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Late? Early? On Time?| Pad Patter 5-17

bestcee

bestcee

In love with places I've never been to
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Dec 18, 2013
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We tell one of my brother in laws that things start 30 minutes before the actual time, and he's usually still late. I drive my parent nuts because I'm an "on time, prefer a five minutes early" person. If they say dinner is at 5pm, I want to eat at 5pm. And they are thinking 5- 5:30pm, no big deal. My sister is a early person. She starts to get anxious about that 5pm dinner, and shows up at 4:40pm feeling late!

How about you? Are you an early person? Late? On Time? Does it depend on whether you have kids/spouse/other person or animal with you?
 
I am exactly like your sister!! My dad drummed into us kids that if something is at 5 and you get there at quarter till---you are late!!! When I worked as an Interior Designer, I would get to work anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes early so I could sit at my desk, relax, get my day in order and be completely ready for my first customer. Other designers would come flying in 10 or 20 minutes late; many times with a customer waiting for them. That would drive me crazy!!! My daughter is just like your brother in law. If it starts at 7, I tell her 6:30 and she is still late!! If she tells me she is picking me up at 2, then I expect to see her around 3 or 3:30, and I am usually not wrong.
 
It just depends on what's going on. I'm not an early person unless I'm with my daughter. I think she's like your sister with the anxiety. She had a full blown anxiety attack a year ago because we weren't at the homecoming pre-party at the "start" time. I tried telling her not to worry. We really weren't late. (In fact a ton of people showed up way after us). It was ugly though and she cried all the way there.

I'm more a get there in a rush, right at actual time (within 5 minutes). However, with things with Courtney, I'll tell myself the time is 30 minutes earlier so she's not stressed. She has a tumbling class that can take 45-50 minutes to get to, I'll shoot to leave an 1:15 before it starts. That gives me 10 minutes to forget something in the house and run back in "for one more thing" and then still get there early so she can stretch and get ready.

I have a friend who can be an hour late for something. I know that's her so when I schedule I tell her 1/2 hour earlier, and then check in with her before I'm leaving to see her progress. I'll stop and run an errand or something on the way and still beat her there. I still love her and the story of why she's late is always entertaining.
 
Always late in person. Even when I try not to be late and I leave early... something happens and I'm late. This is more for meeting people, soccer practice, happy hour, birthday parties, etc. On the flip side, scrap related, school assignments for my boys, or bills, usually early.

It's the actual getting out of the house, getting there part that I'm always late for. :giggle
 
5 minutes before, but never on time or afterwards. My parents were raised by Swedish immigrants, where the rule was: you're late if you're on time. Always be early. I hated this growing up, but the one time we were 5 minutes late to a church activity, the bus had already left. They were always late! Of course, my dad never let us forget that.

Now, I'm a part of a family who thinks that being late is ok. Drives me batty, especially when I gotta get to the rink to work and my DD is still gathering her skate stuff. Ack.
 
I hate hate hate being late. Everyone in my house is the opposite ... they don't stress about being late, so it is frustrating for me to say the least.

But I'm laughing because we have some family members that we have to do the same exact thing ... tell them the party is starting about 30 min to an hour earlier than it really is. We'd never eat otherwise!
 
i am ALWAYS late. on almost everything. If it weren't for the "make up time allowed" policy at my job all these years, I'd probably be fired. it used to just be a couple minutes. Now that I have kids, it's like 15 minutes some days. Sooo bad. I hate that about myself, but I don't really know what to do differently. Everytime I try to prepare, I get told i'm being too bossy or drill sergeant ish. *sigh*
I do my best work under a deadline... so my CT duties have seemed to suit me, because only one or two of my designers get things to me all that early. :giggle
My work at my "real job" also gets done more last minute, but I am trying to be better about it.

