Time is of the essence

I received a call from our 16 year old daughter saying that their weightlifting match has been cancelled. I said to her that I didn't get off until 4:00 and that she would just have to stay there until around 4:15. I told her that she could just sit and wait for me because I was in the middle of something at work and just couldn't up and leave. I specifically told her that I would be at the school at 4:15 and that she needed to be at the same spot where I normally picked her up from.

As I was coming around the mountain corner to let her know I was almost at the school, she tells me that she will be out no later than 4:30. Come out of where? Didn't she tell me weightlifting has been cancelled!! Hmmm, I'll get back to that later. So I am at the school in my normal parking spot where I have to go and pick her up and I'm sitting there listening to the radio and cleaning out my car. So I call her on the cell and say, "I am in this parking lot and you need to find your way to me right now or you gonna find yourself walking home." Why did she put her friend on the phone and I can hear her tell her friend, "Tell my mama where I am." WHAT THE HECK!!

As soon as the friend got on the phone, I said to her, "I don't want to talk to you." I can hear my daughter ask her, "What she say?" And the friend said, "she said she don't want to talk to me." So when my daughter gets back on the phone, she is telling me that she is at ROTC practice with her friend, Galen. I said to her that she had better have her tail at the car in less than 2 minutes or she will find herself walking. She wanted to know if I would drive around and come and get her. I told her I would not because I told her to be at the car at 4:15 in the normal parking spot and she wanted to debate that it would take longer than 2 minutes to get to the car. I hung up the phone at that point.

I see my daughter and her friend running towards the car and out of breath when they get there. Galen wants to start talking when they arrive at the car. She begins to tell me it's her fault that my daughter was not at the car at 4:15 like I said. I told Galen that my daughter has a mind to think with herself and when I say be somewhere at a certain time, I mean be at that place. They both said, "yes ma'am." I continued and told Galen that my daughter probably won't be talking to her on the phone in the next month nor texting her because she was being punished for not obeying what I said. They both said, "yes ma'am" again. (Oh did I mention the doors on the car were still locked and they were standing outside. I needed them to hear what I had to say.) It wasn't the point that my daughter was watching Galen practice ROTC, the point was when I had told her to be there at a certain time, she was not. She could have even asked to stay longer but since she didn't, my time was of the essence and when I was ready to go, I was ready to go.

Lovingly yours,