to think if you are chronically late, your kids will grow up that way too?

[PoppyPopcorn]

Or does it send them the other way?

I live very close to a school. My street appears to be the unofficial drop off zone for parents so I see the same people every day.

Every morning, without fail at 9.01 am a woman sreeches up in a silver Nissan Juke, throws her child out of the car to run down the path into the playground shouting "go! go! you'll be late!!" Poor kid has to leg it into the school playground, sometimes she makes it before the door closes, other times the door is shut and she has to walk through the main entrance and get a late mark.

Every morning.

So this poor child is going to grow up thinking that cutting it fine or arriving late is just what you do, and perfectly normal. And it's her mother who is teaching her this.

I cannot abide poor punctuality and the only time I've ever had to sack someone was for consistent poor time-keeping. Being on time MATTERS - is this child going to be late when it comes to things like sitting her exams or turning up for her driving test?

Disclaimer: on these threads there are always replies from people who have six autistic children to get out in the morning, don't drive, have to hike ten miles over the moors to school so it's understandable if they're 5 minutes late. But I know people who know this mother and none of that applies - she is just shit at getting her kid to school by the time the first bell goes at 8.57am.

My husbands family are always late for everything. It has rubbed off on him and his 2 siblings. It's so frustrating trying to get him moving to go anywhere. When we invite his family over we always tell them an earlier time than the actual time and even then they they will usually manage to be late. Really annoys me

Indeed it does, but in an exam, it's distracting and annoying for the majority who managed to get there on time and are in the middle of answering what could be quite complex questions.

Totally agree. The idea it's not disruptive to others is ludicrous, never mind the impact on the late child themselves who now has less time to do the exam.

Lateness is one of my biggest bugbears in someone. I can't stand it. And they will apologise, but it's pretty irrelevant because I've then wasted half an hour of my time standing around waiting for them to bother turning up.

If you know you're going to be late, plan to be early, and then at least you might stand a chance at being on time. Or have the decency to text as soon as you know you're running behind - don't text when you're already late, to tell the person you're meeting you're running late!

I find these threads always fall into two categories. People who are always early/bang on time and can't stand lateness, or people who are chronically late and don't see it as an issue, or who find it weird that people get annoyed about it.

Personally I feel if you arrange to meet someone at a certain time, then you need to make every effort possible to be there. Of course things happen - traffic accidents, roadworks, a nappy explosion, delayed train - but generally it's not hard to be on time if you want to be.

I've sat a lot of exams and only experienced one where someone came in late. it was me. I'd arrived in good time but was directed to the wrong room so was faced with the wrong paper.

By the time I made someone understand this and was moved it was about 25 minutes in. I made a formal complaint about the disruption to my exam preparation and would hope anyone else affected by the balls up on that day made a similar one.

I've taken a lot of exams and a lot of trains and I've never noticed anything like that since. IME if you turn up late for an exam and it's your fault, tough, you've missed it. If your experience is different then you have grounds for serious complaint.

My DM is always late. She'll text after the time she was supposed to be here to say she'll be leaving in 5 minutes.

I'm never late. Ever.

When we invite his family over we always tell them an earlier time than the actual time and even then they they will usually manage to be late

I rushed round like mad to get my kids to one of their groups end of year activities - rushed home from school ate very quick tea - I'd built in time for taxi to be late and traffic heavy to find taxi was 15 minutes early and traffic light.

Go their really early to find organiser had done the above and we still had to wait extra ten minutes on top for late comers - extra 25 minutes plus my own buffer time which ended up over 30 minutes – then they check in and found it policy to wait extra 10 minutes before doing safety talk so didn’t have late comers coming in part way.

Ended up waiting over an hour in entrance hall with nothing in it – and I’d been given impression it was straight in so had brought no entertainment. Kids had fun – but it was a long hour.

In Scotland, the guidelines say "Candidates arriving late for an examination, other than in the cases mentioned below, may
be admitted to the examination room provided no candidate has left the examination room in the meantime."

So you could potentially have kids rocking up 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes after the others have started working, causing noise, fuss and disruption because they couldn't be arsed to get themselves there on time. Yes mix-ups happen and that's unfortunate, but often the reason is just poor timekeeping.

Also agree that people who are very lax with their time just don't get why it pisses the rest of us off that much. The girl I sacked for being late every day certainly didn't and thought she was very hard done by.

I find these threads always fall into two categories. People who are always early/bang on time and can't stand lateness, or people who are chronically late and don't see it as an issue, or who find it weird that people get annoyed about it.

There is a third. People who are punctual but who are not that bothered by others who are early or late so long as it doesn't cause us that much inconvenience either way.

My parents were (are) always prompt or early, and I find it courteous and convenient to be so.

PIL are just the same, but DH has gone the other way. Partly I think he's just bad at knowing how long things take.

Eg school doors open at 8.45 and close at 8.55. It's a three-minute drive.

I aim to park up a couple of minutes' walk away for easy parking and a walk, to arrive at school at 8.45. That means leaving our drive no later than 8.40, which in turn means herding the children towards the door at 8.35 which means I have to be completely ready by 8.30. Bags etc prepared the night before and waiting by the porch.

DH looks at his watch at 8.30 and puts more bread in the toaster. When he's eaten it he goes upstairs to brush his teeth. He tries to park at school and the car park is full so he ends up round the corner, a couple of minutes' walk away. He wonders why they're late

He was recently away with work so I was doing the full set of extracurricular activities. DC were politely asking if they could be "not last" to arrive. I reminded them that I was the one delivering them, and they relaxed.

