I don’t know about you, pandas, but I have a serious problem with always being on time. It’s not quirky or relatable, and my intolerance toward tardiness always irritates my friends and family members. Perhaps it has to do with anxiety; perhaps I just always crave to be in control of the situation as much as I can.

So I sympathize with this family whose other members are serial dawdlers. The story comes from a Reddit user named happyscatteredreader. Her family, fed up with family members who were always chronically late, decided to maliciously comply with their request to know the right time to be at places.

happyscatteredreader was kind enough to tell Bored Panda more about the story. Read a short interview with her below!

Punctuality can be important, especially when traveling

Image credits: explorenation (not the actual photo)

These always-late relatives had to learn the hard way that “the ferry waits for no man”

Image credits: Arefin Shamsul (not the actual photo)

Image credits: happyscatteredreader

The OP tells Bored Panda some more details about the story

The author of this post agreed to tell us a little more about her post that was so popular on Reddit. As of November 24th, it has 4k upvotes and more than 200 comments.

happyscatteredreader says that a conversation with a friend inspired her to share her story with the people of the Internet. “I had been speaking to a friend complaining of a family member always being late and facing no consequences,” the OP tells us. “That conversation reminded me of this story as it’s very much about a natural consequence of someone’s own actions!”

We inquired if there was any specific situation that provoked her parents (and other family members) to start giving the aunt and uncle the wrong time for events. Surely, even the most patient people have a limit. “I don’t think it was a specific situation,” the author admits.

“Just more so a general sense of being fed up with missing the start of events or getting started late on days out, rushing to get places. That just prompted the ‘let’s tell them it starts at an earlier time’ approach,” happyscatteredreader recounts.

Image credits: Engin Akyurt (not the actual photo)

The author of the post also tells us how the relatives reacted when the ferry departed without them

The OP’s story culminates in the relatives missing the ferry for a family trip. She didn’t mention how her aunt, uncle and cousins reacted at that moment. So we decided to ask her.

“They were very annoyed!” happyscatteredreader is honest. Because there were no mobile phones back then, the family had no way to contact each other in the immediate aftermath. “But I believe we called their landline from a payphone when we docked and figured out what happened,” the Redditor tells us.

She already mentioned in her post that, sadly, the relatives didn’t change their ways. “Timekeeping got a little bit better for a while (due to the unmerciful teasing they got) but they continued to be late for general meet-ups,” the OP admits.

Such family dynamics can reflect on children later in life when they grow up. A user Nope_thank_you commented: “I am neurotically early for everything because my parents were your aunt and uncle when I was growing up.”

The OP tells us she also tries to always be on time. “I’m definitely punctual. I have to work backward from the event time. If the event starts at 7 PM, takes 30 minutes to get there, let’s give 45 minutes,” she quickly does the math.

“It will take me 1 hour to get ready so I need to start getting organized at 5.15 so I have 30 minutes extra time in case I need it! I hate rushing and will actively avoid putting myself in those situations.”

happyscatteredreader admits the behavior of her relatives might have impacted her current habits. “I think watching them miss out on fun activities or get stuck in crowds because they didn’t like early starts made me realize I didn’t want to be always hurrying about.”

Image credits: ZHANG FENGSHENG (not the actual photo)

Unfortunately, this occurrence did not change their behavior

After reading the story, some commenters agreed that punctuality is important

Other Redditors had similar stories to share

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