When you have a family event or dinner does it start on time?

When I have an event at my house, we are always ending up waiting for some late comers to arrive. I would never wait for 2 hours! I usually plan on waiting 1/2 hour before serving the food. If someone is later than that, they can eat when they get here. My inlaws are the opposite. If they say eat at 1~they eat at 1 regardless who is there! One time I was about 3 minutes late, called and told them were I was ( I was coming home from work and going to meet my family there for dinner) and so they knew that I would be a few minutes late. They didn't wait for me. I walked in 3 minute late to find everyone already eating. I thought that was just rude. Another time they were hosting a 80th birthday party for my hubbys aunt. It was suppose to start at 1 and when the guest of honor wasn't there, MIL said, let's start eating!! I couldn't believe it. I told my kids that we are not eating until the guest of honor arrived and I said it loud enough for MIL to hear. That is just plan wrong.

My family are Farmers, and farmers have barn chores that need to be done On Time. At our house dinner is a 12 noon sharp and at 5 pm, we have supper. When guests are invited for a meal the time is stated in the invitation. We eat dinner at 12 noon no matter what! And let me say, " its very seldom that our guests are late, because they know we will eat dinner at 12 noon whether or not they have arrived.

my family is pretty punctual and we don't like people who are late... we appreciate and respect each other's time and we don't want to make people wait... if it is going to be late, it is only for about 15 to 30 minutes maximum... i can't imagine having to wait for 2 hours behind... that is terrible... i wouldn't want to waste my valuable time like that just for waiting... take care and have a nice day...

In my own family, where i have a say, i try to start and end at times. i am not always good at waiting myself and also do not want to make others waiting at all. but sometimes i have seen it does not start at times. its also irritationg for me as well.

No. There's always someone late or some lame excuse. Dinner is never served at the time specified. Then people are too busy yakking, and I want to eat!

Everyone in my family is pretty much punctual when it comes to organising any functions or attending someone else party. In fact we will be there at least half an hour earlier but the problem is most of the people we know are not punctual at all. Whether they are organising something or attending ours, they are just late . This bothers me a lot because I hate waiting for people and it affects our program later when they are late. However, i'm afraid to say it out because it might hurt them. Its just upsetting when most people do not take punctuality seriously.

My family is pretty close on time, maybe 5-10 minutes to wait on everyone to get there or food to be done. My husband’s family is at least 30 minutes late for everything. Sunday we went over for a late lunch, we were 10 minutes early. The food was not ready for another 45 minutes and their other company came 15 minutes after that. They are so bad though, around Christmas his mom wanted to do a family picture. We got to the studio on time, they were not there. 10 minutes pass and they still had not even left their house, they were still getting ready. They live 30 minute away. So we had to reschedule.

He should know it they are always late. If they are, I would be in no hurry to get there.

With our busy lifestyles these days it is very frustrating to wait for people. Our family mostly live quite close to each other. Thinking about it though recently we tend to have 'open house' afternoons with a barbeque or buffet and people come and go when it suits them. With cake cutting if appropriate when most people are there. The weather being unpredictable and houses small if trying to get everybody in at once this tends to work better for us.

My family grow up to respect time. I have been to numerous family parties that I was invited to and notice that when a time is set there are persons coming very late. Sometimes even the person who is the honoree arrives late. Time is a factor worldwide and I believe once people realize that it affects another then they will start to have more respect towards it.

I think we're pretty punctual...at least we've never had to wait as long as you did for late arrivals. When my kids were little my mother used to tell me that a family function was an hour earlier than it really was because I had a problem arriving on time. When I learned of her trick I made more of an effort to be on schedule and she stopped doing that to me.