Late people. I hate it!!!

[Snoozan]

Thank goodness my DH and I are on the same page when it comes this subject. We are both of the mentality that if you arrive somewhere exactly on time, we feel like we're late! I am trying to get over that a bit - especially when it comes to his family gatherings! We have one DS who always arrives exactly on the dot for get-togethers, while our other DS tends to be of the 1/2 hour late group - some of that I blame on his DFiance and the 2 kids!

 

[krcit]

I hate when people are always late too! My brothers in-laws are like that..all of them! If we are going to his house for a holiday, we arrive an hour or so late now because we always would end up sitting there for hours until they showed up. I went to one of their baby showers at 2PM and the guest of honor showed up at 6!!!!! I gave her a kiss and a hug and my gift and left!

 

[Handbag Lady]

I'm the late person, always. It is because of my job. I am expected to be available for them unless I am on a bona-fide vacation.

My only response is: please don't make me make plans with you that I know I might have to break or miss, even when I say that I can't commit to anything.

 

[PirateSnowmen]

I totally agree - I hate late people too! I'm almost always early to everything. In fact, I got to campus today an hour before my class started so that I could find a parking spot. If I get there right before class, the chances of finding a parking spot are slim to none. I don't mind being early and I usually bring a book to read while I wait.

I had a friend that was always late to everything. Last year I went out to dinner with him and another friend. The other friend and I got there on time, and when we called him, he said he was on his way and would be there in 5 minutes. 45 minutes later, he finally arrived. When he got to the table, he was offended because the other person and I had already ate and were in the process of eating dessert. He then said we were rude for not waiting

A few weeks later the three of us went out to eat again, but this time the guy invited his girlfriend along. She was over an hour late! He waited to order his food until she arrived (my other friend and I didn't wait), and once she finally arrived, she said she wasn't hungry and wasn't going to get anything. He could have strangled her

 

[Buckalew11]

My sister is always late. Ugh. We all hate it.

She has 4 kids and they are all early. Funny how that works.

DH and I are early. I am early because he is early. I was late once and he drove around the block and I thought he'd left me, lol. That was 25 years ago. I saw him leave plenty of people though so I knew he'd do it.

DD is also early. She says all her college friends run late.

The thing that bugs me most is people late for their hair appointments. Every once in a while you can understand but some people are always late. Well, guess what? If you are 15 mins late, you'll get a wash and cut, not style. If it is over 15 mins., you can reschedule. Why punish the rest of my day and the people on my book because one person thinks the world revolves around themselves???

 

[goofinoff]

I have a couple of friends and relatives who are ALWAYS late for things.
I've gotten in the habit of telling them to arrive 15 minutes before I actually need them there. They're still usually late, but at least not by as much...

I do this with my husbands family except its 30 minutes early!

 

[MomofKatie]

I am guessing she wants to be her own person

Well, she has been a "late" type ever since she could walk, so I don't think so. It seems to just be her nature.

We have been trying to teach her that it is rude and thoughtless to make others wait for you. She is just one of those "whatever, I'll be there when I get there- don't worry, be happy" types that bother us "always early" people.

She is starting to get a bit better since she has been on the other end of the waiting game a few times. And she doesn't like it when she is the one doing the waiting on someone else who is late. Hope it really sinks in before she has to be totally responsible for herself.

 

[Maryr1]

Totally hate people being late. Especially when they call after the time they are due to arrive to tell me they will be late- UM-didn't you realize when you weren't on your way 45 minutes ago that you were going to be late? If you had called me then I wouldn't be sitting here waiting-I probably would have run an errand or two on the way here or we could of rescheduled???? Or are you just so self absorbed that you can't make that effort either??? Someone once told me that people who are always late do it because they want everyone to know that they are the most important, their job is most important, and everyone else is just not worthy of the effort because their job/problems/priorities are just so much greater than anyone else...... ugh. I now wait only 15 minutes and then I leave-I don't call to tell them I'm leaving-they can figure it out when they arrive. If it's a dinner, I serve at the time I said-they can make a plate when they get there. Sorry. I am finished with being a doormat. Enough said.

 

[Katy Belle]

Sing it sister!

SIL is always late. MIL used to make us wait, and I was too polite to push back. One year she wouldnt let DS blow out his candles because SIL wasnt there yet. She was over an hour late. No more. I started talking about how rude it was and I wont wait. When we are in town, SIL is on time. MIL tells me she is still late when we are not there. Not my problem!

OP, good for you leaving before she got there!

 

[goofy!]

While I am annoyed with habitually late friends, I am even more annoyed by people who arrive perpetually early (but only at somebody's house, not a restaurant or outside location.) If the invitation states 6pm, that does not mean 5:30 or even 5:50. I noticed many people say that 10 to 30 minutes early is their version of ontime. I hope you are not showing up at people's houses 30 minutes early.