My grandpa is always early to things... so like @bestcee, we alter the time for him... just the opposite direction. If I want him at my house at noon for lunch, I'm telling him 12:30. sometimes he still gets there at 11:15 ish. Sorry, but I do not need my grandpa at my house an hour before the event is supposed to take place. ridiculous! I am okay with 15-30 minutes.... but an hour? No.
 
bestcee said:
My sister is a early person. She starts to get anxious about that 5pm dinner, and shows up at 4:40pm feeling late!
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^^that's my DH. For me, I try to be on time/early for, say, church or a movie or other functions with a hard start time, but not early to a function like a dinner party. I've tried to tell DH "A party is NOT a job interview: being early doesn't mean 'I'm dependable.' It means 'you must now entertain me.' Being early puts your hosts on edge cuz they may not be ready for you." And he still will want to leave a half-hour early to get to a friends' house 10 minutes away. *rolls eyes*
 
I like to be half an hour early for everything. If I'm invited to someone's house, I would never go in early. I just like to be ready for the unexpected. I don't like to rush, ever. So, I plan ahead. But, please tell me why I'm always late to the chats! My husband couldn't be on time to save his soul. You know that saying he'll be late to his own funeral? Yep, that's him.
 
I used to be on time or a bit early but when we lived a life with a lot of entertaining, we would say come for dinner at 6, we'll eat at 6:30 or so. Once, living in Africa, we were invited to dinner at friends/workmates home for 7pm. The had just arrived from South America. We knew not to arrive early for dinners (yes, who doesn't hate the guest who comes 30 mins early!) but our host answered the door and looked so surprised! Apparently, saying 7pm in their last country meant come at 8. They hadn't showered or gotten dressed etc. so we were given a drink and just sat and waited - sorry to have unnerved them. That's why we all got in the habit of using two times - one to arrive and one for the actual eating.

And like then, now if someone always runs late, we start without them. You snooze, you lose. Dick has some friends who have actually arrived after the whole meal is over so they just get to sit and have a coffee with the rest of the men. If they do this a couple of times, they don't get invited back.


Now, I've noticed that I tend to run 10 min late when I'm meeting someone. Fortunately, the cell phone lets me text.."I'm leaving now!" but I suspect it's an age thing where I've learned there's no need to rush for almost anything.
 
We are almost always late. We have the best of intentions, but somehow it is difficult to get the whole family ready and out the door to be on time. I'm starting to tell my husband and kids that things start a half hour early now, just to get them there on time!
 
Oh gosh, I hate being late and on time makes me twitchy! I am always early! I get to work about 30 minutes early every day and if it's any less than that it totally throws me off. DH is a right on time person and I am always chomping at the bit if he's not ready to go so that we have time to spare. It's a little different when I am going to someone's house. I am more an on time person in those situations, just because I know when I host something, I would prefer that people not show up too early.
 
I'm usually on time or just a few minutes late. When I'm late it's usually because I was doing work on the computer and lost track of time, leaving me with not enough time to get ready to leave on time.

When I'm hosting something, most of my friends know not to arrive early because I could very well just be stepping out of the shower or getting dressed.
 
I'm almost always early - except to dinner parties. Those I never go early b/c I don't want them doing that to me. I'm always so worried about being late to appointments that I'm usually way too early. My kids are grown, though, so that makes a huge difference. I'm also not opposed to leaving the house without makeup when necessary - I can wear it or not. I can be showered, dressed, and out of the house in ten minutes, which comes in handy if I ever am running "late" for something.
 
Depending on the situation, I try to be early, usually bang on time esp for appointments. Social events, I tend to be a little late, I'm with @~Mary with that, turning up early throws everyone out...

No so bad now kids are older (they get left behind if they aren't on time, suits us all...). Always annoyed me when my husband would be waiting impatiently in the car, having got himself ready and then not understanding why I was running out trying to get myself vaguely presentable - as well as rounding up three kids and whatever food/drink we were taking with us.
 
bonnenuit said:
I'm usually on time or just a few minutes late. When I'm late it's usually because I was doing work on the computer and lost track of time, leaving me with not enough time to get ready to leave on time.
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This tends to happen to me especially if I get up early, and get a bunch of things done, then I'm apt to be cutting it close and get lost in the net.
 
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