Published on 12, July, 2020
I've realised that people prefer it if I start with pleasantries, not just going straight to the point of what I want to say.
e.g. just now I went to get my recycling bin after it had been emptied. At least I thought it was my bin. I saw my neighbour getting into his car so I called 'is this my bin?' He looked blankly at me and said, 'hello, how are you? Haven't seen you for a while.' I was confused, I needed to know if that bin was mine or his. He was confused because he hadn't seen me for a while and wanted to say hello, not talk about bins.
Then it dawned on me, ta dahhhhhhhhhh! I should have said 'hello how are you?' Before launching into the questions about the bin.
I like to get straight to the point, never mind chit chat. Most humans prefer the chit chat first.
I hope this has been helpful
That is a helpful tip for future interactions with neighbours. Do you find it difficult to talk to neighbours generally? Or just the 'getting straight to the point' part of the conversation?
Are you replying to me? I'm learning to be friendly towards my neighbours, generally because I need them. When bad things happen, we need people around us to support us. People on the internet aren't any good because they are miles away.
e.g. when a man drove his car into my fence and broke it, my neighbours rushed out of their houses to defend me.
Generally I'm good at surface level conversations with people...it's just I can't get to the 'being friends with people' stage.
Yeah I'm replying to you :) That's great that you have such supportive neighbours! I can empathise that getting to the 'being friends with people' stage is difficult. My parents are very natural at talking with our neighbours whereas I struggle to interact with them. I'm honestly better at interacting with the neighbour's cats than with the people. But I'm hoping to improve my surface level conversation skills, then I can hope to interact with most neighbours I have in the future.
They don't betray you, and you always know where you stand with cats.
I've worked hard to make friends with them e.g. sending Christmas and Easter cards every year. Remembering their names and details about them. I'm not close friends but we always say hi and have a chat.
Being isolated is so bad for humans.
If you interact well with neighbours' pets, that's half the battle. The neighbours will trust you.
You're very right!
same goes for other animals, and us compared with NTs.
it's because we start interaction with open credit, we don't require others to prove themselves first. it's works only until you get hurt, same with animals. NTs until you prove your worth don't care much about you, and would hurt you without blinking twice.
cats after initial introduction come to me on their own later :P