Schmaltz News
Entire Family Ready Before the 18 Minutes
In an entire family has reported that they were completely ready for Shabbos before the 18 minutes. The father of the household disputes this claim and says that as a matter of principle he felt it necessary to use the 18 minutes.

Other families have said that while it is an impressive feat, people should be aware that the family that is reporting to have done it was taking in a summer shabbos in Helsinki. There was a family that reportedly was once ready for shabbos before the 18 minutes in Los Angeles, they had just come off a plane from Sydney and were suffering with heavy jet-lag.
Schmaltz News would encourage other families that have been ready before the 18 minutes to come forward with that information.
18 minutes expert Shimon Solomon explains that the 18 minutes is a lesson for life. He says, "It is amazing how we just procrastinate around the whole day Friday leaving all our Shabbos chores to the very last minute and then all of a sudden the 18 minutes come around and we jump into action. It just goes to show it is amazing what you can get done in 18 minutes".