What little things drive you completely up the wall....?

[Yvaine]

There's pride in ownership.  Less in rentership, I guess.  We have had several different renters live in the house next door to us.  All of them have been horrible and didn't take care of the house at all, until the current renters.  They are awesome.  They shamed me into doing more with my front yard! 

Can we not turn this into a snark-on-renters thread please?

(For the record, I also thought it sounded like the owners weren't keeping up their end either.)

Who's snarking on renters?  The OP asked a question, and I answered it based on my personal experience.

I thought the implication that renters don't have any pride was snarky, but if it was not intended as such, I apologize.

I've certainly seen people trash the heck out of places they own. My dad did it. An acquaintance of mine is doing it right now. I could go on.

And I've lived in places where landlords didn't do their part and it can affect what the renters are able to do. I had one who would not repair certain things even after several requests, which led to carpets being flooded, and then they were mad at me that the carpet was damaged. Even though these repairs were their responsibility according to the lease.

[mmswm]

Again, I apologize for my misleading wording.  I was careful to say "some" renters, not all.  I'd venture a guess that absolutely nobody on this board would fall into that category.  To be clear, the house was being painted because it was time.  It wasn't past time, just time.

Here's a picture of part of the house.  The dark teal is the new trim color.  The rest of it hasn't been painted yet.  The big pile of stuff in the background is part of what we had to clean up out of the yard.  This is after we cleaned up the yard.  I wish I took a picture of what it looked like prior to that.  It's also worth noting that we cleaned up the yard just a few weeks ago when we were over there replacing the steel posts on the carport and painting the carport slab.  I don't expect that people keep the homes pristine, but "not trashed" would be nice.

[Yvaine]

Again, I apologize for my misleading wording.  I was careful to say "some" renters, not all.  I'd venture a guess that absolutely nobody on this board would fall into that category.  To be clear, the house was being painted because it was time.  It wasn't past time, just time.

Here's a picture of part of the house.  The dark teal is the new trim color.  The rest of it hasn't been painted yet.  The big pile of stuff in the background is part of what we had to clean up out of the yard.  This is after we cleaned up the yard.  I wish I took a picture of what it looked like prior to that.  It's also worth noting that we cleaned up the yard just a few weeks ago when we were over there replacing the steel posts on the carport and painting the carport slab.  I don't expect that people keep the homes pristine, but "not trashed" would be nice.

That makes sense. Thanks/

[Allyson]

When people use 'yelled at me' to mean 'criticized me', 'said something negative to me' or 'disagreed with me'. I have one friend who is *really* bad for this, but I've seen it done other places, as well. This friend said her roommate 'totally freaked out' at her, when the roommate just asked her to move her craft supplies so she could vacuum. No yelling.

To me, yelling involves a raised voice, and usually prolonged, unless it's phrased as 'she yelled 'Go away!''. I'm starting to have skepticism when people say they were yelled at, berated, or screamed at in some cases. Because I've been present for the conversations and then later heard the interpretation and in no way could it be seen as 'yelling'.

[2littlemonkeys]

When people just keep spending my money and deciding what I'll be doing with my time.  I have a couple of  relatives who are really bad at this.  One keeps telling me I "need" to enroll my youngest in ballet and get my oldest signed up for soccer and sign up for this class and take them to that class.  Now, I do think that they would really enjoy these classes but

1) I really do not have the money in the budget for classes outside of the park district
2) The ones the park district offers are at times when I'm at work or in the evening and we are *very* busy with homework, dinner, baths, etc.

She is a stay at home mom, so her day looks a lot different than mine.  I wish *she* would understand this.  I'm seriously considering taking her up on her "offer" to pay for the class and shuttle the kids to and fro, since she's so insistent.

I'm hoping to find something this summer but dude! Lay off!

The other relative who's always telling me I need to buy a new coat or a new phone or a new TV or whatever.  I don't.  These things are far from brand new but they are still useful and function in the way they are supposed to.  It drives me bonkers.  One of my coats is 20 years old but I only wear it when it's really cold outside.  And it's washable, so it cleans up nice and has no signs of wear or rips or anything.  You'd never know it was so old.  She didn't either until it came up one day.  Now she's on a one-woman campaign to get me to buy a new coat already.  There is nothing wrong with this one! 

[Amava]

I agree, Allysson, that drives me crazy.

In a similar vein, when two or more people are having a discussion and a third party butts in and says "Don't fight over something like this!" or "Stop female-dogging!"

We are not fighting. We are not female-dogging, and we are not upset, nor is the conversation getting heated. We're having an interesting discussion, and exchanging thoughts! Thinking is fun! Try it sometime!

