To leave friend sitting in her car outside my house as she's arrived 90 minutes early

[youretooearly]

I invited my friend over to my house for a takeaway tonight. She asked what time and I said about 6pm. She responded to say she was planning to leave her house shortly (this was about 3.30pm) as she has never been to my house before and wanted to find her way before it got dark. She said not to worry she would just "hang around" somewhere and wouldn't impose. I assumed she meant she would go to a nearby coffee shop or something. I wasn't at home at that stage and told her so. I got home about 45 minutes ago and planned to use the time before she arrived to do more preparation for a job interview I have on Monday.

I walked into my living room about half an hour ago and noticed her car sitting outside my house! So she was here at least 1 hour 20 minutes early. I was shocked. I haven't acknowledged that I've seen her or invited her in yet. She's sent me a message 15 minutes ago "let me know when you're ready". I feel a bit angry that she's turned up so early! I said 6pm for a reason and now feel under pressure to let her in.

You are being bizarre. She’s your friend!

Only on Mumsnet.

"Misjudge" is a bit of an understatement. She was ready to leave at 3.30 to arrive for 6! Google maps exists, you can judge most journeys to about 5 min either way accuracy in real time. Agree with others it's pretty incapable.

How peculiar of her. But you can’t leave her sitting outside! That’s even weirder.

I agree with the posters who say to.let her in, but ask.her to entertain herself as you have some work to so.

Give her the TV remote and WiFi password and a cup of tea. And crack on with what you need to do.

How strange - maybe she was nervous about driving to your house and how long it would take. If you really have to do this work, I would say 'come on in darlin' - I'm sure you won't mind, but I have to do this little bit of prep before I can give you full attention - have a drink and look at the TV'. She won't mind.

What do you mean?

the friend is rude. She was invited for 6. She arrived mega early for a ridiculous reason.

if you turned up early for any other event you’d have to wait.

maybe only on mumsnet is right, it is only on here I see people happy to let themselves be treated like utter mugs and incapable of standing up for themselves

On MN people would let the friend in, seethe, paint on a smile, be resentful all evening, assassinate the friends character to someone else after the event and start a thread on here to have everyone validate how justified their fury was and his weird and rude the friend was. Some of us like to be straight forward with people and not behave that way.

This would be an excellent scenario to put to a new potential friend.

The answer would let you know if you could ever be friends with them.

That works for some people and some friends. Not all. Since OP has not wanted to take that obvious step it is unreasonable to assume it would work for her in this situation.

I'd leave her outside
Had a friend that was constantly early
40 mins early
I was still getting ready and it really threw me off
I felt like I had to rush my hair and make up because she was waiting
And it annoyed me
The one time i did invite her in
It was constant interruptions
How do you turn the tv on
How do I find this channel
Where are you mugs kept
And then drove my dogs hyper talking to them in a high pitched baby voice

Never again. After that I just met her at the venue and she would wait 40 min by herself waiting

Being that early is bad manners

People saying oh but it's January... cars have heaters

Being 90 mins early is totally unacceptable
It's just rude

Some of these comments, Some of you are really horrible people

I'm genuinely surprised so many people would be okay with this.

Who turns up two hours early and expects to be let in and hosted?

What do you like about her?

That would give me the ick and I'd cancel that friendship.

I agree. Sometimes when I read Mumsnet I feel like the art of friendship is being lost.

The fact you sat on her and wrote all this out. Your jobs couldnt have been that important. Letting people on here make out your friends a weirdo, sounds like your a great friend. Hope she sees this you horrible person

The fact you sat on here and wrote all this out. Your jobs couldnt have been that important. Letting people on here make out your friends a weirdo, sounds like your a great friend. Hope she sees this you horrible person

Agree
I hate surprises
If I had planned to do interview prep this afternoon and someone turned up early, I'd be livid
It would totally throw me off
If I invited them in or kept them outside I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my work...
I hate my plans being ruined
I am autistic

💯 it'd really unsettling

Hope you let her in!

Let her in, make her a coffee and say that youve got some work to do so she'll have to watch telly for an hour or so.

You're obviously not a good friend. People should feel comfortable enough with mates. This is just odd to me.

Is she still sat outside?

Gosh I wouldn't leave a friend sitting outside. Real friends don't care if you are in the middle of Hoovering. I mean if it was a regular habit I would find it bizarre but she clearly said she was nervous about finding your house in the dark.