[justjim]

A Community like The Villages is an interesting place. Residents come from many different parts of the country with background and experience that can be shared and make our lives more interesting and knowledgable. I have met a lot of people here just like that. However, I have met some who would rather talk about kids, grand kids and dogs/cats. Yeah, that can be a bit boring sometimes. I know you want to say “can’t you talk about something else part of the time”?

OP, that said, I’m thinking that maybe there should be a social club for residents who don’t have kids or grandkids. There are several hundred clubs in The Villages but I don’t know of such a club. “Birds of the same feathers flock together”. BTW we consider ourselves fortunate to have four talented grandchildren.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

This a post that I will just have to bite my tongue and ignore.

Will tend to not want to be around people who do not share similar interests.

[Velvet]

Dale Carnegie said the secret of making friends and influencing people is to talk about what the other person wants to hear.

[frayedends]

Originally Posted by Velvet

Dale Carnegie said the secret of making friends and influencing people is to talk about what the other person wants to hear.

It seems to me the topic of this thread is directed toward small talk with new people. I guess I have to assume these folks don't want to make friends.

What I try to do (although I'm not always successful) is to listen more. We so often get caught up in conversations where, instead of listening, we are thinking about what we want to say next. Instead try to listen. Then when you hit it off with someone and make a friend, listen more. And while empathizing with their failures/troubles is a good thing, it is more important to celebrate their victories with them. That might just include their grandkids victories.

[coffeebean]

Originally Posted by shut the front door

You are not just dreaming it up. I can't count the number of times I've been bombarded with stories and pictures of grands by total strangers! I was in a waiting room this week and a woman sat down next to me and immediately started babbling on and on about her grandkids. She expected me to be in awe of the endless pictures she kept shoving under my nose. I finally had to fake a phone call and move away from her.

Seriously? Who does that to a stranger? I'm talking about the woman who bombarded you with photos of her grandkids. (not you with the fake phone call).

[coffeebean]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Erggggg, you hit a major sore spot. The combination of grandkids and my wife are the primary reason I am not able to spend nearly as much time as I would prefer at our Villages home. What is it with women and the need to constantly be around the kids? To make matters worse, the children keep pumping out the little rug rats like the are friggin pez dispensers. And why can’t they all be born on the same day so we don’t have to go to a dam birthday party almost every frikin month of the year? I’m getting tired of the hassle, time, and expense of traveling between our homes because of grandkids. HUMBUG!

Would Facetime suffice? Silly question. I guess not. Answered my own question.

[coffeebean]

Originally Posted by Ecuadog

My mother would call them "organ recitals".

Ecuadog.....who is the latest celebrity in your avatar photo. I KNOW his face but cannot place the name.

[Ecuadog]

Originally Posted by coffeebean

Ecuadog.....who is the latest celebrity in your avatar photo. I KNOW his face but cannot place the name.

Today, it was Arnold Stang.

Arnold Stang video... click here.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

I have little interest in kids, on a personal level. If you tell me your grandchild graduated high school and got a full 4-year academic scholarship to MIT, and is already working on her first thesis on the cure for cancer, I'm all ears. If Jimbob Junior has been encountering bullies in 5th grade because he has two moms, I'll help you empathize for your daughter's family and maybe even bake some rainbow sprinkled cookies for your birthday as a gesture of solidarity.

I frankly don't give a crap how cute she is, or how nicely he shares with his siblings, or how far each of the twins threw the baseball at their Kiddie League game last week. I care about how children become adults, not what antics they get into. If you show me pictures I'll eventually just zone out. If you can tear your own eyes from your cell phone photo gallery you'll notice that mine have glossed over and my face has a distant expression on it. As if I were fantasizing about weeding my garden, which would be infinitely more interesting than Susie's new onesies.

[CFrance]

I usually end up mentioning that our four- and seven-year-old grandchildren are feral. It's a conversation stopper.

[patfla06]

We talk about our kids and grands because they’re important to us.
At 3 & 6 years old, I’m certainly not bragging about their accomplishments.

If you want to talk about BORING, talking about your golf game has
to top the list.

[kendi]

Originally Posted by BigSteph

I understand what you are saying.

The problem with this post is that the reader will personalize what you said and may be offended. If you have kids and grandkids, it will probably offend you.

I think the answer to your question/assertion is that people are proud of their kids and grandkids.

My wife and I decided not to have children. When we gather with others, especially when people are lubricated, they talk with less inhibition about the things that interest them.

I have experienced what you have experienced. People tend to want to talk about how special, in some way, their children and grand children are. I get it, they are proud, and this person is important to them.

Some people love small talk. I like it for a few minutes. If you are going to be social it is just something you that will be part of the conversation -- like taxes, aches and pains, golf swings, those other political people, and children.

It is what it is.

No offense taken. Most understand it can get old hearing about the same subject over and over no matter the content.

[Ele201]

Bragging about anything, going on and on, especially to people you don’t know well, is in bad taste and gets monotonous. And it’s not just grandkids.

For example, someone’s on a new diet and can’t stop talking about it. My husband has a friend who presented us with a photo album filled with pictures of every room in her new house. After the third page, I stopped with the “ooh’s and ahh’s.” Who cares?

[RoadToad]

"Great minds discuss ideas;
average minds discuss events;
small minds discuss people." -
- Eleanor Roosevelt.

Maybe there could be a loofa for "Don't mention grandkids" or invest in t-shirts that say the same? There is a reason T V is called the "friendliest" town. Thinking the Founders of T V would certainly tell people about their grandkids. There is always that fake call. Move AWAY... VERY far away.

San Diego 1987, just stepped back on US soil from a tour in the Philippines with our then 9 month old baby girl. She was so cute, best baby ever, kept us up at night... oops, my apologies, squirrel...

In the PI they adored kids! You could eat at a restaurant and the girls would hold your baby for you.

Fast forward back to San Diego.

We were walking on the pier and a guy walks by. Makes a fake gun w his hand gesture shooting our baby in the head. We wanted right then to go back to the PI. WHERE WERE WE, what country were we in?

Feel free to walk away from lowly time wasting convo about precious humans. Yes, create a club, pick a loofa color.

Btw, I have 4 amazing grandkids now. And I have 4 amazing grand-fur babies. Which would you like to hear about?

Great, a chair just opened up for someone else to sit in...