Late for Aftercare PU

[Anonymous]

OP. I cannot believe your sense of entitlement or lack of shame about screwing over aftercare in this way. As a former childcare provider I would be livid to read a response like yours after a parent had forgotten to pick up her child and greatly inconvenienced me and the rest of the staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree - the aftercare person who offer to take your child home was then acting as a babysitter - not aftercare.

The $1 a minute is while at aftercare. When your child left - clock stops. If something happened at the persons' house - aftercare would not be liable.

This, this exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in 4th grade and has done aftercare since Kindergarten. I think we've been minutes late for pickup maybe 5 times in 5 years. Even though we are talking a minute or 2 late depending on whose watch you look at, we cheerfully pay the $1 a minute late fee that they are diligent about imposing. This week I totally forgot spouse mentioned that I would need to pu (usually his job) one night b/c he had an important meeting. I am a DCPS teacher and was busy with end of year responsibilities at my own school when my principal decided to call an impromptu end of the year meeting that lasted 1 hour. Knocked me off. I forgot all about p.u. and received a phone call while still working at school. It was one of my DC's Aftercare teachers asking when I was going to arrive. It was 6:20. I was shocked! I apologized profusely and said I would leave immediately but that it would take close to 40 minutes to get there.

Aftercare person, who I'm friendly with and who lives down the street from school said "no worries. It's fine. I'll take him to my house and he can play with my son". Fine. Great! She is a sweetie anyway. I arrived at her house at 7:15 and asked how to resolve the fees and she said she didn't know. That my kid was a pleasure and having so much fun playing with her kid that she wished they had an extra hour together. (I sensed she know this would be a problem for management and was uncomfortable with it) I asked if she would get all the money from my late fee and she said "no. Aftercare gets half". That got me upset.

Fast forward to today when my husband goes to pick from aftercare and one of the people who I barely know, I think she is 2nd to the director (strikes me as cold and bossy) tells my husband he owes a dollar for every minute...$75. He said that the other Aftercare teachers were reluctant to discuss this issue with him (probably because we've known them for years and they like us and our DC and they know this has never ever happened before) .How can there be a $75 fee if our DC was only present at the school until 6:20 when the aftercare person got my permission to bring him home! I was going to buy her a thank you gift certificate, but if I have to pay this stupid fee, I will not do it. What would you do? Am I missing something here?

Look, she did you a favor. As a teacher you know that it probably wasn't her doing. Pay the fee AND STILL get her a little something for her trouble. It was on oversight and you inconvenienced people. Be nice about it. It will come back to you.

Agree 100%. You pay fee as u were late. You also get thank you for teacher that took your child home. She did you a HUGE favor. I think technically she could call police 30m after closing. You need to separate the fact of who gets the fee. It is not relevant. What is relevant is you were 75m late and owe $75. Additionally a teacher did a major favor by not calling police when grace period was up. You got very lucky and should be gracious....and rushing to pay fee from embarrassment.

This, and don't try to blame your husband. Also, you could've left the meeting. Bottom line is YOU forgot your kid. That's pretty bad. Just be thankful all you have to do is pay $75.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - we always had another family lined up to pickup our child in event of a delay or emergency (and vice versa). School and aftercare providers had the proper forms in hand to allow child to be released to these people.

Set up an arrangement like this for the future

It wouldn't have mattered. She still forgot about her kid.

[Anonymous]

OP, pay up and be gracious about it. Everyone involved was very fortunate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP. I cannot believe your sense of entitlement or lack of shame about screwing over aftercare in this way. As a former childcare provider I would be livid to read a response like yours after a parent had forgotten to pick up her child and greatly inconvenienced me and the rest of the staff.

give it a rest. "screwing over aftercare"? I'd worry more about enrolling my child in an aftercare program that felt such animosity towards working parents (an educator nonetheless) over an honest isolated mistake. our aftercare deals with this occasionally and does so with understanding rather than shame.

And cut the CPS drama -- what are they going to do? They can barely deal with the cases of genuine abuse and neglect. They're going to put a kid in foster care over a simple mixup over school pickup?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. I cannot believe your sense of entitlement or lack of shame about screwing over aftercare in this way. As a former childcare provider I would be livid to read a response like yours after a parent had forgotten to pick up her child and greatly inconvenienced me and the rest of the staff.

give it a rest. "screwing over aftercare"? I'd worry more about enrolling my child in an aftercare program that felt such animosity towards working parents (an educator nonetheless) over an honest isolated mistake. our aftercare deals with this occasionally and does so with understanding rather than shame.

And cut the CPS drama -- what are they going to do? They can barely deal with the cases of genuine abuse and neglect. They're going to put a kid in foster care over a simple mixup over school pickup?

Sometimes I get stuck working late and I don't feel screwed over because I had a deadline. Do aftercare providers just want clock punchers counting the seconds to leave? They have lives and schedules which should be respected, but stuff happens and 20 minutes is rarely the end of the world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree - the aftercare person who offer to take your child home was then acting as a babysitter - not aftercare.

