When I serve dinner, I tell everyone be there at 7 or YOUR dinner will be served with everyone else. If you like it cold, show up late. I WONT be holding dinner, for late arrivals. My sister used to be late for everything! it kept the rest of us waiting for her highness to arrive. really ticked me off when I worked for hours on a dish, and she strolls in like "what?" Im ALWAYS late! how could you not expect me to be? I got fed up and said ya know what? your right! dinner is at 7. if you want yours cold, show up late. she starting showing up at 6:55.

We worked an odd shift in our house, and sometimes we didtn get home till 4 or 5 am, and wanted to sleep during the day. Black out curtains, and so forth. It was a requirement of the job that you be reachable in case of riot or whatever, so we couldnt unplug the phone. I understood when business or MDs called to confirm appointments but when SIL would call to chatter about the weather or the meatloaf at lunch, it was too much. I put down strict rules, and said from 7am to 7pm NO personal phone calls. yes, for a while they woke me up, but ALL went to the answering machine. the machine had a reminder message that if you were calling for an emergency SPEAK LOUDLY I can hear the machine. if you were calling for anything other than emergencies, please DONT leave a message, and call back when you know we are awake, and you are not disturbing us. the same as calling YOUR house at 4am wanting to catch up. It took only 2 or three times for it to stop. since they knew they were not going to speak to us no matter what, and it was a reminder that they were being rude, it worked.

good for you!