How late is considered rude?

Maz

Just curious, if you invited friends over for supper at 8 o'clock and they were late, how long would you give it before you considered they were rude?

Personally, if I knew I was running behind, I'd text/phone to apologise but if someone is cooking, timing may be important so, I'd try to be no more than 10 minutes later than the agreeed time.

Interested to know what anyone else thinks.

daisiegg

I think more than 10 mins late without any communication is rude.

OrkneyStar

I'd expect some sort of communication if they were going to be 15 minutes or more late for a sit down meal or something, for a party I'd be more relaxed but would expect them to at least let me know they were delayed.

GobbledyGook

Depends why they were late.

Stuck on the underground with no way of contacting you is different to someone who faffed about and turned up an hour late and simply didn't bother to get in touch.

Someone who could get in touch I'd consider half past rude as we tend to be 'back of 8' type people.

ThinkPink

I would say 8.15 and then I would start getting a bit annoyed.

If I was running late I would always give a text as soon as I knew I would be late and even then I would try and not be any more than 15 mins late.

krlyr

If I was invited for dinner at 8, I would get there for 7.30-7.45. I can't bear turning up just as dinner is going on the table, I think it's poor manners, I like to be early so I can offer a hand if needed, so the host can settle us in and then get on with cooking, etc.

Gloomendoom

If I was invited for dinner at 8, I wouldn't dream of arriving earlier unless it was family or very good friends.

Maz

Thanks for everyone's replies. My daughter has invited two friends tonight for supper at 8, gone to a LOT of trouble and they both rolled up at 8.50 with no apologies or explanations. I think that's just bl00dy rude! If it was me, I wouldn't be inviting them again.

sooty&sweep

Hi
I'd think more than 10 - 15 minutes but if I was inviting someone for dinner I wouldn't time it to be ready on the dot so it would be 8 for 8.30. To give people a liitle bit of leeway, time to take their coat off, pour a drink etc etc.
Jen

claire16c

krlyr wrote: »

If I was invited for dinner at 8, I would get there for 7.30-7.45. I can't bear turning up just as dinner is going on the table, I think it's poor manners, I like to be early so I can offer a hand if needed, so the host can settle us in and then get on with cooking, etc.

If I told someone to get there for 8 I'd probably be aiming to have the dinner ready for maybe 8.20/30.

If someone turned up at 7.30 that would put me in a right panic and I'd probably not be dressed, got the cooking at the right stage etc yet! I would hate that!

For the OP I'd say no more than 15 mins without calling/texting.

Person_one

I would never be early, that's almost worse than being late!

I agree that any more than ten or fifteen minutes needs a phone call, however I wouldn't expect that an invite for 8pm meant dinner on the table at precisely 8pm either.