What Should You Do When a Parent Arrives Early?
A parent knocks on your door with their child thirty minutes early. They texted you a message late the night before that they wanted to drop off early. But you hadn’t read the message and now they are at your front door.
What do you do?
One of the biggest benefits of being a family child care provider is that you are the boss. You can set whatever rules you want with parents (other than illegally discriminating based on race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnic background or disability).
You have two options on how to handle this situation:
One: Do what the parent wants
Accept the child early and not make a fuss.
Two: Do what you want
You can refuse to accept the child until your regular opening time. “I’m sorry, but I can’t care for your child for another half hour. Please return then.”
You can accept the child and charge the parent an early drop off fee. If your contract includes such a fee, enforce it. “I will accept your child now, but you will owe me an early drop off fee of $___ according to our contract.” You can set whatever fee you want in your contract.
If your contract doesn’t have such a fee, you can impose one on the spot. “I will accept your child now, but you will have to pay me a fee of $____ for me to do so. If you won’t agree to pay this fee, I can’t care for your child for another thirty minutes.”
Or, you can say, “I will accept your child now, without charging you a fee. But, in the future I will enforce the early drop off fee or I will start charging you a fee.”
Sometimes providers can get caught off guard in this situation and might accept the child without thinking it through. Later, you might wish you had acted differently. It’s okay to tell the parent at the end of the day, “I was surprised when you showed up early today and I agreed to accept your child. After thinking about it, I need to:
a) Charge you the early drop off fee according to our contract, or
b) Let you know that I won’t agree to this in the future. If it happens again I’ll charge you a fee of $_____ or refuse to accept your child.”
How to avoid this problem
Let parents know that they must get your agreement in writing to any change in your contract regarding the drop off or pick up times before the parent can show up early or pick up late.
Tom Copeland – www.tomcopelandblog.com
Image credit: https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/discipline/improper-behavior/teaching-your-child-not-to-bite/
For more about resolving conflicts with parents see my book Family Child Care Contracts & Policies.
