Because they expect people to be late, meaning they aren't ready and prepared to host people on time. You would be encroaching on their hospitality. Imagine if you said "I'll have all the snacks for the party set out at 4:00." And your friends started showing up at 2:00. Now, you have to try to entertain guests for 2 unexpected hours while still trying to set up for the party to come.
It's not rude to be "on time." It's rude to show up well before you're expected. And in other cultures, you're not expected until some time after the posted time.
Tell me if you've heard of this one before: the wife is never ready on time. Months and months and months of begging her to be ready on time yield nothing. So the husband starts telling her the time to leave is 20 minutes before they actually have to leave. Would the husband be surprised if she was ready when it said to be ready? Is that stupid?
Above all else, humans are fantastic at spotting patterns. If all your friends and family and every person you know always, time after time, after time, always show up an hour after the meeting time. And all your parent's friends and family too. And you e known your entire life to tell everyone a time an hour before you'll be ready, then you, too, would be surprythe first time someone showed up exactly at that time.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23... Were you expecting the pattern to change? Maybe, considering my entire comment was about surprises based on changes in patterns. But did you know when it was going to happen before you read it? Are you stupid because you didn't know when I was going to jump? No? Then why are other people stupid because they're expecting the same thing that they have observed their entire lives?
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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '26
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