Most hated conversations

[teacake]

I am spared any discussion of sports but I'd imagine for many males it's quite inescapable. No one in my family has ever paid any attention to the topic.

As to kids.. this is what I use to dislodge people from talking about their home renovations. I'd rather hear all about what their kid is doing because it's people. I've noticed though that while some people will talk about their kid's personalities (interesting to me) others will just trot out a laundry list of achievements or even go into excruciating detail about their teachers and exams.

Robert Maxwell wrote:

---

To be fair, I don't really like talking about my life in general. I will listen to everyone else's problems, but I'm not that big on talking about myself. It's not like I hate my life or something, it's more that I don't have a lot to complain about, and I think the details of my life aren't that interesting. So, I hate it when people try to draw more out of me than "I'm doing fine."

That's what I'm like. And sometimes you know they are trying to draw you out because they suspect you must be not fine LOL.. but in my case they are usually wrong.

[macloudt]

Families I've only just met who insist on explaining the intricacies of their blended families. "Well, Billy is my partner's son by his first marriage, and Suzie is mine by my second marriage, and Bobby is all ours". I DON'T CARE. Just say "These are our children" and leave it at that. I'll probably never see you again...at least, I hope not.

Along the same lines, I hate people who ask personal questions about a child's parentage. I have personal reasons for hating this. First of all, my Dutch, blue-eyed, fair-skinned parents adopted my two older brothers, who have Greek heritage. None of us will ever forget the horrible woman who asked my mother point-blank where she got the two darker kids from. Also, my two oldest children are 12 months apart, and look nothing alike. When they were young and I was pushing them around in a double pushchair I had people ask me if they were both mine. The ultimate over-the-line question was whether they both had the same father. I pointed at one of the kids and said perfectly straight-faced that this child was the milkman's. I understand that people may be curious, but asking such unsolicited questions is so bloody rude.

[Miss Chicken]

I am not usually annoyed by many topics because I find that I can usually steer a conversation away from a topic.

For instance, one friend was rambling on about car racing - a topic I am not interested at all. After listening to him for a while I asked him what did racing car drivers do when they needed to pee during a race. That question led to talking about what early solo aviators used to do during long flights. That led to talk about plane crashes, the Andes Survivors and other survival stories.

However two things I can't stand is my son talking about his Facebook games first thing in the morning. I like to have ME time between about 6 and 8am, I often wake up grumpy so can't handle early morning conversation.

The other thing I can't stand is my sisters phoning me up and talking about my brother and how he is not looking after my mother's house. My mother's will lets my brother lives in the house so long as it is his primary residence and he maintains it and pays all expenses. If he doesn't the house is to be sold and we all get a quarter share of the proceeds. So my sisters are phoning up saying that the house is being neglected, is dirty and smelly etc. I keep telling them I don't give a shit about my brother or the house. I wish my mother had left it to him outright.

This has been going on for about 18 months. Before that my sisters rarely phoned me , now I am getting a phone call about once a week. I have had no contact with my brother since we scattered my mother's ashes. That suits me fine (and I assume it suits my brother as well).

[Grey]

Sports. Small talk. This:

Ood Sigma wrote:

---

Anything Hollywood/gossip related. Unless you know the person, why are you discussing their personal life?

But I hate hate hate conversations about facebook!

I quit facebook over a year ago, for many reasons, but my entire family (several generations) have since joined and every single one of them feels the need to talk about facebook to me since I'm "missing out" and all.

So I get to hear about the following fascinating tidbits:

-How FIL's ex-student from 20 years ago bought a new car
-How many babies MIL's aunt's children's cousin's new wife just had
-Babies
-Farm/city/derpville (Villeville, lol Spot's Meow)
-Pictures of an old field trip student's new cat
-Status updates read to me slowly
-Status updates from people I've never met and never will
-Pictures (all 103 of them) from some family friend's family reunion across the country
-A gathering some 2nd cousin or other is having in another state
-How much drinking/partying so-and-so keeps posting about

AHHHHHHH! Shut it already! I quit that noise for a reason!

[RoJoHen]

I am a big Facebook whore. I love me some Facebook, but even I keep the Facebook talk out of real life conversation, unless I happen to see something that is relevant to a conversation I'm already having.

[RandyS]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

---

I don't care whatsoever about sports.

I could not agree more. At the recent Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, this is ALL my cousins would talk about. Of course, they do this every year.

And they wonder why they don't see me the rest of the time.

[teacake]

RoJoHen wrote:

---

I am a big Facebook whore. I love me some Facebook, but even I keep the Facebook talk out of real life conversation, unless I happen to see something that is relevant to a conversation I'm already having.

I loves me some facebook drama. And I am not ashamed.

[macloudt]

I like Facebook because hardly any of my family members use it. The people on my friends list are people with whom I actually want to stay in touch, and consist mainly of far-flung friends. It means there isn't much drama to entertain me, but that's better in the long run.

[Grey]

macloudt wrote:

---

I like Facebook because hardly any of my family members use it.

Yeaahhh. Kinda changes the dynamic a bit.

[Nerys Ghemor]

1) Politics. There is WAY too much vitriol, and the fact is people simply do not know how to have civil, respectful disagreement as ladies/gentlemen anymore. All it takes is one line for the insults to start flying. Especially when you're in an environment where a lot of groupthink is going on (and believe me, both sides are capable of creating and maintaining such environments), and you happen to go against the party line. Until people learn how to debate civilly again, then I want no part of it. Keep your nasty resentments and superiority complexes to yourself.



There are other topics I hate...I'll add them later.

[RoJoHen]

My biggest problem with political arguments is that I'm very rarely convinced that the people involved actually know what they're talking about.

[teacake]

Political arguments I don't mind.. it's the gazillion political meme pics ridiculing the other side I block people for.

[scotpens]

teacake wrote:

---

As to kids.. this is what I use to dislodge people from talking about their home renovations. I'd rather hear all about what their kid is doing because it's people. I've noticed though that while some people will talk about their kid's personalities (interesting to me) others will just trot out a laundry list of achievements or even go into excruciating detail about their teachers and exams.

Personally, I'd rather listen to people talking about their home renovations than their kids. In fact, I'd rather hear conversation on just about ANY subject except people's kids. Especially babies.

And any talk about sports, I automatically tune out. You might as well be conversing in Turkish.

[RAMA]

Alcohol. Doesn't matter what age but people under 25 are the worst. I honestly don't care if your life revolves around alcohol. That your life has no meaning without it, where you wound up waking up or with whom some random weekend. I don't care what you mix with it or if you put Coke in it, or if you choked on your own vomit.

WWE. I hate wrestling. Wrestling is fake. Even the CEO is fake.

God(s) I don't care which fairytale religion you believe in, God isn't going to help you no matter how much you pray. If you prayed that God spare you during Hurricane Sandy, it meant one of your neighbors was going to get hit worse than you. Sucks to be them I guess. If you root for a sports team and you lose, then God must have liked the other team's God prayers a lot better.

Homeopathy, psychics, doomsday, UFOs, etc. If it's pseudoscience or supernatural then I really could care less. I nod and go into happy place mode or leave.

[sidious618]

I hate hearing about how badly someone wants to get married and have kids. I also hate people who complain about small aspects of their life like it's the biggest travesty since the Black Death.