To hate waiting for people.

[ClaireandGeorge]

Dmil and dsil are very kindly coming to get me and ds 19 months to visit them for the weekend. They said they'd be here at 11 so we could have some lunch and then leave mid afternoon and ds can nap in the car and hopefully miss traffic.
Thursday is my day off as such no work or playgroup. Me and ds usually have a lazy pj's morning but this morning I mafe sure I was up early so I could pack and get us both washed n dressed. Well it's now 12 and still waiting. I should be used to it by now as they are regular offenders but I just hate waiting around.

[NinaHeart]

I hate this too.

[pumpkinsweetie]

As a person that is always early or bang on time, i hate this too!

[farrowandbawl]

It's awful and rude isn't it?

I have a friend who does this a lot. The problem is, which she admits to, is that she doesn't think she will be late, until she IS late.

For example: Meet up at 10-30.

Most people will take into account the time it needs to get ready, the travel time and still have and extra 5 minutes for "just in case" in order to get the meeting point at that time.

Late people tend to think...Meet at 10-30, ah, that's loads of time. Get ready at 10 (10 minutes), get there (10 minutes) so I'll leave at 10-10 instead and be there on time.

It's annoying, rude, disrespectful and shows lack of organisation and time keeping skills. You can almost say that is can show contempt for the person waiting in really bad cases.

If meeting up with my friend I now make my own way to the meet up place and do my own thing first as I know she'll be late by at least 1/2 an hour. I never arrange to meet her at her house or my own because I can be sat there waiting for ages, even up to an hour in her own place as she gets distracted doing stuff that doesn't need doing.

[ClaireandGeorge]

Still waiting, I wouldn't mind if they'd hit traffic but I know full well they left late and never would have managed to get here in time.

[arabesque]

It drives me mad as well. My cousin does this all the time. Promises to call over at a certain time and then leaves you sitting around all afternoon. She always has a 'sorry we were running behind time and blah blah'. It never seems to occur to her that she's completely messed up your day and wasted loads of your time while she's doing things at her own pace.

[Gorrillerof3b]

I wish people would be a bit more understanding that sometimes unforeseen circumstances do crop up. I was recently in very good time to meet a friend for coffee, but on the way up the road met a friend who was on the way back from getting an unpleasant diagnosis at the doctors and stopped to tell me about it. I could hardly say "fuck off with your problems, old friend, I'm off for coffee", but arranged to meet her later and hurried on to meet first friend, now 10 mins late. I explained why I was late and apologised, but got a rant about how my time was more important than hers and a big sulk all through lunch. Also recently I was late meeting her after work as I was held up by a child protection / police incident (and whatever she thinks, you can't tell the police to fuck off with their abuse concerns as you fancy a coffee) and got snide comments and more sulks. She won't carry a mobile phone so I couldn't even have texted her. And, yes, there are times when for very good reasons, she keeps me waiting a few minutes but I make a point of it being no big deal - because it isn't!

[arabesque]

But that's not what the OP is talking about. She's talking about people who are always late, and most of us know people like that and how annoying it is.

[pumpkinsweetie]

Op is talking of "regular offenders"

[cushtie335]

Habitual lateness is rude, narcissistic and totally unnecessary. I fully understand that sometimes being late is beyond your control, but people who pitch up upwards to an hour after the designated meeting time make me want to poke their eyes out with jobby sticks. I used to have several "friends" who did this to me all the time, now I just wont put up with it and the people I associate with now are all of the same mind as me, that chronic lateness is just a passive-aggressive way of saying "your time isn't as important as mine, so you can hang around until I'm ready to bother turning up". Nah, fuck off.

[ephemeralfairy]

I totally agree with this, but what irks me possibly even more is people who are early! I have a friend who regularly comes round twenty minutes/half an hour earlier than stated: ie I invite her for dinner at 7.30, she will turn up at 7.10 or even 7. Usually both I and the flat are a disgusting state, I have to run round in a flap tidying around her and it puts me on edge for the rest of the evening. Once I came home to find her sitting on the doorstep like a latch-key child. She always manages to make me feel guilty for it too. FFS!! I live in a very busy lively 'late-night' sort of area, how hard is it to browse the shops or go into the library for twenty minutes? I suppose it's poor time management again, over-estimating how long something will take rather than under-estimating it.

[Davsmum]

I am obsessed with never being late - I doubt I have been late for anything more than twice in my adult life.
My hairdresser thought I was totally nuts because I rang him to say I may be 10 minutes late because I had been held up slightly. As it turned out I rushed and ended up just 5 minutes late!

I hate being kept waiting so it would be hypocritical for me to do it to others.

[KellyElly]

Me too. It's annoying. Particularly repeat offenders who must think their time is more important than anyone elses!

[Groovee]

My friend made a big deal of meeting me for coffee. I text her 10 minutes before we were due to meet to say we were there and she replied. Oh erm I'm on my way! Turns up 20 minutes late because she had to drop one of the kids off elsewhere.