Reply to Should one still get paid for half hour being late

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[quote=Anonymous]I get help with my two young kids in the morning, 1.5 hours three days a week. She comes over and helps them get ready for school, and drops them off at daycare and school. So today I get a call saying she overslept and would be half hour late. I said ok.

Today was payday, so I asked her if she would like to do the 30 minutes extra some other time, or whether I should pay her less. Her face changed completely and she told me, "I told you I got a new phone, the alarm did not work, I called you." 
So I said, "That is why I am asking you what you'd prefer to do." 
She replied "I can't do it this week." 
"It can be anytime, like next week." 
She then said "I was at the intersection by 7:20am, it took me a long time to make that left turn. So what, it's 20-30 minutes? I can't come any earlier [next week]" 
Then she looked defeated or something and said "Okay. Take it out." I was going to propose maybe she could come do it on a day that she usually doesn't come, since she doesn't do this every day. 
Anyway, I also told her that I know she's on time every day, and that something like 15 minutes is fine, and reminded her that I was ok with her leaving 15 min earlier for some personal matter just a few days ago (I was not planning to reduce for just 15 min).

Here is my question:
Obviously, her mentality/work ethics is that she thinks that if she just "notifies" me of it, and it's "not intentional," even 30 minutes can be just excused and she should get the full pay. Is this a common mentality in this scenario? Btw, she is an adult who has worked for various employers, including a company, for over 15 years. She is not a young sheltered person just starting out who doesn't understand how the world works. 
If this is a common mentality and I was harsh or unfair,  what can I do to soother her or keep a good relationship? The $10 itself did not matter to me as much. But I didn't want to go back to a path where she pushes the boundaries again.

In hindsight, maybe I should have let this one go with a warning only, saying I would reduce pay next time. 
But this was not the first time, or the second, or the third or even the 10th time. Over the past 6 months, in the past, I have let it go when one month, she was late every single time. 5 min here, 7 minutes there (traffic), 12 minutes, 4 minutes, then it was 15 minutes saying clearing the snow off her car was taking longer than expected. The next month, she was late half the time. I let it go for 2 months and only when she shocked me asking me for a raise that I told her I expected her on time. She then did come on time. To be fair, I know that maybe once a month, she hits unexpected traffic doing the dropoff and she arrives at the daycare 5 min late, she doesn't ask for the 5 min. I know exactly what time she arrived, as she has to write down the time of dropoff in the daycare sign in sheet. Once in a while, she arrives 5 min early, so maybe that makes up for it in her mind.

Now what? [/quote]

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