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

[Shoo]

I don't know if this qualifies as "little" but it did drive me up the wall. I was in Target for quite some time the other day and there was a mother there with her 3 year old daughter and her adult sister. Every 90 seconds (yes, I timed it), the little girl would let out an ear-splitting shriek. It was so loud, you could -- honestly -- hear her across the entire store. After about 15 minutes of this nonsense, I found myself next to them in an aisle. She is shrieking over and over. The mother looks at me no doubt pained expression and shrugs, "What can you do? Kids!" I said, "There's plenty you can do. Make her stop or take her out of the store."  The mother's sister cracked up and said, 'I've been telling you for 15 minutes that you needed to make her stop because it's bothering other people. Now maybe you'll listen!"

This happens every single time I go to a Target or a Walmart.  The last time it happened at a Target, I nearly lost my mind and seriously contemplated abandoning my purchases and leaving the store.  But in the end, I figured that would inconvenience me more than anything else, so I put up with it.  I do wish store employees could be empowered to ask those customers to leave.

[Snooks]

People who are proud of their ignorance.  I'm not just talking about the people who "brag" that they're bad at math or whatever, but the people who will chime in on a conversation about a TV show or famous person with a smirk and "Who?" when they're basically conveying "I don't stoop to such lowly pursuits, so I'm blissfully unaware of your silly pop culture."

(Just to be clear, I don't mean people genuinely asking for more information about something.  I'm talking about the smug eye-rollers I've had the misfortune to encounter.  Sadly, I've even seen this attitude in RIP Celebrity threads in other forums.  Ugh.)

Look, I don't watch reality TV or read about the Kardashians, either.  That doesn't make me a better person than those who do.  Just different.  It's even more absurd when I see it online, because then the person is also telling everyone that they have no idea how Google works.

I didn't realise you knew my uncle.  He manages to add an extra layer by getting snotty if you look something up and give him information.  An example being we went to a stately home and were talking about it on the way home, he said something like "I wonder why that room was painted blue", we'd bought the guide book and my mom was reading it later that evening and said "Oh Bob the room was painted blue because the owner was obsessed with the sea and the room was supposed to make you feel like you were underwater".  Bob replied "Are you not allowed to wonder about anything in this [my parents'] house? 

"Of course you are! For instance, we wonder why you insist on staying ignorant of easily discovered facts."

I'm all about wondering, love to just watch the surf, and admire sunrises over the ocean.  But if say a child inquired as to how the waves are formed I'd be glad to explain it, as that doesn't really take away from the wonder of it.

I love this response!

[Piratelvr1121]

I don't know if this qualifies as "little" but it did drive me up the wall. I was in Target for quite some time the other day and there was a mother there with her 3 year old daughter and her adult sister. Every 90 seconds (yes, I timed it), the little girl would let out an ear-splitting shriek. It was so loud, you could -- honestly -- hear her across the entire store. After about 15 minutes of this nonsense, I found myself next to them in an aisle. She is shrieking over and over. The mother looks at me no doubt pained expression and shrugs, "What can you do? Kids!" I said, "There's plenty you can do. Make her stop or take her out of the store."  The mother's sister cracked up and said, 'I've been telling you for 15 minutes that you needed to make her stop because it's bothering other people. Now maybe you'll listen!"

This happens every single time I go to a Target or a Walmart.  The last time it happened at a Target, I nearly lost my mind and seriously contemplated abandoning my purchases and leaving the store.  But in the end, I figured that would inconvenience me more than anything else, so I put up with it.  I do wish store employees could be empowered to ask those customers to leave.

I've come across this in Walmarts and usually the response of the adults with the child is to blithely ignore them. 

[Shalamar]

"I wonder why they painted the room like that?"
"To annoy you, Bob."

Hee hee.  My husband and I say something similar - it's a quote from the show Mad About You:

Paul:  Why did (somebody do annoying thing)?
Jaime:  Because they're (name of illegitimate offspring) and they hate you.

[Elfmama]

I don't know if this qualifies as "little" but it did drive me up the wall. I was in Target for quite some time the other day and there was a mother there with her 3 year old daughter and her adult sister. Every 90 seconds (yes, I timed it), the little girl would let out an ear-splitting shriek. It was so loud, you could -- honestly -- hear her across the entire store. After about 15 minutes of this nonsense, I found myself next to them in an aisle. She is shrieking over and over. The mother looks at me no doubt pained expression and shrugs, "What can you do? Kids!" I said, "There's plenty you can do. Make her stop or take her out of the store."  The mother's sister cracked up and said, 'I've been telling you for 15 minutes that you needed to make her stop because it's bothering other people. Now maybe you'll listen!"

This happens every single time I go to a Target or a Walmart.  The last time it happened at a Target, I nearly lost my mind and seriously contemplated abandoning my purchases and leaving the store.  But in the end, I figured that would inconvenience me more than anything else, so I put up with it.  I do wish store employees could be empowered to ask those customers to leave.

This plus a million.  The happy shriekers (which sounds like Cami's problem) are barely tolerable.  The ones who are having screaming tantrums are a thousand times worse.  I was in the grocery store a couple of years back, and there was a boy about 10 who was screaming as loud as he could for at least 15 minutes straight, only stopping long enough to see if the woman pushing the cart was going to give in to his tantrum (or maybe to just take a breath.) Then back to screaming. While I applaud not giving in to a tantrum, the child's caretaker should remove him from the store, not continue shopping.  This applies also if the child is having an autistic meltdown. 

