Tuesday, April 5, 2011

There Was A Time


There was a time when I was never late.

I was always early – really early.

Because I get anxious when I am going to be late – and grouchy – I always leave myself plenty of time to get where I need to go.

I think it’s rude to be late. I think it shows the person you are keeping waiting that her time is less valuable then yours. I would rather plan for variables – traffic, accidents – leave at least a half a hour earlier then necessary, bring something to do and wait in a parking lot until it’s time to meet the person. If it’s an appointment or an interview, sitting in a person's waiting room for 15 minutes shows you valuable their time and are punctual.

Then I met my husband and I was often late.

He likes to do those last-minute things, you know, water the garden, check to make sure everything is locked, those kinds of things, 15 minutes after we were supposed to leave. It ticked me off every time. So then I started telling him I wanted to leave a hour before we actually did. And I wouldn’t get in the car until he was heading that way himself.

Then we had our guy. If it’s just the two of us, I can get him and myself ready, load the car and feed the cat and be on our way in time for almost everything – except daycare.

This morning I asked our daycare provider if I could drop our guy off early. She said she would get up 15 minutes earlier then normal to take us. And then we were late – by 10 minutes. I felt awful when I dropped him off, terrible as we were driving to work and not that great now.

My apologizes again.

8 comments:

Elizabeth @ My Life, Such as it is... said...

My mom hated being late and drilled that into us. Now that I'm married and have a kid, we are late more often than I like but I can live with it.

visiting from SITS

CoconutPalmDesigns said...

My brothers are perpetually late for everything. My mother is early for everything and Matthew and I are on time for almost everything. I hate being ready on time and then having to sit around and wait for people. It seriously annoys me particularly when it's the same people I am waiting on and it's every time.

Oops about this morning.

Hope your day improves.

Cheers :-)
- CoconutPalmDesigns

Unknown said...

I had to laugh! As a daycare provider, I would have been so annoyed!! I know, that doesn't make you feel any better. But if the parent were to apologize profusely, then I'm sure I would forgive, forget and move on.
I have been late ever since I've been with T, and it drives me nuts!! It's men's inability to plan ahead and multi-task that makes them late, I think. He always has to do last minute stuff as we're heading to the door, like use the bathroom for ten minutes!! Drives me nuts! It took me a long time but I finally realized as well to tell him we need to leave 20 or 30 minutes before we do!

Nicole said...

Oh, I know what you mean! I hate to be late. Ugh, it's the worst feeling for me, rushing around.

Losing Brownies said...

I use to hate being late for things, and then I had a kid and everything changed.

Marilyn (A Lot of Loves) said...

I shouldn't laugh because if that was me I would be terrible too. Besides it WOULD be me, because I have been late for preschool every single day this year. It's ridiculous. I used to be on time before I had kids. I have no idea what happened.

Lady Mama said...

Sometimes it just can't be helped! I hate being late too, but since having kids have learned that sometimes I just have to accept that things don't always run smoothly.

Mz-Cellaneous said...

I hate being late. HATE IT. Makes me feel sick, but it seems the older I get, the more I'm doing it!