I'm pretty sure they'll take after me, not him.

Also agree that people who are very lax with their time just don't get why it pisses the rest of us off that much. The girl I sacked for being late every day certainly didn't and thought she was very hard done by.

I suppose that would depend on whether she was actually late or starting bang on time and how you dealt with her lateness before resorting to drastic action of sacking her.

I was ALWAYS made to be late by my parents. Everyday I was late. It was so embarrassing.

We do get late sometimes, but I bloody make sure they're in on time 99% of the time. There's nothing worse than going into class when everyone has gone to assembly or have started work. Horrible.

I suppose that would depend on whether she was actually late or starting bang on time and how you dealt with her lateness before resorting to drastic action of sacking her.

Start time was 9. She was never in before 10 past. We offered to change her start time to 9.15. She wandered in at 9.30. She was taken down the full path of improvement plans, warnings etc. It's not "drastic" to sack someone who is supposed to be there logged in and answering calls from customers at a set time and isn't there to do that.

I suppose that would depend on whether she was actually late or starting bang on time

If she was starting bang on time then she wouldn't be late. If everyone people on this thread are complaining about for being late we're bang on time, there wouldn't be a problem because they wouldn't be late. Late people are not bang on time.

My mum was always late. I'm always late I seem to have the part of my brain that would deal with traveling time to anywhere missing. I know it sucks and I hate myself for it.

I used to hate being late for school when my mum got me there though. I used to get shouted at for something I had no control over. I'm never late dropping the kids off.

Whether you're in Scotland or anywhere else in the world, may is the operative word OP.

It's there to cover people like me, who arrived late for an exam because of the fault of people administering it. I think that's fair, don't you? It was very disruptive to me and I imagine so for the people in the first exam room and to a lesser extent those in the second. But it wasn't my cock up and had to be sorted. Cock ups happen.

If I had 'rocked up' (why do people love that phrase?) 25 minutes late because I'd overslept or spent too much time dithering about which lucky gonk to put on my desk, I'm sure they would have rightly refused me entry.

I doubt that latecomers are routinely allowed entry in formal exams. If that does happen, you have more of a problem with the administrators than the individual students and good grounds for a formal complaint. In the absence of examples, I'll continue to think its a feverish fantasy rather than reality.

I'd probably just mind my own business and not worry about it. Maybe they will grow always bring on time, maybe they won't, probably not the end of the earth either way. My dad was always on time, my mum always late, I'm always late, brother and sister always on time, youngest bro always late. We are all pretty good human beings so it's not exactly something to worry over.

If she was starting bang on time then she wouldn't be late. If everyone people on this thread are complaining about for being late we're bang on time, there wouldn't be a problem because they wouldn't be late.  Late people are not bang on time.

I meant more like if you are due to start your shift at 9am and you literally clocked in at at 9am so your computer or whatever was still warming up a minute or so later and you needed to take your coat off, find your pen etc
To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is unacceptable.

I think it depends on your memories of always been late, cause by your parent it will make you the opposite.

Like a PP above -My mum was organised, punctual, and tidy. I'm none of these-

My mother was never big on been tidy, punctual or organised and I hated been one of the late kids, with the messy hair. I would never expect this for my DC.

Although I sometimes think they might not priorities these things' As they will never be the child who stood out, for having a messy house, been unlate and an untidy uniform.

My mum and my dad are both late for everything. I have terrible memories of running to the dentist who terrified me anyway without running to him.
I am now always a little early for everything.

Strike failed quoting a PP.

There is a third. People who are punctual but who are not that bothered by others who are early or late so long as it doesn't cause us that much inconvenience either way.

This! I never let my children turn up late, but as a result I sometimes end up running a bit behind. Luckily I work for myself so I can't get the sack!!!!

My mum was and is always late. I am either on time or early. My own lateness makes me panicky, other peoples it up to them but i do feel its rude if they are always late. I tell my mum meet you at 2 if i really mean 3 and she will arrive 3.10 and still think nothings wrong.

@MrsHathaway my Dh is the same. If we need to leave at 10, I'll start getting kids together and shoes on at quarter to. Hell query "thoughtful we were leaving at 10?". Yes leaving at 10, but it takes our 2 at least 5.mins to get to door, 5 mins for shoes and a few extra for the suddenly vital toy we need to take with us.

He's also useless at estimating how long it takes to get somewhere, park, get everyone out walk to place. He's convinced very where vaguely local takes 5mins.

It depends on the job. If you work in a shop that opens at 9am it is reasonable for the company to expect you to be there at 8.45am. They should pay you for that and sadly, some of them don't. If you don't do that, then they are right to let you go.

I work shifts at three starting points, always on the hour. I generally leave home at quarter past the hour and arrive 15 or 10 minutes early. Sometimes I leave at half past the hour and am either dead on time or up to 15 minutes' late. My boss finds this reasonable. One person often crashes in spectacularly late with outlandish excuses - 'my cat was projectile vomiting' - and keeps her head down for hours trying to make up for lost time. She doesn't affect me , so I don't care. There is another colleague who I find miles more irritating who is also tolerated by the boss and who also doesn't affect me.

Being consistently late to meet people is rude. It says to them that your time is more important and you don't really care about them. Otherwise you'd be on time, most of the time.

The odd bit of lateness happens because of one off traffic issues, cancelled trains etc. But most people who are late are always late. My BIL and family are always at least an hour late and they never apologise. Or they'll say traffic. But traffic is something you allow for at certain times or over certain distances. A complete motorway closure perhaps not, but regular lane closure, road works, small accident you allow extra time for.