Monday 4 August 2014

Discourtesy

An opinion piece in this morning's newspaper lamented that in today's hyper connected society, many people no longer have a sense of courtesy.  Can't be bothered to talk to a certain person at that moment?  Let the call go to voice mail.  Received a text from an annoying person?  Delete it.  Unfortunately this sort of attitude means that one can also miss out on things.

Since school ended for the summer, our daughter has been wanting to spend time with her friends, which is natural.  Every other day it seems, I'm making half a dozen phone calls to various friends and neighbours.  Almost every call I've made has gone to voice mail, and I can count on one hand the number of times people have responded.

I can forgive things like being on vacation, being out for the day, dealing with a new baby, or having other plans.  But when you notice that you do have a message, at least call me back and suggest an alternate time when our kids can play together.  Don't leave me hanging and upset my daughter by not replying to my messages.

At this point I've given up calling, and our daughter just has to find some new friends to play with.  If people won't return calls I consider them very rude and they're not really "friends" anyway.

However I do suspect that certain people are deliberately ignoring us because our daughter has been having an attitude lately, and nobody wants to deal with a bratty child.  Even so, they could still reply to my messages and tell me that they have a problem with her.  That's way better than silence.

6 comments:

  1. Hi Audrey, I'm wondering if it's more the case that people are texting these days instead of calling each other? Have you tried texting the Mom's? I don't text (at all!) and it drives my family crazy!

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  2. I only text if absolutely necessary, but sometimes it helps me because I'm hearing impaired. Still, if someone wants to talk to me they can call me just as easily.

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  3. I know exactly what you mean. I have a friend who finds it hard to reply to my text. I understand that he's busy but he doesn't text back till days later. It bothers me sometimes. I do think it's rude.

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  4. I totally understand.. I have a ton of stuff going on this summer and both of my girls are in camp. I find that I get caught up doing so much that I forget, but as soon as I can I will either call back or text. I always feel but summer for us is just super busy & I get so wrapped in it all.

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  5. That is sad. At least they could call you back and let you know of a different time that would work better. :(

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  6. Well it is very sad. However let me tell you that I can relate. We are about ready to skip birthday parties for our kids even though we love parties because so few people come.

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