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

Five Undergrad Courses I Wish I Could Retake

Education is a tricky thing. Many jobs require you to learn things prior to you getting on the job, but sometimes, that education is more valued in retrospect. What is and what isn't valuable gets especially lost in four year degrees that mandate something like 130 credit hours for graduation. A college isn't going to tell you, "These classes are important, and these classes... not so much." To be fair to colleges, value is a subjective thing. What I might have found valuable might be different to somebody else. This is especially true for a more general major like mine, Business Administration. I took courses in macroeconomics, marketing, communications, finance, accounting, HR management, and more. If you go ask my fellow graduates which courses they valued the most, I bet every one of them would give you different answers. Anyway, I was reflecting back on my own undergraduate education and thinking about the classes I wish I could go retake. It's not that I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Redeeming Rob Bell

Well, that's probably a name you heard in a while! For those of you not familiar with that name, Rob Bell was (and kind of still is?) a big name in the Christian community. He is the former megachurch founder and pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church, wrote widely read books Sex God  and Velvet Elvis , and is probably most widely known for his NOOMA video series. In 2011, Rob Bell had a big falling out with the Christian community following the release of his book, Love Wins . In that book, he contended that people would be able to accept Jesus and enter heaven after death in addition to before death, which many people misconstrued as universalism. (Which is not particularly right... but I can see why people would draw that conclusion.) Having attended a Christian school at the time, I was right in the thick of the controversy. People freaked out. Having been looked at as a Christian hero in the community for the longest time, people were floored with the sentiments shared in Love...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: FRAMES Part 1 - 20 and Something

It should come as no surprise to you that I'm struggling to see how the church (or faith) as a whole can do a better job at connecting with our postmodern society. In an attempt to eliminate the word "can't" from my vocabulary, I am doing what I can to contribute to a new movement to help re-integrate or re-introduce faith to folks. To that end, I reached out to some people in the church about literature regarding this, and there sadly isn't much. However, there is still some. In particular, I was recommended to check out this series of books called FRAMES. This series of nine books analyzes different topics regarding modern society in short, concise books. Books that contain a lot of information portrayed in neat graphical forms.
Post a Comment
Read more

God's "Plan" for You

One of the things I hear most often in the Christian community is about “God’s plan”. Stuff like… This went well because it was in God’s plan. I’m not doing this or that because I’m waiting for God to reveal his plan for my life. My parent getting cancer and dying must fit into God’s plan. We act as if God has laid out a single track for our lives that we are supposed to follow. That, somehow, he will divinely inspire us to follow this single track, and we will live happily ever after. The end. But how right is that thinking?
Post a Comment
Read more

Key Competency #10: Respectful Straightforwardness

I don't know what it is these days, but people have the tendency to beat around the bush before getting to a point. Maybe it's that they're unsure if what's on their mind is right or wrong. Maybe they don't want to offend somebody. Or maybe it's simply that the person doesn't want to come across as brash or cocky. This is an issue I've encountered a lot, both in the past and in the present. It's a huge time waste, and it can be detrimental to productivity. For example, when a group is asked to provide feedback on something that is quietly not well received, the room usually goes dead silent for a little while until somebody finally speaks up offering some vague compliment. The compliment, of course, serves as a means to remain respectful to the presenter, but the presenter usually takes it and runs with it. After all, they only heard "good things" about it! In reality, nobody liked the idea.
Post a Comment
Read more