Anyone else have a parent like this?

[tuliprosedaffodil]

This is about my mother but could be anyone.

She has a habit that drives me crazy. Whenever I see her (or we speak on the phone) and we have a conversation and she tells me a story she narrates the whole thing.

So she'll be telling me about for example a neighbour who has annoyed her (everyone annoys her). Our conversation will go as follows:

Her: "So I went round there and said 'John you need to the turn your music down' and he was like 'no, I like it'. So I turned around and said 'well, the rest of the neighbourhood doesn't'
Me: "Oh dear, that sounds annoying Mum. Are you doing anything nice this afternoon?"
Her : "Well, not relaxing! Anyway, I said 'John I've asked you nicely, could you please turn it down' and he was like 'well I could a bit' and I was like 'that would be great, I just want to hear Gardeners World without your music over the top' and he said 'Oh Gardeners World I love that' and I said 'yes it is nice' and then he said 'oh your roses are really flourishing this year'

Etc etc etc. That's how she speaks all the time. It's even worse when she's telling a story about work involving people who I don't know at all. She could rattle on for hours in this way. She does it all the time too for example if she's here like she was in the garden over the weekend (she's part of our bubble) and my in laws were here too. My in laws obviously don't know anyone that she works with or really anything about her job and no exaggeration she talked like this for fifteen minutes about a long and boring thing that had happened at work. It always has to be about how someone has crossed her and she's put them in their place too. I was cringing!

She isn't elderly, she's late fifties!

Anyone else?

Not a parent, but I worked with someone like that in a small office once. Overtalkative is the word I'd use and thank God she was part time or I might have thrown her out of the window. My sympathies OP.

I find myself wanting to jump in and tell her to get to the point! Ok Mum so the crux of the story is John's music was too loud and it annoyed you, and after a chat he turned it down and admired your roses. We don't need every single word of the exchange (plus likely embellishments!).

Maybe I am just getting impatient!

I'm close to someone who does this. They also do the same talking about email and text exchanges they've had. I hate it, because I have to try and work out the crux of what they're saying.

My Mum is exactly like this! It drives me crazy too.

The other day I was in the phone to her and she tells me this long (boring) account of how basically my Auntie’s bank card went missing in the post and then she later discovered fraudulent transactions. But OMG it took her about half an hour of “she said/did this” and then “they said that”.

I tried to get to the point for her but she said “hang on a minute I’m getting to that part” so I still had to listen to it all.

I find myself summarising for her in two sentences what she described in 30 mins. I know she lives alone and probably doesn’t have much to talk about but she’s always been like it.

I find it really tedious and unnecessary. Needless to say we get on better now that we live 2 hrs apart!

No but I have a family member like this. Not one I see often thankfully but she takes about half an hour to say what I could say in about a minute. I do find myself avoiding her at family gatherings which is a shame as she is lovely but god it's boring, especially when I have no knowledge of the people she is talking about.

My dad's like this and I find it amusing and endearing, dh and I laugh about it, it's part of his character. One recurring thing he seems to tell us, after a telephone conversation with bank/council/ bills etc.
Is...and then she said, of course you can David, if you don't mind me calling you David? And I said no, you can call me whatever you like

Makes us smile, every time

My dads like this. Infuriating. It's so narrative. "So I goes to him what are you doing? And he goes what? And I go what are you bloody doing? He goes....

My Dad is slightly like this but it's more he will tell me the ins and outs of every detail whether they are relevant or not! He will be telling me that Chris down the road isn't very well and that he bumped into him yesterday at the bottom of the drive, walking his dog who had a birthday last week and he remembered because his dog has the same birthday as him and did you know I also share a birthday with Hitler? Anyway it was Wednesday I bumped into Chris and we had that awful weather the day before and that wind had kept me up all night and I was clearing the leaves off the drive when he walked passed. Poor bastard looked bloody awful!
I'm not exaggerating I actually think he's a lot worse than the above example as well because he won't get to the point of the story for about 10 mins and he also repeats himself about 3 times!! Sometimes I think he just does it to wind me up!!!

My mum too. And she will repeat the same story, but when I say she’s already told me, she will still re-tell it in detail again!

Also obsessed with the weather. I’m about to ring her and you can guarantee she will start with ‘well, today has been...’ and go into an hour by hour account of the weather today. Combine that with one of the detailed mundane stories and you’re in for a treat

Oh - also - stories about people I don’t know but she insists I do. I live 150 miles away and have never lived in the village she lives in now. But I will get ‘you know Chris and Jane in the village?’ ‘No’ , ‘yes you do, they live in the cottage by the farm, CHRIS AND JAAAANE’ ‘no’

My mum's like this. I've learnt not to try to join in the conversation, but just let her talk.
If I interrupt her in any way she accuses me of making her lose her thread and starts back at the beginning again.

