Skip to main content

Adulting 101: Ten Things Not to Say at a Holiday Get-Together

The holidays are just around the corner, and you know what that means: seeing the friends and family you love and adore.

Well, mostly.

We all know people that we have to see but really don't want to see. Family members who ask for money. (Thank goodness I've not had that problem.) Friends who talk endlessly about their woes. (Been there.) Coworkers who share a little too much about their personal life. (Always a disaster.)

Just for the fun of it, here are ten things you should probably not say at any holiday get-together! And yes, I do have personal experience with some of these. 
  1. Talking anything about the election this year, good or bad. Politics pretty much always make for bad discussions, and this year only amplifies that fact.
  2. Asking that boyfriend and girlfriend who are already living together when they're finally going to get hitched
  3. Asking the 20-something who graduated from college 3 years ago when they're going to get their own place and move out of their parents' basement / garage / attic / womb
  4. Bringing up the fact that an attendee is still single, especially if the get-together is already populated with couples. (Bonus negative points if the single person is older and divorced!)
  5. Asking a person who clearly hasn't been to church in a long time when the last time they went to church was
  6. Divulging in gossip about another coworker at an office party
  7. Discussing the amount any gift costs (You're pretty much guaranteed to upset the person who clearly bought the cheapest gift because that's all they can afford.)
  8. Asking how so-and-so's project / business is going when it was clearly destined to fail when they first told you about it
  9. Bringing up what you think is a funny story from the past but runs the risk of offending somebody (Case in point, pretty much any time I bring up the fact that my mom accidentally forgot to attend my first grade Mother's Day Tea)
  10. Asking about another person's significant other if you aren't sure whether or not they are still together
This list is truly never-ending, but it should at least kick start your thinking on what might be topics you want to steer clear of. What would you add to this list? Let me know down in the comments!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

About LYEATT

This is my third attempt at starting a blog like this. Each other time I started, I was so concerned about views. How many people read what I wrote? Did anybody express appreciation over it? Did anybody have any other thoughts to share about it? The truth is, I heard nothing. Seemingly nobody cared! Although… I should say that really didn’t give either much to gain traction. Each maybe had three or four posts before my self-consciousness got the better of me and shut them down. So why now? Why try again?
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Competency #4: A Dash of "Not-Care-itude"

As an avid listener of The Tim Ferriss Show  podcast, I listened to a recently uploaded episode complementary to his new book Tools of Titans (review incoming) that covered a number of tough questions he encouraged everybody to ask themselves. One of the questions he shared was, "How would you run your business if you were only allowed to work that business two hours a week?"
Post a Comment
Read more

What My Wife Does Right

When I got married back in 2012, I didn't have a whole lot of involvement in the planning with the wedding. My wife, Maggie, took care of everything. It was one of those situations where I literally did nothing but show my happy little self up the day of the ceremony.  It's not that I refused help or was asked to stay out of it. My wife had it under control. More accurately, I wasn't needed. Photography: Free. Flowers: Also free. Church reservation: Yup, free. Super nice five-tier wedding cake: Well... you probably get the point by now. After all was said and done, I think she effectively got half the stuff for the wedding for free. The most amazing part: she never even asked for these free things . These people willingly volunteered their time and resources. Of course, you don't just wake up one morning with a group of people willing to do amazing things for you at the drop of a hat. This took my wife her entire life to build toward, and it's ...
Post a Comment
Read more

More than Just Lipstick on a Pig

A model passionately talking about her favorite make up in front of a white background. A group of friends laughing while taking a drink out of an ice cold bottle of Coca Cola. A sleek car gliding across a barren highway. If you’re like me, these are probably the sorts of images you think about when you hear the term “marketing”. It’s not an incorrect thought, by any means. These advertisements are a means of getting a product out into the market, so I’d be wrong if I tried telling you this isn’t marketing. But is this really all there is to marketing?
Post a Comment
Read more

No Man's Sky

If you haven’t heard about No Man’s Sky, take a break from here and go watch any of the plethora of YouTube videos about it. Reviews of the game have not been kind, and frankly, I can’t blame them. From a gameplay perspective, it truly is a pretty repetitive game. At the time of this writing, I still haven’t finished the game, but I honestly can’t say I’ve found any of the story to be all that exciting either. Inventory management is a pain in the neck, and trying to manage recipes is just downright frustrating. Yet I love this game.
Post a Comment
Read more