One of mine tried that only once, as a preschooler.  I took her straight to the ladies' room, spanked her, and told her to behave.  I don't know if you can do that now, or if it will get you arrested for child abuse. 

[Mental Magpie]

I sat through 4 light cycles at a traffic light.  Finally, at the 5th, my light turned green.  Did I mention I was at the front of the line?  There was absolutely reason for it.

[Shoo]

I sat through 4 light cycles at a traffic light.  Finally, at the 5th, my light turned green.  Did I mention I was at the front of the line?  There was absolutely reason for it.

Were you in a Smart Car?  Maybe the sensors didn't know you were there. 

[Mental Magpie]

I sat through 4 light cycles at a traffic light.  Finally, at the 5th, my light turned green.  Did I mention I was at the front of the line?  There was absolutely reason for it.

Were you in a Smart Car?  Maybe the sensors didn't know you were there. 

Subaru Legacy...and I sat at the same light yesterday through one cycle and was able to leave at the 2nd cycle.  I don't know what it is about that light.

[siamesecat2965]

I don't know if this qualifies as "little" but it did drive me up the wall. I was in Target for quite some time the other day and there was a mother there with her 3 year old daughter and her adult sister. Every 90 seconds (yes, I timed it), the little girl would let out an ear-splitting shriek. It was so loud, you could -- honestly -- hear her across the entire store. After about 15 minutes of this nonsense, I found myself next to them in an aisle. She is shrieking over and over. The mother looks at me no doubt pained expression and shrugs, "What can you do? Kids!" I said, "There's plenty you can do. Make her stop or take her out of the store."  The mother's sister cracked up and said, 'I've been telling you for 15 minutes that you needed to make her stop because it's bothering other people. Now maybe you'll listen!"

This happens every single time I go to a Target or a Walmart.  The last time it happened at a Target, I nearly lost my mind and seriously contemplated abandoning my purchases and leaving the store.  But in the end, I figured that would inconvenience me more than anything else, so I put up with it.  I do wish store employees could be empowered to ask those customers to leave.

I've come across this in Walmarts and usually the response of the adults with the child is to blithely ignore them. 

I shop at Target regularly, but only go with one friend every now and then. Without fail, each and every time we're there, there's a shrieking child. When i go alone, not so much. We joke about it since as soon as we walk in, we'll hear it, and for some reason, the shrieker always seems to follow us.

[siamesecat2965]

Fantastic online sales, but websites that can't handle the added traffic. Lord and Taylor had 60% off bathing suits etc online, but their website is so slow and buggy I gave up. Also, when you search by size, but when you actully view the results, and your size is gone. Oh well, guess I didn't need one after all!

[Piratelvr1121]

Non stick foil that won't let go of fish.  Okay, so I might not be an expert griller just yet but I know I had the non-stick side facing the right direction (up) and the fish still managed to stick.  Not much, thankfully but enough, though it still turned out good.

[Pen^2]

Online recipes that assume you have access to the exact same store as whoever wrote it. Grrrrr.

Seriously, not everyone has your same selection of shops. Not everyone on the internet comes from the same country as you, either. Just say "a 425g can of diced tomato" or whatever and I can find something that will work. Not, "Blah blah shop's organic kosher plus sized magical series canned tomatoes". I can Google it, but it won't always come up if it's too specific, and it's a huge pain having to look up the quantity of every single ingredient anyway. Isn't that contrary to the whole point of modern recipes?

Ugh. Home cleaning tips and other things do it too, but maybe I just read recipes more frequently. Welcome to the internet, where unlike in real life, you are interacting with people who don't all live in a 5km radius of yourself. Not everyone lives in the same neighbourhood as you

[Seven Ate Nine]

I waffled on whether to put this here or in the SS thread, but decided that it's their SSness that drives me up a wall, so it belongs here.

People who are behind you at an intersection, and thus CANNOT see the traffic that you can, and then get all bent out of shape, honking and waving,  that you don't pull out into what looks to them to be a gap, but is in reality nothing of the sort. I've run into several of these recently. I'm not an overly cautious driver - if I'm not pulling into traffic, there's a reason!

Some would consider this passive-aggressive, but if you sit behind me and honk at a red light where I could legally turn red, you will now be waiting for a green light.  I had someone do that to me awhile back, and I felt pushed to turn, and nearly got hit by someone going legally through the light.  I won't be pressured to put myself into a dangerous situation because the person behind me is impatient.

[Elfmama]

Online recipes that assume you have access to the exact same store as whoever wrote it. Grrrrr.  ....  Welcome to the internet, where unlike in real life, you are interacting with people who don't all live in a 5km radius of yourself. Not everyone lives in the same neighbourhood as you

^^^ This! Some of the guest chefs on the morning news food segment do that too.  Host asks something like "How can you make sure that this fish is sushi-grade?" and NYC Chef says "Well, you have to get a good fishmonger that you can trust."

Once you leave the coasts and big cities, out there in flyover land, there aren't any fishmongers!  People either buy their fish from the supermarket or catch it themselves. 

That wasn't a one-off, either.  There have been several segments where Host asks "Where do you buy Weird Ingredient X?" and Chef answers "At Specialty Shop." 

[EmmaJ.]

Along those same lines, when recipes call for brand names instead of just listing the ingredient. For instance, "1 cup of Hellmann's" instead of "1 cup mayonnaise".

I had some old recipes passed down to me that called for Spry.  Thank goodness for Google! It was a popular brand of vegetable shortening from the 1930's.