Celebrating Be Late for Something Day

Wow, isn't this a great concept? A day you have permission to celebrate being late for something. Families often are plagued with one or more family members who are always holding up the others. Sometimes this lollygagging is on purpose and then there are just people who do not seem to have a working internal clock that keeps them in touch with the time of day.

When the behavior is purposeful, there are strategies families can implement to help reduce the occurrence of this kind of attention seeking behavior. When the behavior is a result of a natural tendency or temperament, it is not a purposeful act to get attention of any sort. A "coined" term, by this author, for this temperamental predisposition is BLT or a Being Late Temperament

Often times a person with BLT truly does not perceive or understand the value of schedules and routines. The more extreme the temperamental style, the more chronic the lateness can become. A person is born with their temperament. Temperament can be thought of as being hard wired in an individual. Hard wired means - the behavior is not on purpose and the wiring can't be replaced.

When the "Being Late Temperament BLT is excessive, it can create a lot of stress for families and along with the stress arrives (ironically on time) heightened feelings of anger and frustration for those whose temperament pushes them into a lifestyle of timeliness - being on time. Think about this - if every member of the family had BLT - would there be a problem? No, probably not. The problem arises when there are mixed temperaments.

Although living with someone who has BLT is frustrating, it is important to consider what happens to the person with the BLT every time he/she is late and the family goes ballistic. Years of being the BLT in a family can take a toll on them too. If the family member(s) who has a BLT has acquired a sense of guilt for making family members unhappy all the time, there is a chance their sense of self, or their belief that they are a good person, has been negatively affected.