Mom Tells Child Not to Interrupt Her, But the Girl Was Only Trying to Warn Her She Was Late

“It is familiar truth that punctuality is the life of the universe. The plants keep exact time in their revolutions, each as it circles around the sun coming to its place yearly at every moment it is due. February twenty-ninth is the extra day given to us each four year with the advent of a leap year. Like the comet which visits our atmosphere but once in thousand years, it is never a single second behind time.” ~Col Gurnam Singh

This is a funny story of a young child who was taught by her mom about the value of time, but the latter ended up breaking her own words.

With the username u/jellyjimjam, Original Poster shared this childhood memory: “I was like 7 or 8 and was with my mom in the car. She worked as a taxi for Hispanic folks in the area, and she had to pick someone up at like 5:30 PM. She picked me up from school at 4 PM and took me to the store. While we were in the store, she promised to buy me McDonald’s as a treat for going with her to the store and being with her for the taxi ride since she had no time to drop me off at home.”

Mom and child left the store for the scheduled pick-up of her mom’s client at 5:30 pm. However, she spotted a friend across from McDonald’s and pulled over to have a chat. This was something that often happened, but, in the past, her mom had the time to spare.

But now at 5:10, OP could feel there could be a couple of problems if they did not leave: her mom would not be able to buy OP a treat at McDonald’s, and she would also be late in picking up her client.

OP wrote, “So I go, ‘Excuse me, Mom, it’s 5:10.” (My mom would get mad at me if I didn’t say excuse me). She says, ‘Yeah, we’ll leave in a second.'”

But 5:15 came and OP had to remind her mom again, “‘Excuse me, Mom, it’s 5:15.’ An angry look at me. ‘Calm down, we’re gonna leave in a second.'”

At 5:25, OP tried to warn her mom again, “‘Excuse me, Mom – ‘ She turns to me and yells ‘OH MY GOD, WE’LL GET YOUR MCDONALDS SOON! DON’T INTERRUPT!'”

Hearing that, OP shut up and just watched the time go by. No, she had no intention of interrupting her again from chatting with a friend. If she was late, it would be her fault.

Finally, her mom’s conversation with her friend ended. However, just when she was about to drive away, her mom got a call from her client, because it was already 5:35. Her mom apologized profusely, hung up the phone, and looked at OP.

OP remembered her mom saying, “‘Were you trying to tell me I was gonna be late?’ I nodded and cried because now we really couldn’t get Mcdonald’s. She sped over to pick up the lady and took me to Mcdonald’s after. She got me a cookie as an apology, but this would have been completely avoided if she listened to me. Whatever, at least I didn’t interrupt again like she said. And I got a cookie.”

Surely a lot of kids have experienced something like this with their parents. Adults like teaching the value of punctuality but often forget to keep track of time, whether at work, for an appointment, or on a date.