The Long Good-Bye
One of my pet peeves is the long good-bye. You know, the co-worker who comes to say good-bye to you because she is leaving for the day. And good-bye leads to telling what she accomplished that day, and then the good-bye lists all the tasks we will do the next morning, and then the good-bye tells you what her plans are for the evening, and then the good-bye leads to what she will be cooking for supper, and then the good-bye leads to useless small talk, and 15 minutes later, after confirming once again she is leaving and says good-bye for the 18th time, she actually leaves.
Or, my loving sweetie, you gets up earlier than I do. He will come and kiss me good-bye right after he gets dressed. I love getting up early so I think he is probably gone so I think it is safe to come out, and there he is writing me a good-bye note telling me where my coffee is (always in the same spot) and telling me where he left my pills that he set out for me (again, in the same spot, as always) and he is drinking his coffee and putting on his outdoor clothes while good-bying me all at the same time. He walks out the door and I think I might be safe and then he comes back in thinking he forgot to give me a good-bye kiss and says good-bye a few more times and leaves. Then, I guess he doesn't think I understand the concept because my phone dings. A good-bye text.
Don't get me wrong. I love chit-chatting with my co-workers and friends, and I love spending time with my sweetie and am so grateful that he is so considerate, but I just wish good-bye would be the last words said rather than a prologue for a 15 minute conversation.
For some reason, I have always been bothered by the long good-bye. My mother used to tell the story of the first day that I went to Nursery School. There were 15 children in the class. My mom said that 14 children were crying and holding on to their moms not wanting them to leave. There was one child who was trying to push her mom out of the door. My mother felt like the worst mom in the world. It wasn't that I didn't love my mom as much as the other children, I just hated the long good-bye.
But, I have decided that I am in the minority. Either that or I am a magnet for people who love long good-byes.
Long good-byes are in the news right now because of The Bachelor. When Arie broke up with Becka on-camera and then he kept saying he was leaving, but he kept staying and following her around. Ok, I'm leaving now he would say as he continued to stay. Drove me crazy. (Not to mention the humiliation of poor Becka, but she got over it once named the Bachelorette for a six figure payday). I was pretty excited when other people commented on the long good-bye. Finally, I felt understood by the world.
Until, I took my grandson to McDonald's last Wednesday. We had being doing errands so my perfect toddler and I arrived at 2:00 pm. I thought we might be the only ones there at the time. But, there was 2 other grandmas and 1 grandpa and 5 children. None of the 5 children were under 10 so it was weird they were there with their grandparents rather than at school.
It was obvious from the moment we entered that the 3 grandparents were there just to have McDonald's playland supervise their grandchildren while they drank coffee and played games on their phones. Of course, what I was doing was entirely different. I was actively engaging my perfect grandson while enjoying a meal together.
From the second moment we entered, all 3 grandparents et al were in the process of saying good-bye and leaving.
As I tried to use the electronic ordering machine, my perfect grandson went to the table where one grandma was sitting and stood there. It was the table that we sat at the two previous times we had been there. My angel is a genius. The grandma said, "this is our table, I don't want him touching my stuff." Are you kidding me? How could I not take this as a personal insult? "He has no intention of touching your stuff, he is just demonstrating his aptitude as we have sat at the table twice."
Just as our food arrived, one of the grandmas and two children left. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop but I found out why. The grandpa and the remaining grandma (who had insulted me) had made a date to meet up next Wednesday at Burger King.
So, even though they were still in the process of saying good-bye, the grandma now had to say good-bye plus confirming the "date". I was about to shout out, "yes, 2:00 pm, Wednesday, Burger King" but I held my tongue. Finally, she was able to convince her grand-daughter and they left a mere 5 minutes later.
So, that left the grandpa and his 10+ year old grandson and us.
My grandson felt his pants were too long so he decided to put his boots on to gain a bit of height. Again, I am not at all biased, but this child is truly brilliant. Keep in mind, my angel is a tiny toddler. He is not able to climb the structure and just mostly stays in the part where you can move shapes to make up pictures. So, he goes in there and the grandfather says, "he is not allowed to wear boots in the play structure." I decide to ignore him otherwise I would say, "don't worry, the boots add an extra 13 ounces while your grandson aged out of this structure 3 years ago, so I think McDonald's is more worried about your wear and tear than mine."
Anyway, so I kept having meaningful interaction with my grandson while grandpa kept saying to his grandson, "come on we're leaving" while the grandson kept ignoring him. Finally, the grandpa said, "I will let you listen to ACDC at my house if we leave now." This got the grandson's attention but it still took him 10 minutes to leave. During that time, my grandson went to the climbing part. He just gets in and sits on the bottom step. The grandson was climbing down to leave and the grandpa said, "watch this little kid who is too small to be in the structure anyway".
I couldn't let that go. I said that my grandson had been there twice before and went to the same spot and the older children were nothing but gracious, kind, and protective of my little angel, but those kids were not probably children who listened to ACDC.
So, the grandpa and his grandson left and my angel and I were alone. In the last twenty minutes, I had made two enemies. Over my aversion to long good-byes.
