Is there anything more uncomfortable and unsettling then when you come in contact with a full grown adult who behaves as if they were an eight year old? I don't know how to handle them. Conversations are awkward because you aren't sure if they will understand all the big words you may use. You certainly don't want to have lunch with them-what if they throw a fit over the service/check/carpet color? Friendship is out of the question. Politeness isn't, however, for we must always be polite.
You can't be rude and ignore them hoping they will go away. Too convenient. But it also goes against the grain to speak/interact with them as a child, because then you feel like one too. And if the teenage years did nothing else, it birthed a deep desire to NEVER relive your adolescence.
Can you tell them to just grow up? Ask them to stop whining? Get over it? Share?! No, you can't. Remember the last time you corrected a spoiled, undisciplined eight year old? Horrors. Now, add 30 years to that brat. What do you get? A spoiled, undisciplined 38 year old who has a license (as an adult) to do whatever they please. Double horrors.
Politeness rules the day. Just be nice. Smile a lot. Hope that one day they graduate from the school of hard knocks and learn to act their age.
And, for the love of Pete, don't be childish yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment