Things We Do That Annoy Our Family

Mara here: I'm sure many people are annoyed by some of the things I do. Still, all of us have a particular gift of being able to annoy the people we're closest too. And I am fully willing to admit that I am an annoying person to live with. But in fairness to me, all the things I do make sense to me inside my own brain. I just sometimes forget that they don't make sense to people who aren't inside my brain.

And, even when I do manage to correct an irritating behavior (like leaving half-finished Diet Coke cans everywhere), a new one pops up to fill the void.

So confession time...what do you do that your family finds irritating? 

Here are what I believe are my current top three irritating behaviors:

1. I throw things away. 

I like to keep things tidy. I'm not a person who has to have things impeccably clean, but when I go into cleaning mode, then things simply have to be cleaned. This means that if something gets left around for too long I might just throw it away. Or I'll have a cleaning mood and go through and purge boxes out of the garage that I feel have been sitting around for too long. 

Unfortunately, inevitably I throw something away that someone needed, like library books or the title to a car. Then they get really irritated with me. 

2. I'm obsessive about punctuality.

I don't like to be late. In fact, I worry about being late so much that I am always ready to leave at least 10 minutes early. This leaves me sitting around waiting for my family to be ready and asking them over and over if they will be ready on time. They find this annoying. And my daughter finds it really annoying that we always arrive everywhere early.  But we live in LA where it's impossible to know how long it will take to get anywhere. If you aren't early, you're probably late. Being late gives me hives...so I'm always early.

3. I think Mount Rushmore is in West Virginia.

I really want to see Mount Rushmore. But for some reason I think it's in West Virginia. My husband used to think it was funny, but now he just gets irritated that I ask him how far West Virginia is from places because he knows that the reason I'm asking is so I can figure out if we can make a side trip to Mount Rushmore, but since Mount Rushmore is actually in South Dakota, it doesn't matter how close anything is to West Virginia. 

And if you're thinking maybe my husband shouldn't be irritated, just image your wife of 20 years asking you about West Virginia every other month of your life when you know she means South Dakota and see if you would manage to not be irritated.

And now, Toni's turn:

1. I repeat myself. 

For some reason, I always assume that whomever I'm talking to in my family hasn't quite understood what I meant by what I just said. And so, although I know it drives them crazy, I often repeat a point I'm making again (and again and again). It's not that I've forgotten that I made the point...I just want to be sure they get it. 

2. I send texts that are way too long.

I use texting as if I'm on the phone or sending an note via email. Unfortunately for me, it appears that texts are supposed to be short. Unfortunately for my family, I ignore this unwritten rule. I think this happens partly because I text from my laptop instead of from a smart phone, so it's much easier to just keep typing, putting in as much detail as I want. But I forget that they're usually reading the text on their smart phones...and would prefer just a sentence or two. Oh, and I still don't use texting abbreviations like "u" for you.

3. I'm always asking someone to bring me something.

Mara says that when she was young, I constantly asked her to bring me my purse. I'm not surprised. Since it's only me and my husband in our house now, he's the one who's constantly being asked to bring me things. Poor guy.

P.S. I'm sure there are many more things I do that annoy my family. You'll have to ask them what they are though!