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I have no issue bashing my own family, they simply don't listen. Not rarely listen, or sometimes listen. No, they do NOT listen. As in never with no exaggerations implied.
My mom wanted to buy a tablet for my 11 year old brother. So she asked me for suggestions, and I gave her a few. Knowing my brother and what he wants to do, I gave her a specific suggestion that beat her price range. Well, she decided to buy him some cheap knock off, and buy her husband a tablet instead. She buys the wrong model of the same tablet, asks me over to set it up for him(he's in his 70s) and I'm like.. uhh, what's this? Oh, apparently it's the tablet that I suggested for an 11 year old, but it wasn't, just the same brand. That's when I told her she should return it, and buy a tablet suitable for my step-dad(and like before, I gave her a list of exact model numbers, stores, and the price it should be.) But guess what, this was all my fault according to her, because she bought the exact model I told her to buy(despite showing her the email conversation in her inbox that said otherwise).
It's not because tech items are confusing. They just don't listen. The other month they wanted to replace a broken 3rd garage door opener. I gave them the model to buy, because it was firstly, the best thing for the price, and told them I can come install it that weekend. It's cold out, so I don't want to be in a cold garage for hours trying to jimmy some made-in-china instructions to a non-matching product for 5 hours. But guess what, despite a long conversation to where my step-dad was completely coherent on the topic(as he was the one interested in talking about it), he went ahead and paid more money for the worse opener. Well, I installed it, and it ran perfectly. It was configured to the correct tensions, everything. Now it's acting up for whatever reason(maybe because they have an 11 year old that might decide he wants to go out, then maybe not go out 30 seconds later, before he does go out again through the garage...etc etc). The warranty on the product is still good, but nobody sells this piece of garbage garage door opener anymore(not going to say brands, but last I looked, this was the ONLY GD opener locally purchasable, that had a user rating of 1.5 stars out of 5 from hundreds of owners.)
My mom wanted these mushrooms for Christmas Eve soup. She is 100% sure she knows what they are called, but in Polish(she's American), and has bought these mushrooms for years(apparently). It's some strain of fungus that no Polish person has ever heard of before. I know what mushrooms they are, because I actually know what she's talking about. But despite every effort to correct her, every year she goes to a polish deli, has a 20 minute conversation in the worst broken polish ever spoken with some immigrant grocer who is trying to help her. This happens every single year. Then she buys the wrong mushrooms, blames the clerk at the store, and long-story somewhat shortened, this is the trigger for a family fight on Christmas eve. But guess what, for the last 4 years I bought her the right mushrooms, and she just looked at them, said no, wrong kind and threw them in a drawer where they go to waste. This pisses me off a bit, because A-grade porcini negro mushrooms are crazy expensive. I never knew that she didn't use them until just recently. So this last Christmas, I printed out this label that said her silly made-up word, stuck it on a bag of these mushrooms, and low and behold, she makes the damn soup and it tastes exactly the way it's supposed to taste. So fight avoided? No, because I open up my mouth and told her that I stuck a printed label on the mushrooms, and they were the same ones that I told her to buy/gave her for as long as she's been searching. If you know me IRL, I am very passive and I don't argue. When disagreements come in place, I have no issue just shrugging, saying 'ok' and smiling. Even around family, which is very challenging, as EVERYONE reading this should know.
I try not to keep tabs and hold a grudge over this stuff. However, if I really thought about it, I could come up with a huge list of recent events where my immediate family goes out of their way to get some kind of advice from me, yet to do something completely in a different direction(not subjectivity, but actually doing something forewarned and very wrong). They both live on a very fixed income, and my mom decided to have another kid at her old age(decided, not an accident), making ALL luxury hypo-$200 purchases paramount to the research they made(which honestly consists of two things for my mom, go to Target's or Walgreen's website, then call me). While my post is long, I think I just summed up my entire adult life with my mother, and her adequately matched husband.