This happens for example in online gaming, when discussing strategies to attack a creature. Two or three people in the crew will be calmly weighing options of what weapons, routes etc is best, and there will be one other who says "Please don't fight over what weapons are best! It's just a game!"  AAARGH.

And a few days ago I was reading an old topic on a rather well-known humor site. It was about storyline flaws in Harry Potter. Some commenters brought up, in a calm and polite manner, a few explanations of why things worked in certain ways in the books (for example, the author of the article seemed not to know why wizards don't use electricity, and some commenters calmly explained that it's because magic makes electricity go haywire). Many other details were discussed, too. I thought it was really interesting to read through the comments section, however, some others had posted: "Wow so much rage here! Lighten up, it's just an article about a fictional world, nothing to get upset over!" And I thought: "What? Who's raging? Who's upset? Nobody but you!"

It's really annoying. Are people that starved for drama, that they need to imagine it where there is none?

[Twik]

It's really annoying. Are people that starved for drama, that they need to imagine it where there is none?

Possibly. It's also possible that many of them come from a background where they are assigned the peacemaker role. In tit, they have to stay on guard for people disagreeing and diffuse it, else there's an eruption. You may be hearing echoes of "Mommy! Daddy! PLEASE don't fight!" Even enjoyable discussions can sound, to them, like dangerous situations. (My father came from a rather disfunctional family, and he was always nervous when other people were disagreeing, although he was happy enough to debate things on his own terms.)

[Shalamar]

I'm like your dad, Twik.  My parents fought constantly when I was growing up, so any sign of friction makes me very upset and anxious.    I once burst into tears at a friend's house because she and her sister were screaming at each other (in my defense, I was only ten at the time).

[Twirly]

I agree, Allysson, that drives me crazy.

In a similar vein, when two or more people are having a discussion and a third party butts in and says "Don't fight over something like this!" or "Stop female-dogging!"

We are not fighting. We are not female-dogging, and we are not upset, nor is the conversation getting heated. We're having an interesting discussion, and exchanging thoughts! Thinking is fun! Try it sometime!

My FIL does something like this anytime MIL and I are discussing logistics and it drives me crazy!  We'll be having a perfectly normal conversation about say going out to dinner along the lines of "We should call for reservations because they're always so busy" "Oh you're right remind me to look up the number when we get home" and if FIL happens to hear us he jumps in with “don’t worry about it, it will all work out. No need to stress.” Um thanks but we weren’t stressing, we were in fact just talking about our plan to make sure it all works out.

Seriously every single time and after 9 years I still don’t know what it is all about or how to make it stop.

[Amava]

It's really annoying. Are people that starved for drama, that they need to imagine it where there is none?

Possibly. It's also possible that many of them come from a background where they are assigned the peacemaker role. In tit, they have to stay on guard for people disagreeing and diffuse it, else there's an eruption. You may be hearing echoes of "Mommy! Daddy! PLEASE don't fight!" Even enjoyable discussions can sound, to them, like dangerous situations. (My father came from a rather disfunctional family, and he was always nervous when other people were disagreeing, although he was happy enough to debate things on his own terms.)

You know, I think you're on to something! That is very possible indeed. For the ones who say "please no fighting" at least. Or the ones who feel "yelled at" when there was no yelling at all.
Thanks for the insight, it is really very helpful. I'll try to let them drive me up the wall a bit less next time I meet some.

Now, the ones who take /pleasure/ making comments like "bahahaha nerds are raging again" or "umad bro?" when nobody is mad at all, that is a different kettle of fish.

[RingTailedLemur]

The trouble is, if I am not angry but someone says "don't be angry", that in itself makes me angry!  Then I can't win, because as far as they are concerned they are right.

[Betelnut]

Static electricity!  Now that the cold weather has set in, every single time I get out of my car, I get shocked when I touch the car door.  Every time!

Irritating!

[mmswm]

Right now I'm seriously annoyed because my family is enjoying a wonderful meal of chili and I can't have any.  I hate food allergies.

[Piratelvr1121]

Getting older.  My hips now hurt when I sit on the floor too long. The last two days I spent sitting on Pirateboy2's floor helping him clean his room and now my hips hurt off and on.

[Outdoor Girl]

Static electricity!  Now that the cold weather has set in, every single time I get out of my car, I get shocked when I touch the car door.  Every time!

Irritating!

I have a solution for this one.  Get one of those devices designed to provide rust protection installed.  Doesn't work worth a darn for the rust but I haven't been shocked in 7.5 years.