't you do it at home?'

I just think parent's haven't a clue. I don't think they are doing this on purpose (at least I HOPE not), I just don't think they get it.

[caligirl]

My first arrives either just before 6:15am or just a little after but she is really good about message me the night before or that morning to let me know if she is going to be late. Today she came just a couple min. early and I was totally fine with that. My door was locked, lights out, and alarm on...but I don't have any problems with 5 min early arrivals. I try to get everything done that weekend before the kids arrive and if I miss something I just carry on while they get dropped off. .

I am going to talk to her tonight. Ask her if she needs to start dropping off at 6:55 instead of 7:00.......that if that's what she needs then she just needs to let me know so that I am prepared for it. But that if she needs to drop off at 6:55, I don't want it to start getting earlier and earlier.....a minute here and a minute there.....a minute earlier each day.... 5 minutes, I can deal with IF it's been per-arranged

[Christian Mother]

Try approaching her with that for now on there will be no more drop off earlier then 7am. Let her know that you will not be opening your doors earlier than 7am. She can knock or ring the bell but you scheduled those hrs specifically for her and if she needs to renegotiate hrs you will be happy to talk about it with her but put a $$ amount to it. Or tell her if you open early for her then she needs to pick up early to make up for the extra time allowed. Nan tells it good when she says that if you put a $$ amount on extra time the parents will stop doing it. If you don't stop it right away the parents will continue. That is why I put a stop to mine right away. Bc I knew that if I didn't then pick ups and drop off would be all over the place and that is when things before unprofessional. I am a schedule person like you and nothing drives me more nutz then when someone is early or late.

[Crystal]

to Mom at early arrival " Oh my, your early. Good thing I had already taken a dump and put my clothes on"

She'll get the hint.

[daycare]

to Mom at early arrival " Oh my, your early. Good thing I had already taken a dump and put my clothes on"

She'll get the hint.

lmao water just came out my nose......

[Christian Mother]

Oh my gosh..that was my laugh of the day!! LOL!!!::::

[NiNi.R.]

I went through the same thing. I started locking my doors until 2 minutes before my opening time. If they came early they waited until I got to the door.

My daughter's preschool has a system where they place a decorative flag out. If the flag isn't there you aren't allowed to come in yet.

[Hunni Bee]

I was opening for my center for a while (did I mention I HATE opening??). We open at 6:30. I came in at 6 to do some tidying up in my classroom. We had two parents at the time who would get there at 5:50 sometimes just to hang around in the parking lot and shoot the breeze with each other...no life, but whatever....it was winter so it was still pitch dark outside. Neither of them had to be at work til after 7.

So they got there at 6:10 and noticed lights on upstairs. I purposely did not turn on the lights downstairs because I didn't want them to have any notion that they could get in before 6:30.

They proceeded to ring the bell, bang on the door and yell my name!! I called my director who said not to let them in. They laid on the doorbell and banged like mad women until 6:29 when I came sauntering down to their door and greeted them like I hadnt noticed them kicking the door in.

[Unregistered]

I've been to a store, a hair salon, a library, etc. a few minutes before their opening time and - guess what? Not one rushed over to open the door for me early just because I was there and trying to open the door. Simple solution? Don't open the door. Yes. Except - I feel so RUDE not answering the door to my home when someone is there, and expected, bringing their child for care, even if they're early. That is one of the problems of having a business in my home - especially a business of caring for and loving the children. Is it a business? Is it my home? How do I merge the two? Questions I deal with over and over again.

[caligirl]

I've been to a store, a hair salon, a library, etc. a few minutes before their opening time and - guess what? Not one rushed over to open the door for me early just because I was there and trying to open the door. Simple solution? Don't open the door. Yes. Except - I feel so RUDE not answering the door to my home when someone is there, and expected, bringing their child for care, even if they're early. That is one of the problems of having a business in my home - especially a business of caring for and loving the children. Is it a business? Is it my home? How do I merge the two? Questions I deal with over and over again.

Well there you go. That is EXACTLY how I think. E-X-A-C-T-L-Y I get angry, but at the same time, I feel rude not answering......

Anyway.....when she picked up yesterday she asked if I ever got to vacuum. I said 'of course not'.....she said 'well he would have sat quietly on the chair and watched you'......I said 'nope. Once you left, I was working, no time to clean'......then we talked about it. I asked her why she needed to drop off before 7 the past few weeks......She said that she needed to get to that light by 7:10....I said 'well, last time you told me 7:15'.......she said 'well, it's gotten worse'........so I said 'ok, so you need to drop him off at 6:55 in order to get to work at a certain time right?'.....she said 'yes'......I said 'ok then, here is the deal.....you can drop him off at 6:55 but not a minute eariler. My brain doesn't computer anything before 7am.....I see that clock and in my mind I don't start taking care of anyone until the clock strikes 7:00.....so if you honestly need to drop him off 5 minutes early, I will try and get used to that......BUT, don't be here at 6:54 because I'm going to be rushing around now as it is"..

[learn-n-grow]

I feel the exact same way. I'm glad I am not alone! There is a lot that can be done in that time and people don't understand that. Another problem I have is when they drop off late and don't call. If I knew you were gonna be late, I could have tried to squeeze in some laundry or something. Just give common courtesy to let me know you plan to be early or late so I'm not just sitting around...

[Unregistered]

I think it's the whining about things like this that gets this board the reputation it gets. Seriously, people...5 MINUTES. Let them sit in the driveway. Don't answer the door. Go about your business until it's the time you say you'll open. Just don't whine about them being there 5 minutes early if you're going to answer the door. I have a mom with a baby that shows up early all the time. She stands out on the deck. When it gets to be 7:45, I answer the door. She doesn't seem to get it, but I don't say a word about it and neither does she. Her little guy loves my wind chime so they stand and listen to it and he watches it move. Do I care that they stand out there? Heck no. When it gets cold out, am I going to rush to the door to let her in. Heck no. Eventually, she'll learn and until then, I guess she's getting a few last minutes of quality time with her kid.

[SilverSabre25]

I'm glad you got to talk to her and found out that there was a reason for her earliness. Really, I've BTDT with needing to hit a certain stop light by a certain time in order to get where I'm going on time. For me it was in high school--two minutes, two measly minutes made all the difference between sailing down the highway and getting to school at a nice, early 7:20 (school started at 7:45), and getting stuck in rush hour traffic and not getting to school until 7:35 or 7:40--and my first period class was CLEAR at the other end of my very long high school--totally opposite from the parking lot. If I was late, I got a parking spot even further back making the walk even longer...oh yes, you bet your butt I got out of there before that magic time every day.

Unregistered, I'm glad you don't have a problem with people arriving early--but I'm willing to bet that you DO have an issue with something, somewhere, somehow, that some of us may find silly and trivial. Just because you don't care, doesn't make someone who does care, wrong. It's just different. Embrace differences, and remember that yours is NOT the only opinion that counts. I would insert a flower-holding-smiley here to show that I'm trying to be nice, but we don't have one of those. :P

[caligirl]

I think it's the whining about things like this that gets this board the reputation it gets. .

Whining? I think I'm complaining, not whining. Children whine. I'm not a child. And I did say 'I don't know why' it bugs me so much. It just does.