I find it equally rude, if not more rude to impose on your host/hostess earlier than when they invited you.

And no, I and most everybody I know, do not like their guests arriving early, saying they "can help out" or "put me to work."

That said, the best late story:

DS plays high school football. He plays on both Varsity and JV. This fall, he was asked to play down to the Freshman team as their entire O line was either out with injuries or academically ineligible that week. So, he agreed. Loves the sport and more play time the better.

So, the team they were playing was supposed to be pretty good. Imagine our surprise when the bus pulled up and 11 players got off. Yup, 11. We were wondering how these kids were going to play both sides of the ball for 4 quarters with no subs.

Come to find out, the coach was having an attitude problem with the team. They were told to show up at the bus at a certain time. They were habitually late, causing the team to be late to their games.

So, the coach was fed up. He left three quarters of the team at the school when they did not show up on time.

Had to admire that coach that he would sacrifice a game to teach the boys a lesson on punctuality and team work.

 

[bigbabyblues]

My MIL is always late. We joke that she will be late for her own funeral. If we're having a family dinner or something, it's gotten to the point that we start without her, and she's ok with that, but it is one of the main reasons we (DH especially) don't go anywhere with them.

When DH and I were dating, we went to Kings Island for a couple days with his parents and siblings, but we stayed in different places. We were to meet at 9:30 and go in together, but they didn't show up until almost noon because she didn't feel like getting up. We would have gone ahead without them but they had our tickets. This was before we all had cell phones. DH was so mad, when they got there, he told her that would be the last family trip for him. That was 18 years ago this summer. We've been invited on four or five trips to various places, on their dime, but we won't go.

 

[low-key]

I have never been late. for dinner

 

[ashley0139]

That said, the best late story:

DS plays high school football. He plays on both Varsity and JV. This fall, he was asked to play down to the Freshman team as their entire O line was either out with injuries or academically ineligible that week. So, he agreed. Loves the sport and more play time the better.

So, the team they were playing was supposed to be pretty good. Imagine our surprise when the bus pulled up and 11 players got off. Yup, 11. We were wondering how these kids were going to play both sides of the ball for 4 quarters with no subs.

Come to find out, the coach was having an attitude problem with the team. They were told to show up at the bus at a certain time. They were habitually late, causing the team to be late to their games.

So, the coach was fed up. He left three quarters of the team at the school when they did not show up on time.

Had to admire that coach that he would sacrifice a game to teach the boys a lesson on punctuality and team work.

I love that story!

I am also someone who is always early, and to be constantly waiting on someone really ticks me off. My time is just as important as yours.

 

[mom2travel]

My sister is always late. Ugh. We all hate it.

She has 4 kids and they are all early. Funny how that works.

DH and I are early. I am early because he is early. I was late once and he drove around the block and I thought he'd left me, lol. That was 25 years ago. I saw him leave plenty of people though so I knew he'd do it.

DD is also early. She says all her college friends run late.

The thing that bugs me most is people late for their hair appointments. Every once in a while you can understand but some people are always late. Well, guess what? If you are 15 mins late, you'll get a wash and cut, not style. If it is over 15 mins., you can reschedule. Why punish the rest of my day and the people on my book because one person thinks the world revolves around themselves???

Our old dentist where we used to live would make people reschedule when they arrived more than a few minutes late. I was there a couple times listening to the receptionist explain to someone that there wasn't enough time for their appointment before the next person arrives, so you'll need to come back another day. I wanted to applaud!

 

[jgh]

I'm almost never late (except in emergencies). I ALWAYS like to be early for everything. I'd rather be the first person somewhere waiting than be running late.

I can't stand it when people don't show up when they said they would.

 

[beaucoup]

My pet peeve is people who are habitually late and don't think it's a big deal. Rude, rude, rude!!! Don't call me while I'm sitting at the restaurant, on time, and tell me you're on your way-20 minutes away, which means you haven't even left your house yet.

Don't call me and say you're in a meeting for an hour when I'm expecting you in 10 minutes.

I know stuff happens. I know it happens more than once. If you put me in a place where I am left wasting my time waiting for you...I'm not happy-I am busy too. I'm just not rude, disorganized, thoughtless or arrogant about our friendship or relationship. From now on, you go to voice mail. I MAY get back to you in a few days. From now on, you call me when you get to our appointed meeting place and then I'll leave my house. I'll get more bills paid, laundry done, books read, long baths taken, children sorted out, vacations planned. You waste my time no more!!

Vent over.

A certain someone does this ALL the time. So, one time, she really needed me to do her a huge favor & come pick up her son from an open house / real estate she was holding. Super important to her. Gee, coincidentally, it just happened to take me longer at the grocery store than I planned. I got home to a freaking out message on answering machine asking where I was. I got there when I got there.

Gee.....she didn't like it very much when it happened to her.

