Monday, December 27, 2010

Battle of the personality types

A.: You're not going to work, are you?
Dad: If I really need to, I'll work from home, but I don't like to, because your mother would be constantly distracting me.
A.: I know what you mean. When I was really sick a couple of weeks ago and it was freezing, I contemplated going in rather than teleworking because of Gracie. What if you close the door?
Dad: You know your mother--it's always something. Some cat picture someone e-mails her that I have to go look at that second.

This is true. Mom is constantly calling one or both of us over.

Mom, bless her, is an extrovert. Dad and I, not so much.

It was evident on the way home yesterday. She narrated the entire trip. Which is the driver's prerogative, but after half an hour or so, I was tempted to jump out into the snow for some peace and quiet.

You may know that I try to get my yoga in before mom gets out of bed, because otherwise, she'll talk to me the whole time. She'll point out that my butt is huge, or tell me that I'm not doing a pose quite right, or talk to me about how important concentration and focus are in yoga.

I was about to go help dad shovel--I kept insisting, he kept telling me to stay in, and finally he agreed to let me clean off the cars--once I finished the roundup. I estimated I'd need another five minutes or so. Mom comes in and starts talking to me. We talk for a few minutes, and then she tries to remember what she wanted to tell me, and talks through the remembering process out loud. I ask her very politely to tell me once she remembers, because I'd like to finish the paper and go help dad. She continues to talk to me. I continue to ask her to let me finish the paper. She gets frustrated and leaves.

It's tough, managing extro-introvert relations. Two very different ways of interrelating. What do you do?

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