Because it needs to be replaced altogether, which of course I told my parents a million times but it all fell on deaf ears.
I AM THE ONE WHO REPLACES THE DOORKNOB!
sorry, couldn’t resist
My mother is the absolute worst when it comes to this. And just like OP’s parents, she has done this all my life. It probably sounds like a shallow issue, but eventually you reach a point when it feels you’re talking to a brick wall, because nothing you ever say reaches her. I have no idea how to deal with it, which is why I am happy I found this thread.
Two examples:
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I was about to go to the doctor. I tell her I made an appointment for the next day; two minutes later she asks me, “so, how did your visit to the doctor go?”
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As I had just arrived in another country, when she calls the first thing I tell her is to be brief, because I’m running out of battery (and the outlets were different so I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to charge it again). Then the conversation went like this:
Her: I cannot find the car papers, where are they?
Me: They’re with your notebook.
Her: I cannot find the car papers, where are they?
Me: They’re with your notebook.
She asked me the question the third time and I answered the third time, and only then she could actually be bothered to look and see that they were in fact where I said. And I cannot for the life of me understand why did she ask me a question without actually listening for the answer, even though I told her I can’t talk for long.
And these are only two examples, but she does this all the time, all the time. I’m really at the end of my rope, and it affects me emotionally (“you’re so uninteresting not even your own mother listens to what you have to say”), and it’s been going on for way too long. I don’t know what to do about it, I tried everything I could think of. And I can’t just drop her out of my life because, frustrating as she may be it’s the only mother I will ever have.
So I empathize with the OP from the very bottom of my heart.
I pit people who don’t know how to use a personal pronoun.
P.S. Don’t make me repeat myself.
We’re the ones who replace the doorknob. Plural, bitch!
I indirectly had one of these today. I boarded the red line Metro at Gallery Place, and for some incomprehensible reason, the train was going out of service at Farragut North, two stops away. Grrr, okay. There was a sign on the platform indicating this. The little electronic displays every few feet on the outside of the cars that show the train’s final destination all said FARRAGUT NORTH. And the driver made no fewer than 10 announcements over the PA in the 4 minutes I was on the train explaining that the train was going out of service at Farragut North and everybody would have to get off. All clear as a bell.
So what happened when we arrived at Farragut North? You got it. At least 8 people per car just sat there obliviously while everyone else got off. This despite another announcement being made as we were pulling in, and yet another when the train stopped. The driver had to make 3 more announcements and flip the lights on and off before these baffled people with glue-ear figured out what was going on.
I seriously don’t know how you miss 13 announcements in 5 minutes telling you that you will have to get off a train. The instructions could not possibly have been more clear.
I actually deal with the exact same shit from my parents. My advice: get over it. Yes, it’s frustrating as hell and no it’s not going to change. But they’re your parents so you have to just deal with it.