I think it depends on what you are attending whether it's rude or not. It also depends on how late you are and if the other person considers it rude for you to be late. I'm ususally right on time or at the most 5 min late. My family in general runs late and I have to herd my parents into being on time and they still are usually late- just not as late as they would have been without the coaxing. I have two rants to go along with this.
My ex SIL was late to EVERYTHING. She had absolutely no concept of time or that it was valuable to other people. She regularly inconvienced my sister by staying over until 3-4am when my sister had to work in the morning. My sister would finally have to just "kick her out". One time we waited for 2 hours for her to show up for christmas dinner. She knew well in advance when it was. Nothing happened for her to show up that late. She just did. One time there was a big tornado....my brother kept telling her to hurry so they could get to a shelter. She took a shower, put on all her makeup, got dressed up, fixed something to eat and then said "ok let's go" just in time for it to be over. It didn't hit their apt complex but about a mile away things were demolished.
My inlaws were moving out of state and we were helping them. My FIL told us we needed to be at their house at 7am on the dot. The previous night I worked until 1am and then drove the 45 min home, packed, showered and went to bed. We slept for about 4 hours and got to their house right on time to wake them up! We sat around waiting on them until 930-10am. I was dog tired before we started the 13 hour drive where we would unload the moving truck in the 100 degree weather and pretty much turn around and come back. I was soooo pissed. His excuse? " oh well I figured if I told you 7 you guys would show up right about the time we were really leaving." I'm still trying to make sense of that. DH is just as much (if not more) a stickler for keeping your word on what time you will be wherever as I am. I guess maybe he wasn't when he lived at home? oh well.
-- Edited by luckyclover at 22:46, 2006-04-27
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"Thanks to Stephenie Meyer everytime I hear thunder, I imagine vampires playing baseball."
I'm always on time, because I agree, it's disrespectful to make others wait. And it drives me nuts when people make me wait. Luckily, in the city traffic isn't a concern because most people walk/metro/cab and I rarely have to meet someone across town.
I also have that one friend who is habitually late, so when we meet, I always tell her 30 minutes early. Works like a charm, and she seriously has yet to catch on that I do it!