That is just one of my quirks. Everyone has their quirks. Everyone has their pet peeves. Everyone has a reason for their behavior. I actually don't know what was going on in the lives of these people. Nor did they have any idea what was going on in my life. We all made judgements.
It turns out that everyone has a reason for their behavior, and that reason is usually none of your business. It is just common sense. Be kind.
Or, my loving sweetie, you gets up earlier than I do. He will come and kiss me good-bye right after he gets dressed. I love getting up early so I think he is probably gone so I think it is safe to come out, and there he is writing me a good-bye note telling me where my coffee is (always in the same spot) and telling me where he left my pills that he set out for me (again, in the same spot, as always) and he is drinking his coffee and putting on his outdoor clothes while good-bying me all at the same time. He walks out the door and I think I might be safe and then he comes back in thinking he forgot to give me a good-bye kiss and says good-bye a few more times and leaves. Then, I guess he doesn't think I understand the concept because my phone dings. A good-bye text.
Don't get me wrong. I love chit-chatting with my co-workers and friends, and I love spending time with my sweetie and am so grateful that he is so considerate, but I just wish good-bye would be the last words said rather than a prologue for a 15 minute conversation.
For some reason, I have always been bothered by the long good-bye. My mother used to tell the story of the first day that I went to Nursery School. There were 15 children in the class. My mom said that 14 children were crying and holding on to their moms not wanting them to leave. There was one child who was trying to push her mom out of the door. My mother felt like the worst mom in the world. It wasn't that I didn't love my mom as much as the other children, I just hated the long good-bye.
But, I have decided that I am in the minority. Either that or I am a magnet for people who love long good-byes.
Long good-byes are in the news right now because of The Bachelor. When Arie broke up with Becka on-camera and then he kept saying he was leaving, but he kept staying and following her around. Ok, I'm leaving now he would say as he continued to stay. Drove me crazy. (Not to mention the humiliation of poor Becka, but she got over it once named the Bachelorette for a six figure payday). I was pretty excited when other people commented on the long good-bye. Finally, I felt understood by the world.
Until, I took my grandson to McDonald's last Wednesday. We had being doing errands so my perfect toddler and I arrived at 2:00 pm. I thought we might be the only ones there at the time. But, there was 2 other grandmas and 1 grandpa and 5 children. None of the 5 children were under 10 so it was weird they were there with their grandparents rather than at school.
It was obvious from the moment we entered that the 3 grandparents were there just to have McDonald's playland supervise their grandchildren while they drank coffee and played games on their phones. Of course, what I was doing was entirely different. I was actively engaging my perfect grandson while enjoying a meal together.
From the second moment we entered, all 3 grandparents et al were in the process of saying good-bye and leaving.
As I tried to use the electronic ordering machine, my perfect grandson went to the table where one grandma was sitting and stood there. It was the table that we sat at the two previous times we had been there. My angel is a genius. The grandma said, "this is our table, I don't want him touching my stuff." Are you kidding me? How could I not take this as a personal insult? "He has no intention of touching your stuff, he is just demonstrating his aptitude as we have sat at the table twice."
Just as our food arrived, one of the grandmas and two children left. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop but I found out why. The grandpa and the remaining grandma (who had insulted me) had made a date to meet up next Wednesday at Burger King.
So, even though they were still in the process of saying good-bye, the grandma now had to say good-bye plus confirming the "date". I was about to shout out, "yes, 2:00 pm, Wednesday, Burger King" but I held my tongue. Finally, she was able to convince her grand-daughter and they left a mere 5 minutes later.
So, that left the grandpa and his 10+ year old grandson and us.
My grandson felt his pants were too long so he decided to put his boots on to gain a bit of height. Again, I am not at all biased, but this child is truly brilliant. Keep in mind, my angel is a tiny toddler. He is not able to climb the structure and just mostly stays in the part where you can move shapes to make up pictures. So, he goes in there and the grandfather says, "he is not allowed to wear boots in the play structure." I decide to ignore him otherwise I would say, "don't worry, the boots add an extra 13 ounces while your grandson aged out of this structure 3 years ago, so I think McDonald's is more worried about your wear and tear than mine."
Anyway, so I kept having meaningful interaction with my grandson while grandpa kept saying to his grandson, "come on we're leaving" while the grandson kept ignoring him. Finally, the grandpa said, "I will let you listen to ACDC at my house if we leave now." This got the grandson's attention but it still took him 10 minutes to leave. During that time, my grandson went to the climbing part. He just gets in and sits on the bottom step. The grandson was climbing down to leave and the grandpa said, "watch this little kid who is too small to be in the structure anyway".
I couldn't let that go. I said that my grandson had been there twice before and went to the same spot and the older children were nothing but gracious, kind, and protective of my little angel, but those kids were not probably children who listened to ACDC.
So, the grandpa and his grandson left and my angel and I were alone. In the last twenty minutes, I had made two enemies. Over my aversion to long good-byes.
That is just one of my quirks. Everyone has their quirks. Everyone has their pet peeves. Everyone has a reason for their behavior. I actually don't know what was going on in the lives of these people. Nor did they have any idea what was going on in my life. We all made judgements.
It turns out that everyone has a reason for their behavior, and that reason is usually none of your business. It is just common sense. Be kind.
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