Do you actually care when people tell you about their family/partner etc.?

[AmITooTired]

I’m starting to think I must be horrible person, but I don’t really care when they tell me, usually pretty damn mundane stuff, about their parents, kids, partners.
Or recap what their other friend have done.

I obviously can’t ask about this IRL.

YABU = I do care / like

YANBU = I don’t really care either

YANBU. I love my best friend but I can no longer stand to hear about the mundane stuff, like her child’s search for her lost school hat. It was a long story. I have these mundane stories of my own. I can’t do it anymore. I try to change the subject or get off the phone.
Happy to hear about big life events, successes and stressors and be supportive, but day to day stuff. No. Im tired and have enough boring stories of my
own.

Entirely depends. Close friends telling you about their dysfunctional sibling relationships - love it. Colleagues telling you about their cousins wedding - polite nods.

Yes I love hearing about other people's lives, I find it interesting and helps me bond/connect/analyse people. I'm much more of a listener than a talker though!

Depends if it's interesting. Usually yes if I know the family member or if I know it's affecting the friend (sadness, fear, anger, pride).

Although I totally zone out when people tel me about their boring jobs. Even DPs job I find mind numbing to hear about.

Same 😂

Yes, me too.

Yes me too. Some people do go for "death by stories about their kids" which is tedious.

Mostly no, my parents currently talk about their own health issues incessantly or other people's, people I don't know. Makes me want to cry tbh.
Also had a colleague recently who liked to give me a rundown of her whole night with her baby, how many times they woke/shat/puked. Tried to show me loads of 'cute' videos. She was actually part of the reason I left as we had to work one on one for whole days and I honestly couldn't take it.

Not unless it's something juicy, something I can relate to or something that gives me a greater insight into who they are as a person.

I had a colleague recently who I suspected was a bit of an arsehole. He dropped in during some small talk that a) he doesn't like dogs and b) he is a landlord. Absolutely confirmed my suspicions 😁

It can be interesting. Obviously some is a bit mundane.

My brain works differently to many others... obviously I want to know that you;re well, and that so are your DP and kids... but I would much rather talk about politics or economics or art or music. And I am gonna bond a lot stronger with someone who is going to have a proper interesting conversation, rather than someone with whom I am having a pointless conversation by numbers to pass the time.

Boring jobs are boring, but hearing about legal cases or the reality of running a business can be fascinating. And of course stories about unreasonable clients.

Oooh you're so special and interesting compared to the rest of us.....

My late MIL had almost no hobbies, and seemed to have no interest in TV, news, current affairs etc. She couldn't tell you , or have a conversation about any recent news or sport event but she loved a chat, and could probably give you the life story of a random person she met at the bus stop last Friday! 🤣

Depends a lot on who it is, and how well I know them. There are people at work I have known for years, and in some cases met their families, so I do want to know (though it's still odd that they talk about their kids being off to uni in September, when I'm sure they were only just starting primary last year....) And there are others where I don't care a jot, but if I'm in a good mood, I'll let them chat if they are in the mood to do so, especially if they don't require much input from me.

The sort of person who I am happy to talk to about language, history, politics, art, etc... they're probably the sort where I am interested in hearing about their family, too.

she loved a chat, and could probably give you the life story of a random person she met at the bus stop last Friday!

My mother could be like this, and sometimes I could get to interrupt to ask, "who are you talking about?" and it would be someone like, "you know, her cousin was in your class at school," (Yes, when we were 9, and we haven't spoken in the decades since then, and I've never met the person you're talking about at all...)

I found that when I was working, I didn't know these people outside work, they didn't know me, yet they would be asking all sorts of things. When I didn't turn up on the first day of term after our daughter's wedding they were most put out, they expected photos, details etc..They expected others to coo and ahh over their children, grandchildren when in reality they looked pretty much like every other child.

No, it generally bores me to death. I’m mildly interested in their relationship. But hearing about other people’s children is the most boring thing in the world. I’d much rather hear about their puppy.

The brutal truth is that most people can’t stand other people’s children.

Unless it's a family member then no. I never talk about DP or DD at work. Nobody there knows them so why should they be interested in hearing about them. Likewise I don't know their families so have no interest in what they get up to.

I mean I don't care as such. I'm interested in whatever is being told to me as we're having the conversation but I'm not waiting for the next instalment and I'll probably forget most of it fairly quickly.

If it's people I care about then yeah - only if they don't keep repeating the same stories over and over! Acquaintances no, as I find my mind tends to wander.

A pet peeve of mine is when people keep showing me lots of pictures of their kids/grandkids doing mundane things, and I have to keep going ahh very nice etc.

I’m not interested in hearing about DH’s colleagues at all. I pretend I’m listening but mostly zone out when he starts telling me some boring ass tale about X from work’s private life. The stories are almost never interesting, I don’t know these people and I just don’t care about them.

I know what you mean. A short anecdote about a funny thing that happened to someone's cousin in the shops is fine; but the people who talk like this, n ot so much:
"So then she says, you know, so she says he can't just come home at 2 and not let her know, so she rang him back and gave him what for, then when he rang her back he said 'yeah, I'm drunk', so then she said 'well you still need to tile the bathroom', and that was it for her. So after Sheila threw him out my other friend Stacey said..."

I really don't like when people go on and on about people I don't know, like their friends or neighbours. Why would I care? It's the most boring filler conversation ever, and lacks any personal connection or depth. I also don't like when people talk about private details of their friends' lives. It all just feels like pointless stories at best, gossip at worst.

If on the other hand they're talking about their family, partner, or a friend as it relates to them personally, then yes I'm interested.