People who get off of work early and then don't come get their child until closing time. It's nice if you want to do this once in a while, but teachers are people, too. We like to go home early sometimes, too.
People who say they're pciking up at, say, 4:30 and then don't show up until 5:15. Very often, in a daycare center, that means a teacher may have to stay later than scheduled, because either there's noboy else to take the child or because the other teacher is not in ratio because of this child staying late. (Obviously, things happen and people are late sometimes, but sometimes... this becomes a habit.)
People who come to pick up at 5:59 when we close at 6. And worse- the same people who let their child continue playing for a while, even though the teacher is waiting to go home.
Parents who send their kids to daycare sick, people who send thei kids to daycare sick and give their child fever reducer medicine, which wears off halfway during the day and when we call for them to pick up their sick child, they refuse to pick up until the original pickup time or will take their time coming to get their child.
Parents who constantly "forget" to bring in diapers or extra clothing. These are usually the same people who, when we send their child home in "extra" clothes (clothes owned by the daycare), the "extra" clothes are never seen again. Also included are the parents who complain because their little boy was send home wearing purple pants with flowers on them. Sorry, but our "extra" clothing is almost gone, you haven't sent in any extra clothes from home, and it was either that or to send your son home naked.
Children coming in with extremely wet or poopy diapers. We had a little girl last year who came in a soaking wet pullup every morning and you can tell it had been worn all night. Yuck!
Parents who expect us to keep their child awake during naptime because their child "doesn't sleep at night" or "takes until such-and-such time to fall asleep at night". Your child is falling asleep at the table and you want us to keep him/her up during naptime?
Don't send your child in with a bag of cookies because "that's the only way you can get your child out of the house in the morning". And don't even think that offering to share the cookies with the class (at 7:30 in the morning!) is okay, either.
Don't get mad at me when I am following state regulations or even just our school policy. I'm not changing it "just this once" for your child.
And perhap one of my biggest of all, if you have schoolaged childrem and children in my daycare (and you don't work from home) and it's a school vacation, so you're home anyways, please don't send your little one in to school and keep the older ones at home. You're child is not a dummy. Your child knows that he/she is being send out of the house and your child knows that his/her older siblings get to stay home with you that day. 9 times out of 10, this will make for a miserable child all day long, and while I'm on the subject, when you're home anyways, because it's a holiday and you send your child to daycare, that doesn't mean that you should wait until the last possible moment to pick up your child. Children need to stay home and spend time with their family, as well, you know.
Okay... back away from the soap box, Harleyhalfmoon...
Sorry, it's been a rough year. Sometimes it feels like as a childcare provider, I'm taken for granted. Sure, it's my job, but it's a hard job. Give me a break once in a while, please!
Break's over. Gotta go back to work...