twas Moi
I’m not surprised by that - I checked mine and there was exactly one person (a 60 year old) , who ended any text with a period. The rest ended texts with question marks or exclamation points and used periods between sentences , but no text ended with a period. And there are definitely more than three over sixty.
The first time I heard someone doing this, it made me think of telegrams.
Hockey game tonight stop I’ll get tickets stop
This so amused the person I heard, that when she texts me she uses “stop”.
No way bang
Got another cryptic text from her today. Before I tell you how I responded let me know how you would have.
Background: We wanted a new credit card so we could start getting flight rewards instead of paying everything directly with a debit card. The card was approved but we didn’t receive the physical cards yet. Card app said I could add it to my digital wallet and use immediately. Tried to make a large on-line purchase Sunday but it was declined. Told wifey I assumed we may have to wait for the physical cards before the account is activated. Today I called the bank from work and they lifted the hold in advance of receiving the cards so I made the purchase on-line and scheduled delivery for next Friday while she would be working at home.
ME: ItemX is scheduled for delivery next Friday. You just have to sign for the box.
HER: How?
I would have assumed she meant “how is this possible when it wasn’t working before?” And I would provide additional details accordingly.
lol how what?
I’m cornfused too
How now brown cow
ETA perhaps you forgot she won’t be home Friday and is waiting for you to remember
Yes, her message certainly isn’t the clearest, but I see no other interpretation that makes sense.
How I would have responded: if I were feeling snippy and wanted to restart the texting battle, I’d have said “how what?” or the nuclear option, “you’re asking how to sign for it?” If I was feeling kind and loving, I’d have said I called the company to activate the card.
Oh I misunderstood itemx I assumed it was the cards would be delivered Friday and require a signature.
But now I understand your wife perfectly. Yes how did you get the item ordered with a hold on your card.
Do you have a phone plan where you have to pay per character in each text message?
You should’ve said something about new card working now.
She should’ve asked something that didn’t take so much interpretation. Also, why include the question mark since “how” on it’s own is obviously a question. 
You need to learn to text like Millennials. In contrast, my husband:
Friday (3/20) at 8am: I have to take my car to Honda dealership. My car started making a weird scraping sound a 2-3 days ago (front right side). The earliest that I can take it in with my schedule is Friday at 8am.
I will need you to drop [child] off at school that morning.
When you pick him up at 12pm, call me to figure out if I need you to come pick me up afterwards. I might have to have you pick me up, me drop the two of you off at home, and then me borrow your car for the remainder of the day, as I need to be in [City] by 1:45pm at the very latest. I will be back home circa 6:30pm. No D&D this Friday.
We might have to pick up my car on Saturday morning or Monday morning. I’m hoping that they can diagnose and repair in the span of 4-5 hours, but I do not know.
Me: thumbs up. Indicates: I read this and understand it and have nothing to add.
(The happy coda to this saga is it cost a mere $95 to fix and he doesn’t have to buy a new car, and I didn’t have to pick him up.)
I’d just have answered, “How what? How did the order go through despite the previous rejection? I called the CC company. Or what did you mean?” To which I’d most likely receive a 
in response.
If I get an ambiguous text, I’d just try to guess what they mean and answer accordingly, but also ask for confirmation.
The point is communication, after all, not a back and forth game of “gotcha there!”
Oh jeeze, apparently it’s possible to go too far in the other direction 
My eyes glazed over trying to read that. It was like trying to read one of those “the fox and the chicken must cross the river in a boat with a monkey, but not together” logic puzzles…
I read it a couple times and am still afraid I might’ve missed his main point.
It may not surprise you that whenever my husband sends someone an email (not related to his work), he sends it to me to edit first. I’m a grant writer. I know how to cut the bullshit when necessary.
Heh, good thing he has you.
On reading and rereading his message, mostly I felt bummed that D&D was going to be canceled… apparently because of some minor car troubles?
But also, grants? Romance grants?
No, that part was a coincidence. He usually has it every other week or so. He was just reminding me there’s no D&D tonight because I’m very bad at keeping track.
Lol. Non-profit grant writer professionally. Romance writer aspirationally. There were days before my son was born I would spend all day writing grants and then come home and spend all night writing fiction. Writing is just my jam.
I genuinely find this interpretation bizarre, and feel a desire to defend the OP.
Everything about his statement reads purely factual. It’s a response to her accusation that he either is “asking a trick question” or “didn’t see her text.” He is explaining his previous text: he did see her text, but the lack of punctuation meant he was unclear of her meaning.
Reading further I see people assuming the mere mention of punctuation somehow indicates hostility. This is bewildering to me. Sure, if he were correcting her, that would make sense. But he’s describing genuine confusion.
His plain meaning makes sense. Why add to it, let alone add negative meaning and then declare it hostile? Sure, if you’re in a bad mood, you might misinterpret and not realize it. But in the sober light of day?
For shits and giggles, I took a stab at how I’d write the same thing, to see how much shorter it would be:
need you to drop off [child] today. gotta take my car in. it’s been making this weird noise for a couple days.
[new text]
when you pick him up around noon, call me to see if i need a ride home. if so i’ll need to borrow your car. i’ll be back home by 6:30. no d&d today.
[new text]
don’t know if we’ll need to pick up the car tomorrow or monday. hope they can get it fixed today.
I might include the bit about needing to be in [city] by 1:45. just add “need to be in [city] by 1:45” before “i’ll be back home”.
I’m generally considered a long texter by most people I know.
This is mostly on you, but it seems like there are underlying issues.
She could’ve just said “you buy them.” There was no reason at all for the meta-commentary about whether you should’ve understood or not. Misunderstandings happen, it’s a virtue to ask for clarification, and a vice to mock people for doing so. That’s on her. However then there’s this:
Your response could’ve been just “right, so I’ll interpret this to mean I’m buying, I’ll go ahead and do that, let me know if I’ve misunderstood.” Your punctuation lecture was unnecessary. She was being a lazy and annoying communicator, but you made it worse.
This isn’t about punctuation.
Because his plain meaning doesn’t make sense to me. There was no ambiguity to her post. Certainly nothing caused by punctuation. (Maybe some just by context, because if she has the app open, why isn’t she the one buying. But that has nothing to do with punctuation.) His bringing up punctuation is even weirder than her not buying the tickets. It reads “i need to correct your grammar when you text” to me. If he’s actually confused by the context (and that is confusing) he can ask without embedding an attack. Such as with the alternate language i suggested.
I mean … Have you ever been confused by a text because it lacked a period? That’s just bizarre.
I would consider you a long texter. If I’m sending a text, I’m only including what you need to know.
All in one text. My husband should know what time the kid gets picked up , of course he’s gonna call to see if I need a ride after he picks the kid up, not before. I probably don’t need to know what time he will be at home, and of course he hopes they fix the car today. All I need to know is that he’s bringing the car in today - I don’t need too know when the noise started.