/rant + thanks for reading
So yeah. Is there even a point in talking, if nobody listens?
My mom wanted to buy a tablet for my 11 year old brother. So she asked me for suggestions, and I gave her a few. Knowing my brother and what he wants to do, I gave her a specific suggestion that beat her price range. Well, she decided to buy him some cheap knock off, and buy her husband a tablet instead. She buys the wrong model of the same tablet, asks me over to set it up for him(he's in his 70s) and I'm like.. uhh, what's this? Oh, apparently it's the tablet that I suggested for an 11 year old, but it wasn't, just the same brand. That's when I told her she should return it, and buy a tablet suitable for my step-dad(and like before, I gave her a list of exact model numbers, stores, and the price it should be.) But guess what, this was all my fault according to her, because she bought the exact model I told her to buy(despite showing her the email conversation in her inbox that said otherwise).
It's not because tech items are confusing. They just don't listen. The other month they wanted to replace a broken 3rd garage door opener. I gave them the model to buy, because it was firstly, the best thing for the price, and told them I can come install it that weekend. It's cold out, so I don't want to be in a cold garage for hours trying to jimmy some made-in-china instructions to a non-matching product for 5 hours. But guess what, despite a long conversation to where my step-dad was completely coherent on the topic(as he was the one interested in talking about it), he went ahead and paid more money for the worse opener. Well, I installed it, and it ran perfectly. It was configured to the correct tensions, everything. Now it's acting up for whatever reason(maybe because they have an 11 year old that might decide he wants to go out, then maybe not go out 30 seconds later, before he does go out again through the garage...etc etc). The warranty on the product is still good, but nobody sells this piece of garbage garage door opener anymore(not going to say brands, but last I looked, this was the ONLY GD opener locally purchasable, that had a user rating of 1.5 stars out of 5 from hundreds of owners.)
My mom wanted these mushrooms for Christmas Eve soup. She is 100% sure she knows what they are called, but in Polish(she's American), and has bought these mushrooms for years(apparently). It's some strain of fungus that no Polish person has ever heard of before. I know what mushrooms they are, because I actually know what she's talking about. But despite every effort to correct her, every year she goes to a polish deli, has a 20 minute conversation in the worst broken polish ever spoken with some immigrant grocer who is trying to help her. This happens every single year. Then she buys the wrong mushrooms, blames the clerk at the store, and long-story somewhat shortened, this is the trigger for a family fight on Christmas eve. But guess what, for the last 4 years I bought her the right mushrooms, and she just looked at them, said no, wrong kind and threw them in a drawer where they go to waste. This pisses me off a bit, because A-grade porcini negro mushrooms are crazy expensive. I never knew that she didn't use them until just recently. So this last Christmas, I printed out this label that said her silly made-up word, stuck it on a bag of these mushrooms, and low and behold, she makes the damn soup and it tastes exactly the way it's supposed to taste. So fight avoided? No, because I open up my mouth and told her that I stuck a printed label on the mushrooms, and they were the same ones that I told her to buy/gave her for as long as she's been searching. If you know me IRL, I am very passive and I don't argue. When disagreements come in place, I have no issue just shrugging, saying 'ok' and smiling. Even around family, which is very challenging, as EVERYONE reading this should know.
I try not to keep tabs and hold a grudge over this stuff. However, if I really thought about it, I could come up with a huge list of recent events where my immediate family goes out of their way to get some kind of advice from me, yet to do something completely in a different direction(not subjectivity, but actually doing something forewarned and very wrong). They both live on a very fixed income, and my mom decided to have another kid at her old age(decided, not an accident), making ALL luxury hypo-$200 purchases paramount to the research they made(which honestly consists of two things for my mom, go to Target's or Walgreen's website, then call me). While my post is long, I think I just summed up my entire adult life with my mother, and her adequately matched husband.
/rant + thanks for reading
So yeah. Is there even a point in talking, if nobody listens?
