Asking Prying Questions

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Questions:

When are you going to pop the question?

When are you guys going to have another baby?

When are you going to mind your own business?

The first two questions here are rampant in our society and probably many around the world. The reason I bring this up is not that I have been hearing these questions, but that I have started thinking about asking them of my friends!

What is happening to me!!! It's very obviously none of my business or any other mom or dad or friend or little old lady who may or may not actually know the person who is on the business end of these questions.

That is simply information to be shared when the person with the information is good and ready. It is not information meant to be dragged out of people.

I have been dropping into the mindset of the slow-witted by even just thinking about this kind of thing and have had to actually dust off my creative thinking skills to come up with other more engaging and fulfilling questions. But when one gets those questions all the time, it is difficult to break the cycle.

Consider that someone you haven't seen for a while has been cheated on and couldn't think of "popping the question" or even dating for quite some time. If you bring it up, they could be hurt and decide not to share anything with you.

Or what if your friend from High School had several miscarriages or fertility problems and is devastated to even think about the emotional pain that has come along with trying to have a baby.

Questions that can seem so genuine and trite can actually cause a lot of damage. So my suggestion is to hold your tongue a little until you reach a level of friendship with someone where they are willing to begin to share information like that with you.

Put your thinking cap on and take off your rose colored glasses. Get to know someone by putting them first and not what you think they should be doing with their life.

Whew! That was long and very serious! We'll see how this goes over.

Trent

Episode 23 Notes: Proper Hand Washing

TRENT:
I figured it might be helpful to include this information from the show. Derek did the research, and if I think it's overly important, I'll put the reference to where the info came from. Until then, I think it was the CDC.

Anyone care about taking this stuff to heart?

Proper hand-washing

1. Use warm or hot water when possible. Cold water is not as effective for killing
    bacteria on your hands.

2. Wet your hands and wrists completely under the running water.

3. Apply a small dab of liquid soap. If you use bar soap, you rinse it off before you
    use it.

4. Work up a good lather and wash all of the surfaces of your skin, including the
    wrist, palms, backs of your hands, fingers, and fingernails.
    Wash your hands for at least 15 to 20 seconds.

5. Rinse your hands thoroughly.

6. Dry your hands. Use your paper towel to turn off the water after you have
    finished.

If soap and water are not available, use gel hand sanitizers or alcohol-based hand wipes. Most supermarkets and drugstores carry these products. Carry one or both with you when you travel, and keep them in your car or purse.

If using the gel sanitizer, rub your hands until the gel is dry. You don't need to use water; the alcohol in the gel kills the germs on your hands.

UPDATE: Telemarketers

We talked about telemarketers recently and had a great poll going on the site with a lot of feedback. Thanks to everyone who voted!

I also have been getting a lot of automated calls with a pre-recorded voice. Those are even more frustrating as they have no human element and are only just a distraction.

On a whim last week I decided to press the ZERO button on the phone to see if I could get an operator and ask to be taken off the list. Suprisingy, 2 times out of 5 it has worked. Once I got a real person who was very kind and took me off the list. And just now I got another automated voice that said I could press "2" to be removed from the call list.

Just a tip to help you with your day!

Trent

MannersCast Films in the RSS Feed

Steven of The Rules Podcast suggest that I put The MannersCast Films in the iTunes feed... so I did.

PEOPLE is in the feed now, but make sure to send your friends to http://www.mannerscast.com so they can see the films and pass them along to their friends.

Thanks, Steven!

Trent
mannerscast[at]gmail.com

Yes, Sir, Mom!

The very poignant words of a 2 and a half year old still ring clear. It's not that she mistook her mom for her dad. It's that she was concerned enough to say the respectful thing to her mom even if she got it wrong.

The current Poll on The MannersCast site is to see how much of an issue it is for our listeners as to whether or not kids are taught to say "Yes, Ma'am," "No, Ma'am," "Yes, Sir," and "No, Sir."

Weight in and we'll talk about this on a future podcast. You can also leave comments here on the blog that we can bring to the table and share with the world!

Trent