Today was the clarification of this fact but I know I have fallen foul of it before.
The family and I were at a very nice little party this afternoon hosted by friends and there were lots of nice people there - many of whom were parents with their respective children.
I started talking to a nice couple who had a couple of older boys themselves. Within minutes, I had managed to bore them with stories of potty-training and non-napping children. Minutes! And they were parents! I simply couldn't remember how to start a conversation with a stranger that didn't revolve around my children.
I used to be quite good at striking up a conversation with a stranger, make small-talk and have a laugh with random people but now my entire attention is on Emilia or Tal and I literally cannot think of anything else to say to people.
I tried to talk to other "grown-ups" today but even when I am having a "normal" conversation with Emilia present (for it is always Emilia that needs the most of my attention), I find that I have to shout at her / call her / comfort her or generally listen to her narration, mid-thought so I am finding it really hard to have a clear chain of thought. I must also seem really rude!
As I said, this is not the first time that I have forgotten the etiquette of conversation:
A little while ago I was part of a group conversation with some mums and I jumped in to tell an anecdote that would have been tenuous 3 topics ago. Not only did I jump in, I apologised that I had done it - but carried on anyway - and what made it worse is that the story I told fell absolutely flat and I had to slink away.
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