I have a lot of experience dealing with martyrs because I am one. I am that mum who takes on too much and then self-flagellates by taking on even more. I am the mum who says, “oh, it’s no bother” when clearly it is very much a bother. I am a martyr mum. Does this sound…
Dealing with difficult people #11: Drama queens
Drama queens (DQs)are both born and made. Some kids naturally have a tendency towards histrionics (hello Max), but parenting absolutely comes into it for them to grow into fully-fledged attention-seekers. DQs have a pathological neediness that is difficult to understand, let alone manage. Everything is about them and when it’s not they’ll make it about them anyway. It’s…
Dealing with difficult people #10: Rude bastards
Some people are just not very nice. They don’t seem to have learned the golden life rule about treating others the way you would like to be treated yourself. That bloke in accounts who lets the door shut in your face every single time. The kid who thinks ‘merge’ means ‘push in immediately’. That guy…
Dealing with difficult people #9: The desperate newcomer
It’s true I have a love-hate relationship with People. I love to meet new ones and make friends; but at the same time I loathe the general public and am wary of newcomers. I know: another complete contradiction in my life. Just call me Ms Hyjekell. I think one of the reasons that I am wary…
Dealing with difficult people #8: Aggressive drivers
As we all reel from the controversy surrounding the Yummy Mummy post last week, do you ever stop to think how bizarre cars are? How we zip around suspended above the ground in our little metal boxes. Lost in our own little world with one eye on the traffic and the other on what’s for dinner? How…
Dealing with difficult people #7: Yummy mummies
Now, settle. I’m not talking about a mother who takes care of herself and pride in her appearance. I think we all like to think that we keep ourselves nice. I’m talking about capital Y Yummies who care about nothing except the way they and their offspring look. They half-sneer (all they can manage due…
Dealing with difficult people #6: Bullies
For a long time I found it really difficult to stand up for myself around bullies. I was fine asserting myself with most other types of people, but not the irrational, aggressive, in-your-face bully. I felt intimidated, teary and humiliated every single time. I realised later that I tended to lose my voice and myself…
Dealing with difficult people # 5: Toddlers
I am not one of those mothers who smiles sweetly at the wild-eyed newbies frantically rocking their selfish newborns and shrieks “enjoy the baby stage, just you wait until they’re TWO.” No, I’m not one of those. I can’t stand those know-it-all mothers who just have to share (but more on them in a later post)….
Dealing with difficult people #4: Snooty salespeople
Have you met Dave? He works at a vacuum cleaner shop that shall of course remain… Godfreys. I don’t like Dave. Dave sells a complimentary dose of WTF? along with his fancy vacuum accessories and frankly I’m a lot tired of his superior attitude. I get that pulling the vacuum cleaner up the stairs by…
Dealing with difficult people #3: Negative Nellies
We’ve tacked Newborns, we’ve tacked CPs, this week… You’ve met Nellie. She’s permanently involved in some catastrophe or another but it doesn’t matter because the world is going to end tomorrow anyway. She goes on and on and on and on about how awful life is and how thoughtless other people are and how nothing…