Reading another post another day that Melanie wrote made me think about why I hate to wait and always love to be on time. That would be because that is how I was raised as well.
Growing up we were never late to anything and somehow my parents were always ready to leave at the same time. Even when my mom was recovering from breast cancer and going through radiation and chemo we were always on time. This makes me wonder, why am I always driving fast to make sure my kids get places on time? Worse yet, why are we always late or driving fast as a family to get to places?
Growing up my dad was a stickler on time. I am not sure how he got that way but it worked well for his job as a superintendent. His teachers knew also that when it was stated that a program, teacher’s institute, meeting whatever was going to start at a certain time it would. There was no waiting for it was start and then usually he would get people out early because no time was wasted at the beginning.
He taught my sister and I this idea as well. I vividly remember when my sister got married her husband’s family seemed to be late to things. He looked at the groom’s mom, who decided a few minutes before Dana was to walk down the aisle that she needed to go to the bathroom and said Dana will be walking in at 2:00. He meant it. Everyone in our small town knew our wedding would start exactly on time, even if the bride wasn’t ready most likely! Our church had no air conditioning and we both got married in the summer. Both days were very hot and the church was packed. No way was my dad making people wait.
I tried to teach my kids this same idea, but we usually end up waiting in the van for their dad to do one last thing. This one last thing takes several minutes so my kids’ way of coping has been to realize we will leave 10-15 minutes later than stated. That then however only delays us more because Brian’s one last thing can only be done after everyone is out of the house. Nope it doesn’t matter if I already tried to do what I think that one last thing will be. Yes though our wedding did start on time because it would have happened even without the groom!
Haha that last line is hilarious! We are a very timely family as well – my mom would just leave whoever was taking too long on the way to school. And my dad goes outside the door if he is ready for an outing and the rest of the group isn’t yet. I think being on time is very important as well because of this, but I often forget that some friends are quite late so for events, I’m often ready and then waiting around for people to arrive :p
I’m totally like Brian. I can’t focus and concentrate on making sure we have all the things we need if anyone else is in the house talking and moving around me. I make the kids go out to the car and get strapped in and then I run around the house checking all the things and grabbing all the things that were forgotten. I need your dad in my life!