Other People
Grown children of friends are, in my opinion, just "other people". And frankly speaking, I am not interested in them as people.
So it distresses me greatly to have to listen to my friends in their role as proud mothers telling me glowing stories of their children. Especially when the friends don't live here and we have a small amount of time to catch up during their brief stay.
So when the girlfriend despaired that she had forgotten to bring photos - of her "lovely girls", of course - I was hopeful I was going to be spared the boring stuff about them. I should be so lucky. The woman dove into her super sized tote-bag and whipped out her camera. Then she insisted we sat cheek-to-cheek making me peer into the 4cm X 5cm screen as she scrolled through the thousands of pictures. She stopped at each picture to give me painfully detailed information.
I had to stop her at around 50. I begged to leave her sooner than planned, pleading other pressing errands to run. I made some vague polite noises about seeing her one more time before she leaves.
I don't mean to keep the date. Not if she is going to torture me all over again with stories of her grown children.
Like I said, grown children of friends are just "other people" to me. And I am not interested in them as people.
8 comments:
Oh, I remember how I hated it when my parents bragged about me to their friends.
these parents need to get a life! esp since their kids have long cut the apron strings already
thanks, that makes me realise i should never bore people with pictures and stories of my dog! lol
lulu - oh yes! and i remember how i hated it even more when the old people happily repeated to me what the parents bragged to them!
edpj - i think the 20+ years of child rearing has sucked the brains out of them.
suziewong - you know what? i quite like dog stories. esp about real dogs. not those silly mini versions of dogs.
tough to say leh. some people are consumed by this identity of theirs that they can never speak of themselves or their lives without touching on their children. it's the same as them talking about their husband all the time... but yes, i agree the topic can be so offputting and sometimes a little boring.
imp - i understand about their having lost their sense of self after having subsumed themselves to children/husband/parents etc. i just can't deal with people like that. these days, i don't even try.
It reminds me of my husband's friend. That crap just gotten a son and perhaps he is too happy he forgot to be sensitive about other people's feeling. He was texting my husband "so how, when is your turn?" And among all the other comments, he mentioned that my husband, being the oldest in the entire team is not yet a father and ask him not to wait any longer.
If I would have been his friend, I will make sure he gets 2 tight slaps from me. Even if I want to give birth at 40 yrs old, its not his bloody problem!
So what if he got a son, and he brags about it by giving a dinner at shangri la (cum wedding dinner....)
bunny - oh, what a swine for a friend!
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