Yes my mum and she had I say ‘he says/she says’ so often it grates.

‘She says ‘I really don’t like your music, she says ‘it just distracts me’ she says ‘I’m listening to the radio’ she says ‘’but I can’t hear it.’ It drives me insane.

I have a very dear friend who tells lots of stories about people as if I do know them, when I have no clue who they are! I find it quite bewildering sometimes but also endearing! And you always get to the bottom of things eventually

I wonder why they do it?

Oh feck I talk like this😬🤭

Why tho @blowinahoolie? I have asked my dad but he says he doesnt know and just relives the moment

@disconnecteddrifter

Why tho *@blowinahoolie*? I have asked my dad but he says he doesnt know and just relives the moment

No idea, I just hate to think I may miss out a minute detail 🤔 DH also eye rolls me and says 'okay, just get to the point!'😂

I have a friend who will tell me fine detail about conversations she wasn't even party to herself (along with all the rest of the minute detail of whatever story she is telling). People get so wrapped up in their story and don't actually consider how they come across from the listener's point of view. Like, how I really don't care what John said to Jane and what Jane said to Sally. Just tell me the slightly mundane thing that happened last week and we can move on.

My mums the same not only does she do that, but she also goes off in tangents and starts telling other stories connected to whomever is in her first story. Drives me loopy, I can never get a word in edgeways.

MIL talks like this. Very linear and detailed with he said / she said. Also a fan of ‘and I turned around and said...’ I find it quite fascinating but we don’t see her often, I expect if we did I’d find it annoying.

My mums the same not only does she do that, but she also goes off in tangents and starts telling other stories connected to whomever is in her first story.

My (lovely) MIL is like this so you get a story within a story within a story about people you have never met, that goes on for ages. It's hard to keep track especially when your face is doing "mmm...yes" and your mind is zoning in and out.

Once they were staying at my parents and the (equally lovely) neighbour called round. Who talks like MIL...but faster, louder and never gets tired. I introduced them and stood back. Within ten minutes MIL had wilted in the face of lovely neighbour's awesomely superior firepower. I let her get machinegunned for about half an hour before I rescued her.

My friend's Mother (drives her cracked) starts ...' I have some news, you won't believe it when you hear it (in tone that something massive is afoot) she always takes a pause then so has to be asked 'what happened'...and then on it goes..'I had a missed call, tried to ph back & then the ph went out of battery...do you find, I always do that when it is really important that the ph is nearly dead. So...I had to charge it & it took ages, you are not supposed to use your ph when it is plugged in, you know....so I thought it was a work call because person didn't really leave much of a message or maybe the alarm company because I had been trying to get them the day before & they were to phone me back, but didn't ...I might change because I saw a good deal on tv for another alarm company...anyway so I didn't know what to expect & when I got through, the girl was asking me my name & wanted my address & I thought it was a scam because you know they say beware of anyone who asks information...so I said well, you called me & how did you get my ph number, you can't be too careful, you know ..so she was explaining her end& guess what, guess..I've an appt for my covid vaccination'. Everything is like this...a rambling all over the place story..& the above example is short cos I got sick of typing. I love her...but she's not my DM...I'd be demented if every conversation was like this. She has a funny habit of totally twisting what you say...so if you say 'Did I read or hear somewhere that X happened, not sure if I have that right or didn't catch the contect'...she say 'Sionnach said X happened' like totally fact...

I've got one.

She answers every trivial question (sucn as did your shopping arrive) with;

"Well...........," and then launches into a half-hour explanation of exactly how it came about that she placed her online shopping order, what it said on the screen, why she chose which day for it to be delivered and how she couldn't have either the right day or the right time but she decided she could put off doing the ironing, that she decided to order extra sausages so she could freeze some. what the weather was like when the delivery arrived, what the bloke said to her, yada yada ad infinitum, all so she can say that the bananas she got were slightly greener than she would have liked.

Have you seen Ant Man? They cover this type of chat, and when someone tried to object a friend said

"Hey man, you put a dime in the dukebox, you have to let it play out".

Thats what I think when I listen to my Step Dad rattle on.

Does your mum live alone? I find my grandmother can talk for Britain but she’s on her own so having someone new to talk to means she finds it hard to stop.