One of my all-time favorite quotes is one from the late Robert McCloskey and it goes like this:
| “I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.” | |
After some suburban mama drama I went through this week I quickly realized that not only lack of communication was to blame, but miscommunication also. People take what they hear as fact when it should be labeled more accurately as hearsay or fiction in some cases. This was one of those cases.
It is like that kids game of telephone where the phrase passes from child to child and eventually turns into something all together different in the end. The only difference is we are well into our thirties and we should have left this silliness where it belongs, back in high school.
My refusal to take part in the infantile behavior only made things worse when it was taken as fear instead of disdain as it clearly (at least to me) was. Actually, the only thing I fear about this matter is becoming one of those people who actually give a shit who said what about who. As for now I will take solace in the fact that I have avoided becoming a willing participant in the suburban mama drama, for now.
Orland Park Mom 
Good for you for staying out of the drama.
Hearsay will trip people up every time. If in doubt, or if something is serious, it’s always best to check out the original source. The same goes for journalism. Nobody wants to read an article about an article from someone who read an article about something. Of course, sometimes people create drama on purpose just to have some excitement for the day. Those people need to be avoided.
Jeff, I couldn’t agree more. I get it that people are bored, I just wish they would leave me out of their created drama. Lately it seems that there are a lot of articles about articles from someone who read an article about something. Thanks for the giggle!