Mind your business!

[Ko-Ko]

This wasn't a recent event, but I figured I'd share it anyway, since it was fairly amusing and a prime example of someone getting involved in everyone else's business and looking like an idiot for doing so. I was with my mother in a store, and we were joking around. We were discussing a movie where the wife had been cheating on her husband. So I said something like, "Oh speaking of that, Dad found the Johnny Depp poster under your bed."

Some woman shopping near us turned and told me immediately to apologize to my mom. My mom laughed and said I was only telling it like it is (it was true about the Johnny Depp poster  ) The woman said that if my mother wasn't going to make me respect adults, anything bad that happened to me would be her fault.  It was only a joke! Well, not really since the thing with the poster actually happened, but still! Incidents like that have happened to me since, but this was definitely the weirdest. How can I politely deal with this in the future? I mean I can't go around telling nosey people to shove off and not to hit their huge fat noses on the door on their way out. Or can I?  Thanks for reading.

Ko-Ko

[Clara Bow]

He couldn't have been under her bed, he's under mine.
I don't think that it would have been wrong to give her an e-hell glare and say "I was not addressing you." Some people feel entitled to be buttinskis and I don't think there's anything wrong with telling them to back off.

[sammycat]

"And this is your business because....?" said with a genuinely puzzled look.

[Ko-Ko]

Thanks for the replies. I was never entirely sure if it was correct to say things like, "I wasn't talking to you," but just ignoring someone doesn't always work, and it often just makes them madder that they are being ignored.

Ko-Ko

[Ko-Ko]

BTW, Auntie Venom, I just noticed you have over a thousand posts! It's like being a Hero Member Deluxe. Cool. 

Ko-Ko

[Bijou]

This wasn't a recent event, but I figured I'd share it anyway, since it was fairly amusing and a prime example of someone getting involved in everyone else's business and looking like an idiot for doing so. I was with my mother in a store, and we were joking around. We were discussing a movie where the wife had been cheating on her husband. So I said something like, "Oh speaking of that, Dad found the Johnny Depp poster under your bed."

Some woman shopping near us turned and told me immediately to apologize to my mom. My mom laughed and said I was only telling it like it is (it was true about the Johnny Depp poster  ) The woman said that if my mother wasn't going to make me respect adults, anything bad that happened to me would be her fault.  It was only a joke! Well, not really since the thing with the poster actually happened, but still! Incidents like that have happened to me since, but this was definitely the weirdest. How can I politely deal with this in the future? I mean I can't go around telling nosey people to shove off and not to hit their huge fat noses on the door on their way out. Or can I?  Thanks for reading.

Ko-Ko

I think you handled it fine by letting your mom deal with it the the way she did.  I like the idea of ignoring people like that woman, as though they have said nothing and are invisible.

[IndianInlaw]

Ah, nothing like a member of The Busybody Brigade

The best response is an icy glare.

[Adah]

Out of curiousity, how old were you when this happened? I can't imagine someone butting in and saying something like that to me, at age 38, when I was with my mother.

[Pixie]

Oooooh, that was rude.  I'd be so angry if someone butted in to a bonding moment I was having with my daughter.    Had it been me with my Mom, she would have had so much fun with the busybody.... Mom had a warped and twisted sense of humor! 

[Venus193]

OK, I have a confession to make here.  I was a buttinsky once about 25 years ago in the pre-ATM era when standing on line in a bank.  Two women behind me were talking about their daughters' pregnancies.  One said she hoped that her daughter would have a boy because "the world is too dangerous for girls." 

I almost lost it.  I turned around and said to this woman "I'm ashamed you think that way.  Shouldn't we be teaching girls to be courageous while working to make this world a better place for kids?"

One of my guiltiest pleasures is shocking people into silence.   

[Alida]

Out of curiousity, how old were you when this happened? I can't imagine someone butting in and saying something like that to me, at age 38, when I was with my mother.

Does it matter what age, though?  There are times it's all right to joke around - and Heaven knows DD and I do it.  When DD was 11, a friend of mine laughed and said when DD and I got to it, we reminded her of an old comedy routine.  But when the time for respect is there, it is and that is what matters.

[Alida]

One said she hoped that her daughter would have a boy because "the world is too dangerous for girls." 

And to think - she must have raised her daughter to think like that, too! 

[IndianInlaw]

I remember a rude lady on the bus tapping me on the shoulder and asking me to repeat something I said to my mom.

 

[Venus193]

And to think - she must have raised her daughter to think like that, too! 

I know.  Tragically, my best friend thinks this way.  It is impossible to discuss this with her.

[Venus193]

I remember a rude lady on the bus tapping me on the shoulder and asking me to repeat something I said to my mom.

 

This is the ultimate example of buttinsky rudeness. [picks jaw off floor]