Leaving boring conversations

potatolord said:
Exactly like my mum. She regularly fills me in on what's happened to the nieces and nephews of people I have never met, and will never meet. Quite often this relates to verbatim accounts of conversations that happened in 1979 or earlier.
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It sounds like reality TV, but without the TV bit!

The worst person I know for this is my brother's mother in law. She is one of those people who is always talking but never seems to say anything interesting and instead endlessly spouts gossip and empty headed drivel for the sake of making a noise. I have learned not to show polite interest in anything she says as she will jump on the slightest opportunity to display (at great length) her ignorance on any topic and is impervious to hints that people are bored/not interested and want her to shut up/go away. I would not be at all surprised if when she is on her own she just continues talking to herself.
 
Lysander said:
No offense to your mum, but I cannot understand how people recount conversations like this. Neither do I understand how people cannot tell when they're being boring. I think it's just about being self-absorbed and insensitive.
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She just makes up whatever she wants to remember, I think.

I think the only interesting conversation ever was when "uncle" Hugo's niece found his SS ID card and sharpshooter medals in his effects after he died.
 
Zefan said:
It can feel awkward, but if someone isn't picking up on the natural "wow, you're going on a bit" signals, then they're actually the ones that are being rude.
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It's not really rude if they don't realise... and probably your fault for not signalling clearer. :p
It's rude if they know and are actually ignoring the signals though, which is what some people do.

Lysander said:
Neither do I understand how people cannot tell when they're being boring.
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Because no-one ever tells them... and because what they're talking about is probably very interesting to them. They probably cannot understand why on earth you're not as fascinated by it as they are... you weirdo, you!
 
I give them benefit of the doubt. I had a situation I wanted to get out of on a flight from Italy. The chap turned out to be a CBE.
 
I feel OP's frustration, I don't mind a bit of idle chit chat but there comes a point where you'd literally rather be smashing you head against a wall rather than listen to another word :p.

I've always been a bit socially awkward and struggle a bit myself so may not be the best one to give advice but my strategies are:
  • If at a party or work social event or something then basically find any excuse to leave them (toilet, go outside to call gf, another drink, more food, etc) and then once I've accomplished the excuse try and get into a conversation with someone else as soon as possible to avoid drifting back together with the person I'm trying to get away from :cry:. Getting into a different conversation can be the hard bit for me if you don't know anyone else and they're all already in conversation though!
  • If just a casual encounter on the street, in a shop etc, then something along the lines of 'anyway, nice talking to you must be getting on / must let you get on / I need to be back home soon / etc'.
  • If it's someone in a social group of friends you can't really just leave, so have to try and turn the conversation towards a different topic to hopefully put the conversation monopoliser off their stride!
I have a family member who can be terrible for doing this, especially with new people they haven't met before they just go straight to droning on about one particular topic of great interest to them. I just hope it's not genetic and I've got enough awareness not to do it myself :o
 
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There’s a guy lives in our street who can bore for England, we do our best to avoid him if we see him, and a couple of neighbours say that they do the same.
On day maybe 20 years ago I was walking toward our house and I could see him trying to talk to my wife, who was sweeping leaves from our driveway.
I knew that she wasn’t his number one fan, and hoped that she was gritting her teeth and bearing it.
As I got close I heard him say that he didn’t agree with the proposed yellow lines that were going to be painted along the street, because parking could sometimes be a problem.
I knew that she welcomed them, as the council refuse truck sometimes couldn’t get to our end of the street due to parked cars, but I was a tad surprised, but quietly pleased, to hear her say, “So you don’t want yellow lines? Here’s 20p, call someone who cares.”
 
My colleagues and myself get customers who believe in every word that newspapers have. They are annoying and bore us.

Then get customers who moan about their refusal of using the self scans every time they come in. Yawn! We had them for 10 years now. We heard you ten years ago. We don’t want hear this from you again.
 
the worst are the ones who start telling you a story and then there’s maybe another five stories within the thing they started talking about, to the point you’ve almost forgot what the main story was about!
 
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