The $1 a minute is while at aftercare. When your child left - clock stops. If something happened at the persons' house - aftercare would not be liable.

I agree 100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't nickel and dime them, OP--not worth it. Just don't be late next time.

+1 They are in the right here, and I'm a little shocked you would even question it. And the person who took your kid home was incredibly nice about it, not sure I would be given that we are talking about more than a minor inconvenience.

I'm confused about why aftercare should be paid for having their doors locked, lights out, and facilities unused. The additional money should go directly to the worker, who COULD charge a dollar a minute, but probably would charge something more reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree - the aftercare person who offer to take your child home was then acting as a babysitter - not aftercare.

The $1 a minute is while at aftercare. When your child left - clock stops. If something happened at the persons' house - aftercare would not be liable.

I agree with this. Your child was "in aftercare" until a person removed him. You gave permission for her to remove him. After that, she was babysitting.

[Anonymous]

This argument is tedious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree - the aftercare person who offer to take your child home was then acting as a babysitter - not aftercare.

The $1 a minute is while at aftercare. When your child left - clock stops. If something happened at the persons' house - aftercare would not be liable.

This, this exactly.

Wrong. Not this. Not this at all. You obviously have no idea how fraught the concept of liability is, nor what someone had to take on.

Dipshit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't nickel and dime them, OP--not worth it. Just don't be late next time.

+1 They are in the right here, and I'm a little shocked you would even question it. And the person who took your kid home was incredibly nice about it, not sure I would be given that we are talking about more than a minor inconvenience.

I'm confused about why aftercare should be paid for having their doors locked, lights out, and facilities unused. The additional money should go directly to the worker, who COULD charge a dollar a minute, but probably would charge something more reasonable.

I should hope not. The aftercare worker was essentially Shanghaied into babysitting for OP. OP should:

1. Shut up, pay the fee, don't ever complain about this again.
2. Give a $$ giftcard to the aftercare person who covered her sorry *ss.
3. Repeat #1 ad infinitum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the animosity to OP. I get that she should be immensely grateful to the aftercare teacher who covered her mistake and it sounds like she is. I don't get why the issue of 7:15 came up to the school rather than 6:20. If the teacher had to sign out the child what business is it of the school's if she arrived at 6:21 or 7:15? Are they paying the aftercare teacher for that time? It seems excessively punitive and unwarranted. If the aftercare teacher expected to be remunerated that's one thing and it should be between the teacher and parent, but the child was signed out at 6:20 and that's the end of story from the aftercare provider's perspective.

The aftercare provider builds fee schedules to both discourage late pickup and to compensate for staff being held late to cover. There was no cost to aftercare after 6:20. If a friend/acquaintance/whatever is willing to watch your child and expects $60/hr that should be discussed up front. It sounds like the OP was led to believe that it wasn't a big deal for her neighbor to watch her child (and frankly it likely wasn't). If I watched a neighbor's child due to unforeseen circumstances I wouldn't dream of asking for compensation. If I expected it I wouldn't even offer to take the child in without stating that up front.

I agree. I would not pay the school beyond 6:20pm without making a fuss about it. It is no longer their business what happens after that time. I assume you told them over the phone that you were giving the aftercare teacher permission to take your child home. Whatever payment/arrangement b/w 6:21 and 7:15 is between you and the aftercare teacher. Their liability ended when the child left the premises with your permission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get the animosity to OP. I get that she should be immensely grateful to the aftercare teacher who covered her mistake and it sounds like she is. I don't get why the issue of 7:15 came up to the school rather than 6:20. If the teacher had to sign out the child what business is it of the school's if she arrived at 6:21 or 7:15? Are they paying the aftercare teacher for that time? It seems excessively punitive and unwarranted. If the aftercare teacher expected to be remunerated that's one thing and it should be between the teacher and parent, but the child was signed out at 6:20 and that's the end of story from the aftercare provider's perspective.

The aftercare provider builds fee schedules to both discourage late pickup and to compensate for staff being held late to cover. There was no cost to aftercare after 6:20. If a friend/acquaintance/whatever is willing to watch your child and expects $60/hr that should be discussed up front. It sounds like the OP was led to believe that it wasn't a big deal for her neighbor to watch her child (and frankly it likely wasn't). If I watched a neighbor's child due to unforeseen circumstances I wouldn't dream of asking for compensation. If I expected it I wouldn't even offer to take the child in without stating that up front.

the worst of it is the aftercare provider is going to pocket that late fee when at a minimum at least $55 should go directly to the aftercare teacher.

^^^^^ OP here and THIS was my point of view. Thank you!!!! Yeesh. I should have known better. And I don't mind if aftercare reads this as I have no problem expressing myself. I'm always kind and respectful. I have nothing to hide. I'm OK with them knowing how I feel or I wouldn't have posted.

OP should pay $75 to the aftercare, at least, $55 to the teacher, and stop complaining.