Communication

Communication is a difficult thing.  As a "people pleaser" I tend to agree to something that is not feasible just because it is difficult for me to say "No".  It is difficult for me to communicate what I think is "bad news" or "unpleasant communication".  So, I tend to say "Yes" and then when the time comes, I have to disappoint someone because I really could not perform the task in the first place.  I end up hurting the person or making them mad anyway, so I might as well have said "No"... But that is so hard for me to do....

This happens to a lot of us, I think.  Case in point:  We have a family member that cannot make it to our daughter's wedding and they felt very uncomfortable telling us (even though we are really nice people, I swear!).  This person is a people pleaser as well and a really sweet person that would come if they could.  But because of the uncomfortableness of the discussion , instead of calling my daughter, they sent in their RSVP saying they were not coming.  In the long run, they could not come due to misinformation anyway, so we might have gotten it worked out if we could have had a conversation. 

In today's world, everyone has forgotten what it is like to talk to people.  Everyone texts and rarely do we pick up a telephone.  So much can be misconstrued in the written word... inflections in the voice are not deciphered when reading a text and comments can be misunderstood.  I think if you are a parent of a young child who has yet to begin texting, think long and hard about how you want your child to learn the art of communicating.  It is up to you and you need to learn from this generation's mistakes.

Off my soapbox...

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