What’s YOUR Pet Peeve?

For me, one of the biggest “Pet Peeves” I have is in relation to being interrupted constantly.  Maybe it’s just insecurity for me, but multiple times in the last several weeks (and this happens frequently with certain people), I’ll be in the middle of a sentence in an already ongoing what-I-think is a conversation, and will be abruptly interrupted with a non-associated “new” thought and sentence that is completely unrelated, about something else, with no acknowledgement that I/we were talking about something else….

Not only is it rude, but it makes me feel that what I was saying was completely and wholly uninteresting to the person, had no value and that I was simply wasting my time engaging the person in said conversation.  Basically, that my time and interest in speaking to the person was wasted.  It’s almost as abrasive as a slap in the face and depending on the person that does it, and how close we are, it can be very affecting for a period of time.  It makes me not want to speak at all.

It makes me remember how I was often forbidden to speak as a youth, or worse, beaten for speaking my mind.  Not that I’m afraid those things would happen now, but if my words are too much to listen to, too numerous to pay attention to or not worth the time to hear or thinking I have something valuable to say, then why are we even having a conversation – you clearly don’t want to hear it.   Should I start doing it to those who interrupt to let them know “how it feels”, so to speak?  I wouldn’t, I was taught differently.  But it IS bothersome and one of the top things that can “set me off”.

The other conversation killer to me is those who constantly want to prove the opposite site of your opinion.  Sometimes you just want to be able to state how you’re feeling, you know?  You don’t always need to have your point brought before the Devil’s Advocate court.  Sometimes, you just want to vent a little steam or express your opinion on something, yet there are those who will take what you say and immediately take it as a chance to want to give you “options” on your opinion.  Depending on the closeness of your relationship, this can be okay, but often times it can be the last thing you want to hear.  Sometimes it’s best just to let sleeping dogs lie and let the person have a chance to blow some steam.

Maybe there’s a Conversational Etiquette book that needs to be circulated lol.  For me, when these things happen, it just makes me want to crawl inside the safety of my own space, not speak to anyone and remain quiet as it lessens the impact of what I do choose to say, and feeling like an intelligent person, a conversational faux pas like these comes across as a knock against it.