Do anyone else's parents do this?

[Pliyo]

Sample:

DM: Oooh, do you know who I bumped into in town the other day? Janet Smith.

Me: Who?

DM: Janet Smith, you remember, who used to go to church with Grandma.

Me: blank stare

DM: proceeds to give me full details of X thing that happened to Janet Smith recently despite the fact I have literally no idea who this person is

Another sample:

Unfamiliar car parks in street

DF: <leaps up like meerkat and rushes to window> who does that belong to then? Never seen that car before?

cue him and DM spending the next hour discussing the owner of the car and who it might belong to

When I go for a walk with my mum she'll quite often say 'Who was that?' when a car goes past. I don't know do I?! And why would anyone care anyway?!!!

One day we'll be annoying a future generation though, I'm sure!

...and seem genuinely surprised you're not still 'knee high to a grasshopper' when you're 48 and a quantity surveyor.

One of my ex-colleagues was very into celebrities private lives but could rarely remember their names. As a result we used to have conversations which went along the lines of . . .

"You know that actress that was on the TV last night?"

"Which one?"

"You know, the blonde girl that sometimes does adverts"

"Sorry, don't know who that is"

"Yes, you must know her . . . . she was in that drama about the guy who fell in love with his cousin's girlfriend"

"No, I didn't watch that"

"And she was in that thing about the murder that happened in a village"

"No, I still don't know who she is"

"Well, anyway, what I was going to tell you was that she was at drama school with that guy who has just got engaged to the girl who turned down Strictly"

This is the shortened version 😖

My my GOD that just brought back a memory of when my parents got new bins and it was non-stop drama for weeks. The council ended up refusing to pick up their rubbish unless they relted and got a wheelie bin.

We won’t have the energy to be like that because we’ll be working until we drop.

My mum tells me about people who bullied me at school.

I always pretend I don’t know who she’s talking about in the hope that it might cancel the anecdote. I need to learn, it never does, it just means I get the prequel reminder as well as the story.

My husband once cut his mum short with”Mum, I love you very much, but I really can’t cope with hearing about someone I’ve never met and their boiler”.

Not my parents, but when I was younger my sister and I sometimes used to play a game of how our Jewish grandparents and people of that age would talk and see how long we could string it out for, and how much of an anticlimax the final part of the 'anecdote' would be. Like:

'You know Yvette?.... You know, Yvette? The one with the son, the son who married the woman, the woman with the wonky leg, whose sister had a flat in Netanya? You know, her dad owned the shop in Golders Green, his sister was the one whose daughter ran away with that guy?... Yes, Yvette... well.... I saw her in Fenwicks, and she was buying a scarf'

Yep - what I don’t understand is how they get all this ‘gossip’. I occasionally manage to shoehorn a sentence in…

‘Mum, Ben (her GC) got his stage 3 swimming yesterday’ - that sparks a 20 minute monologue about every child (going back decades - some may be getting their pension now) she has ever heard of and their swimming progress. Then on to every story vaguely related to water.

Meanwhile, Ben doesn’t even get a well done.

I suspect that lots of people have to endure a very long tale about Ben and his stage 3 swimming though.

You are all laughing but it will be you one day !

My dad finally starting texting and decided it was good, and appropriate for messaging things

I was happy with this until he decided the best way to tell me my 32yo younger cousin had died was BY TEXT
not only that but he's convinced you pay by character still so I got "X is dead" and nothing else

My in laws don't do it but they're busy people with lots happening. It seems to be people who have very little else going on.

I'm old now, I recognise myself unfortunately. I must drive my family mad

I have laughed so hard my family think am finally off my rocker. So funny and so true. We'll all get there (while insisting we will not)

Oh my dm does this

Also when next doors car isn't there she speculates where they are. I'm like they might have just popped to the supermarket

My DF is a nightmare for this!!! "They've been out a long time haven't they?!"

I mean - why do you care?! How do you even notice????

Oh God. This is my Dad too

I've started to do it 😕

@Pliyo

One of the people next door to parents was terminally sick. Awful situation. But mum couldn't stop speculating whether the car was missing from the drive because they'd gone to hospital or the shops. Or there would be more cars would be there than usual. And she'd never just think oh maybe they're having people round for a cuppa

I was living at home at the time and it drove me bonkers. Just message and ask. Oh I don't want to intrude

All the time!

Omg the New Bins....yep. Non-stop Bin-drama and anger at those whose haven't yet arrived 🤦‍♀️

@buffyslayer Hahahahahaha that really made me laugh. I'm sorry for the loss of your cousin but the context of that was quite amusing.

Ha ha the first one is definitely my mother. Long anecdotes of people I haven't seen since being a child/met once/distant relatives etc. Cue blank stares :D

We had a conversation after that about I would much prefer bad news by phone call please and not text

He's my emergency contact but if anyone rang him they would just get a text reply with a thumbs up so not much help

My mum once informed me a neighbour had died via text as in "Sandra has died LOL"

LOL as in "lots of love".