how do i make her shush?
Q- Dear Suzie. I do not know what to do. I am a nice person. I would rather bite my tongue than cause trouble but this is starting to bother me. A friend of mine, not a close friend, keeps giving me advice on how to raise my child. I have successfully raised one already and did OK but this woman keeps telling me what to do. We have kids the same age but we have very, very different styles of parenting. I don’t want to get into an argument but all the advice is bothering me. What would you do?” – Ms Annoyed.
A- Hi there Ms Annoyed!
Even though people think I am very opinionated and loud I am actually quite shy in my everyday life. I can totally understand your predicament as I too have had similar things happen to me and I too would rather just pretend to take the advice than get into an argument. What you should do really depends on how this is impacting you. If this person is someone you rarely see I would just acknowledge their opinion and nod my head and say I would keep it in mind – knowing full well as they are telling me what to do I am filtering and mainly ignoring it.
If this person was someone like *gasp* a mother in law or sister or even your own mum a conversation would have to be had. These people we see often, and it is important to keep good relationships with them – whether we want to or not! My advice…I would listen politely and then tell them what I thought. I would have to tell them the truth – if I disagreed I would still tell them, even though I wouldn’t want to. I have found that over the years, especially since having kids that unwelcome advice is flung at you from all over the place. The only way to stop it is to put up the sign that says ‘enough‘- by literally telling them you’ve had enough.
As your problem seems to be with someone you don’t see very often I would just nod and do lots of ah ha’s until it really ticked me off. Then I would tell them to STOP!
