this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2026
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me_irl
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Planning for predictable but random events is part of your responsibility.
There are many random circumstances that can make a person late. Some are a person's responsibility to plan for. Some aren't.
Consider minor traffic delays. If you're 10 minutes late because of traffic, that's not traffic's fault. That's your fault. A 10 minute traffic delay is not a rare occurrence. You simply shouldn't be operating your schedule with so little margin that a ten minute delay will make you late to something important. If you don't have some margin in your schedule, this is entirely your fault. You built a schedule that only works if absolutely everything goes perfectly right, and then you blamed circumstance when the inevitable happens.
Then there are some delays that it's not reasonable to expect people to plan for. If you're hours late because you had to rush a family member to a hospital, that's not your fault. That's a legitimate emergency. And it's not reasonable for people to build multi-hour buffers into their daily schedule.
I know SO MUCH about the people who are downvoting this comment.
Remember that the context is seven year old kids. Its a downvote worthy comment because children have no licenses or ability to get to school without their parents. Nor do they have the ability to order their parents to leave more time for potential delays
The seven year olds also (ostensibly) aren’t experiencing consequences- they’re just receiving messaging about implicit social expectations. Kids need exposure to the reasoning behind cultural norms before they’re in a position to navigate them independently.
It’s also useful for young people to know that their parents can fall short- and that shitty parenting isn’t the default experience.