Are you an early bird or a late one?

I am always early for appointments, trains etc. I did try to arrive on time in the days where one could visit friends.

Bit harsh Nip'smum

I'm with you Luckylegs I'm usually doing last minute tweaks in the half hour before people arrive for a meal/visit, don't want them arriving early.

I see most of the early bird postings on here are on page 1 of this thread - mine however is towards the end - I rest my case. : o ).
I'm strongly of the opinion that you can't change how you are made - you're either an early bird or a late one .....

My other friend who is always late for everything. I sat outside the coffee shop for 25 minutes and her excuse was she had a couple of phone calls.

I'm an 'on timer'. Always early but hover elsewhere until the appointed arrangement. Think lateness is quite awful. Pretty much says that the offender thinks their time is more important than yours. I say (with chagrin) that I will wait indefinitely for loved ones so I tend to cope with the aid of a cocktail. I give more casual friends fifteen minutes and then I'm off unless I've heard from them, of course. When home visiting, I arrive five minutes after the appointed hour. Just gives them a chance!! Warts and all, I so enjoy socialising. Hard times indeed.

I love that Grizzly, a friend posted it on fb a few months ago and it made me laugh out loud as I really identify with it!

I always aim to be on time for appointments but when visiting people I think it is more polite to arrive a few minutes late rather than too early. I know I appreciate the extra preparation time if people are late arriving here.
However my DH is the opposite and always wants to leave the house earlier than the time we agreed, even when there is no particular deadline. So for example, if we said we'd go shopping about 11am he would be fretting if I wasn't ready by 10.50am and really stressing if it was 11.02am! It used to drive me mad, but for the sake of his blood pressure I now get ready 10 minutes before the time we said.

I am not an early bird, or a night owl, but some form of permanently exhausted pigeon.

My son gave me this sign. Don't know what he means!!!

Mum was a fettler for being early and I take after her or I get uptight if I'm kept waiting.
Always a good half hour earlier for any appointment etc. Even my regular INR'S I'm 10 minutes early and the place is practically on the doorstep.

I can remember mum chivvying dad up many a time and telling him he'll be late for his own funeral Dad was so laid back and used to say " there's plenty of time lass ".

Hope the appt. goes well Dragonfly. x

Chronically late but improving. I am now generally about 5 minutes early or on time for medical appointments etc. Usually never more than 15 minutes late for a friend and never mind people being up to 20 minutes late for me. Being early is time I could be doing something necessary or interesting.

I hate, hate, hate people arriving early, especially for dinner. I think it is the height of rudeness and inconsideratness. One friend constantly arrived early despite me telling her don't be early. She walks in the door mid sentence and doesn't stop. This just delays me more. I now tell her to zip it until.I am ready!

Nightmare situation for early birds my dh and me recently when attending flu jab appointment. Our surgery has limited parking and patients, since Covid, are asked not to arrive early, so doing so, and hogging a parking space would have been a very antisocial option at a time with unusually high volume of traffic. It was pouring with rain, yellow lines on all surrounding roads and public car park some distance away. Fortunately the situation was resolved for us by a text from the surgery asking us to come as soon as possible as they were running ahead. There was one parking space left when we arrived - Phew!

All good wishes for you dragonfly

I must drive people mad because I’m always late. It’s just trying to do too much before I set off. I too can’t stand people coming early. If I’ve said to come at 7 pm, that means I don’t want them to come until 7pm! I’m not going to be remotely ready at 6.30 or 6.40 and we don’t need to set off until 7pm! I try to emphasise not before but they turn up, whenever they like? I give up.

I’m always early, a trait inherited from my mother.
One day whilst waiting for my son who is always late, I started to add up how many hours in my life I had wasted waiting for other people. Once it started turning into days I stopped?

Newatthis I realised that my mistake was to focus on the time I was supposed to arrive.
Now, I focus on the time I've decided to leave the house (or wherever).

Definitely a late bird. I have a tea-towel given to me by my daughter which says "I hate people who sing in the morning". Now, midnight and after is another matter!

I’m a punctual person but I do understand that delays can happen to anyone. However if someone is always delayed I’d be a tad annoyed. My time is no less important than theirs.

And yes, I do have a particular person in mind!

I was brought up that it is better to be an hour early than a minute late- my Grandmother's maxim.
I am very rarely late for anything but I do spend a lot of time waiting around!!

For appointments usually a bit early but not 50 mins unless travel arrangements or distance are awkward. Otherwise I hate early starts.

Some people take punctuality to extremes. I am usually on time or early but last week I was on my way to meet a friend when I noticed her car absolutely racing along the road in front of me. I arrived just after her and remarked on her speed and she breathlessly told me she thought she was late. We were only going for a walk in the park so it didn't really matter.

I hate being late and have no time or patience for people who make it their goal in life to be late or very late for everything. They use lateness as a form of control, and I have no time for them. My oldest sister was never in time for anything.

Late, Late, Late! I so wish I could be an early person but even when i really try I can't. I have been like this since I was a child. Everyone who knows me get so frustrated. We had friends who, if they wanted us for dinner at say 8pm, they would tell us 7.30pm. I also wish I was an early bird riser but that doesn't happen either, even with 3 alarms!

Same here Farnorth But i'm much better now since it dawned on me that I felt really uncomfortable being the last one to arrive, or having to apologise for being late. So now I'm an early bird too.

I'm never early when invited to someone's house though, just on time. I hate it when I'm in the middle of preparing a meal in my tee shirt and joggers when there's a knock on the door....20 minutes early!, so I wouldn't be early for that reason.

I like to be on time, so I am an early bird. Now if you are talking about going to bed and getting up, then I am both, I go to bed early and wake up late.

Always early, sometimes excessively so.

When my son (always late) had missed a train, I told him that I had never missed a train in my life. He said “ But think of the hours you have wasted waiting around on station platforms”. He had a point, I suppose.