 

[PizzieDuster]

My hubby and I are constantly on time. We are always the first. Sometimes driving around the neighborhood before knocking on the door.

We live in California. We made friends with our sons high school football team mates parents who are from my husband's home state Iowa. At one game they invited us to their home in Newport Beach to watch Iowa play on New Years Day. My husband was exicited to watch Iowa play with a fellow Hawkeye fan. He was happy! It was an early game - 9:00 am - New Years morning...get where this is going?

I got up at 6:00 am to get ready. Hubby picked up the babysitter at 7:00 am to stay with daughter as we were taking the older sons. They had no small children. This man and my hubby hit it off. He invited us to come to his home to watch Iowa play right. We get the teen age boys up. Half asleep. We get there early and drive around until my hubby was going nuts - 10 minutes to game time.

We knock on the door. No answer. Knock again. No answer. Two minutes to game time - hubby kinda pounds on the door. This guy comes down in his underware to answer the door and seems like he forgot he even invited us! My eyes, my eyes! Did I really need to see this man in his skanky underware?

We go into a dark quiet house - no one up - don't know how to turn the TV on. We wait and wait. It was so gross. He comes down in sweats, turns the game on and goes back upstairs. The wife didn't come down until half time.

No food. No coffee. They had told us to come for breakfast and watch the game. We took the invite seriously. I would have brought something!

Throughout the first quarter their guests, family, come down from bed and continue to lay all over the couches. They were obviously so hung over!

It was so uncomfortable. The wife comes down and goes through her cookbooks and then leaves. No explanation. Just takes off. Was she mad we were there? I was there when they both invited us! I took off and went to the grocery store and brought back food. He finally made coffee.

We still talk about that all the time. We could have stayed home, as it was raining and all...stayed in OUR pjs and had our coffee and breakfast.

We never did that again and I never really gave her or him my time after that. I was so mad I had a babysitter with my daughter when we could have been home eating pancakes and bacon with her.

There was no room to sit as their 'nephews' or whoever were sprawled out on the couches. I was sitting on the stairs pissed off but my husband just wanted to watch Iowa play. The things we do

 

[dreamin_disney]

lol!
I agree to a point.

Dh and I are usually on time but it depends what its for.

The only time we will be a few hours late is for certain family members events...why? They say the event or party starts at 2pm and they dont start getting things ready or start until 4pm. Seriously!!!! We would get there on time and nothing was set up, they werent ready, they were barely shopping for food etc. We finally decided if they said the party starts at 2pm we dont show up til 4pm and guess what, usually they still arent ready-lol!

for everything else we show up on time.

 

[Aliceacc]

While I am annoyed with habitually late friends, I am even more annoyed by people who arrive perpetually early (but only at somebody's house, not a restaurant or outside location.) If the invitation states 6pm, that does not mean 5:30 or even 5:50. I noticed many people say that 10 to 30 minutes early is their version of ontime. I hope you are not showing up at people's houses 30 minutes early.

I find it equally rude, if not more rude to impose on your host/hostess earlier than when they invited you.

And no, I and most everybody I know, do not like their guests arriving early, saying they "can help out" or "put me to work."

That said, the best late story:

DS plays high school football. He plays on both Varsity and JV. This fall, he was asked to play down to the Freshman team as their entire O line was either out with injuries or academically ineligible that week. So, he agreed. Loves the sport and more play time the better.

So, the team they were playing was supposed to be pretty good. Imagine our surprise when the bus pulled up and 11 players got off. Yup, 11. We were wondering how these kids were going to play both sides of the ball for 4 quarters with no subs.

Come to find out, the coach was having an attitude problem with the team. They were told to show up at the bus at a certain time. They were habitually late, causing the team to be late to their games.

So, the coach was fed up. He left three quarters of the team at the school when they did not show up on time.

Had to admire that coach that he would sacrifice a game to teach the boys a lesson on punctuality and team work.

I would nominate him for coach of the year!!! He's teaching his kids that there are things that matter more than winning.

I'm with the rest here-- habitual lateness is simply inexcusable. It's an assumption that the time and schedule of someone else is more important than mine.

And I would refuse to put up with it for any reason. We used to have friends who were habituallylate; we haven't seen them in ages. I think we just got the point that they valued our friendship less than we did if they couldn't make the effort to get someplace without leaving us there waiting for them.

The school at which I teach is fabulous in that regard. If a meeting is scheduled for 8 pm, that's when it starts. Latecomers miss something.

 

[Pixiedust34]

Know what I hate even more? When we are expected to WAIT for the late people before doing whatever it was we were supposed to be doing.

For example, dinner can't start until X is here. How about we start eating when we said we would and when X arrives, they can make their own plate if there is anything let over!

Yes! I also don't like it when a meeting is delayed because so-and-so isn't here yet. It's really annoying if so-and-so is habitually late and then the meeting runs late because people waste time waiting. Grrrrrrrr!!!