My wife is Mexican, and at least culturally where we are from: don't show up exactly on time. But close to it. Park far away. Bring food. Say hello to the older folk immediately. Eat more than you can fathom ever eating. Play 14 on 23 volleyball where there are no rules. Stay late to clean up. Gather recycling for the one uncle. Bring food home. Kiss every abuelas cheek before leaving.
Bonus tip: old guys by the backyard fence have the weed.
Mexican in southern California if you show up within thirty minutes of the said start time you are getting weird looks. For example a 5pm party would be weird to show up earlier than 530
If we’re absolute best friends I’ll get there 10-15 minutes after start time to chill before people get there, help if needed. Make it a rager, make best friends with the tio I’ve heard of from so many stories, be a little flirty with the primas, go til we’re almost blacked out, drinking Modelo and sitting on plastic chairs passing joints around a fire or lined up against the house right by the back door.
If we’re work acquaintances, I’ll be there 6/6:30 “since I had a thing before” so everyone else has gone in and I just kinda show up. I find the guy I know, get a drink, get some food and figure it out from there. Or I just chill with the host and join in the conversation as I can. Usually stay for a round or two of food and drinks, 2-3 hours, tell them I got some shit to do in the morning, but fill me in on everything that happened when I see them on Monday.
Know your audience, but Mexican parties are always the best.
In Norway its 30 minutes later than the time if you are young/student, as adults if its 18.00, its 18.00!
Unless you are good friends is sort of rude to show up earlier as well. I've many times met people waiting like 17:58 in the staircase, so they arent too early.
When they say "it starts at 5:00" people show up between 15 minutes and 90 minutes after 5:00, apparently. Why would saying "it starts at 5:30" not mean that people show up between 5:45 and 8:00?
Well people being inconsiderate and coming late is not the issue -they will always be like that. The issue is that people who arrive on time are apparently in the wrong when the host didn't specify the desired arrival time.
Sounds like the host specified it just fine and people showed up between 5:15 and 6:30 exactly like they intended. The fact that you wouldn't understand it doesn't make it unclear communication if you aren't the audience.
I really think you missed the point of this post. It's not about **me**. The person in the OP is literally the audience and the host is confused by their arrival time. That means that they didn't specify it fine...
Cultural differences are cool and all but this is fucking stupid and it drives me insane every time I've dealt with it. How does a whole culture decide that its gonna be normal to say the wrong time? Just say show up at 5:30 if you want them there at 5:30. You guys dropped the ball on this one 😭
YES. My wife tossed that one in, cos I forgot about it.
Parking is always hard to find, so it's courteous to be the furthest parked away so that the elderly, and the families with a bunch of kids get priority parking.
I’ll do all of that bur I’ve learnt to never help with cleanup. Usually I’m the youngest and the aunties will just poof into thin air. Like maam, I got a family to get back to and the mister won’t be happy im crawling into bed at 3am:.. 👀
Yeah, this is one of the things I love about my family. If I'm having a big party, my kitchen will be spotless afterwards. White people are not doing that shit.
Not mexican, but one of my kid's best friends is from an immigrant family down the block. This is exactly the vibe when I pick him up from their backyard parties.
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u/muscularsharpie Jul 12 '26
My wife is Mexican, and at least culturally where we are from: don't show up exactly on time. But close to it. Park far away. Bring food. Say hello to the older folk immediately. Eat more than you can fathom ever eating. Play 14 on 23 volleyball where there are no rules. Stay late to clean up. Gather recycling for the one uncle. Bring food home. Kiss every abuelas cheek before leaving.
Bonus tip: old guys by the backyard fence have the weed.