God, if only it were that easy. I had this issue with a FWB, and we went through a few distinct phases…
The first was just reassuring her I didn’t mind. Listening and responding is easy enough for me, but I’m a quiet person, so it’s a great thing for me to have both someone that has a job/life that gives her a lot to talk about every day, and someone that has the social battery to talk about it. When the apologies persisted, I tried being more and more precise and long-winded in my explanation…to no avail.
Which did get exhausting, admittedly. So the third phase was scaling it back. “Like I always say, I like listening to you and don’t mind at all”. Which I guess was my way of politely saying “I’m running out of ways to say this.”
The fourth “phase” was her putting it more…bluntly I guess. “Sorry, I know I’m annoying you so I’ll see if I can shut up for just two minutes.” Which was frustrating for me, because I’ve already done everything I could think to do to reassure her, but she doubled down and that made me feel like there was truly nothing I could do to get through to her.
That’s all I had to say I guess. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
What’s FWB?
friend with benefits
Fuckin with buddies
Sometimes you’re the only adult in a relationship. And it sucks.
And sometimes people are held back by traumatic experiences that meld into deeply held beliefs.
I’m the kind of person OP is talking about. I know it’s hard for the folks around me that I love dearly. I try to change it, find ways to reassure myself constantly, etc… It’s an incredibly frustrating, lifelong battle.
Tbh neither of us were being the adult lol. We both had a hand in keeping that relationship a FWB relationship.
But hey, live and learn. We’re both still friends and talk most days of the week, so I’d say the whole thing was a net positive.
Elaborate? I might be in the same boat
I’m that little kid up there. My wife works every day to help me not be that adult. She’s wonderful!
Although I feel empathy for the character and am happy with the other toon’s reaction, as someone with severe anxiety, being overwhelmed by someone’s monologue is just something I’ll try to preserve myself from. By explaining softly and gently that it tends to make me very uncomfortable. Let’s have a bit of silence together sometimes. Maybe we could alternate to fit both our needs.
my son has speech delay, wished he would talk more than just occasional single word sentences
Some people do talk too much, though. You don’t necessarily get a pass just cause you’re young.
Fuck you’re annoying. Why did you even say anything?
I know what you’re talking about. I know a person, they’re quite decent, but they cannot stop talking and there’s no way for anyone else to contribute to the conversation. It’s rather frustrating for most people and very disruptive to any kind of group communitacion. It also comes across as selfish. I don’t think the meme is about such special rare cases though.
Yeah exactly my thoughts. Between work and friend circles and one niece, I know like a half dozen. I do find it really selfish because you either need to interrupt them (which is normally rude), or noone else gets a chance to say anything…
It can also be a cyclic issue. Some people have been on the receiving end of this, and decide to hold the “talking stone” for as long as possible with “um, and then, so, like” to prevent being cut off or interrupted.
Calm, orderly discussion where everyone’s given a chance to talk is harder to find, and promotes the right social behaviors where people are allowed to pause to plan their thoughts.
I bet you’re a blast at parties
I bet you are with the old tired verbal attacks.
Some people do talk too much, though.
Found one ☝️
