Cry Like A Baby
March 6, 2010 
5 Comments
It’s Saturday, March 6, 2010. Do you know where your children are?
I used to love those commercials as a kid. I’d be watching television, and then this stern voice would come on and say, “It’s 10pm. Do you know where your children are?”
I would always answer him and say, “My children? I haven’t even had sex yet!” So then I’d run upstairs, wake up my Mom and Dad, and say “I’m here, in case you were wondering.”
My Mom would say, “What makes you say that Son?” I’d tell her, “The scary man on Channel 11 always asks ‘It’s 10pm, do you know where your children are,’ so I’m just telling you I’m here.” Then they would thank me and go back to sleep on opposite sides of the bed.
I’ve learned that is a behavior you never want in a relationship. Think about it. “Goodnight Dear.” “What? I can’t hear you all the way over here on the other side of the bed. Oh…goodnight Babe.”
So you might be wondering where I am going with this blog, and why we are all crying like babies. I’m glad you asked, because I was losing track of my mind today.
Have you ever been to a party where every conversation that people are having around you made you feel like you were from another planet? You are wondering why you can’t feel how these people are feeling and why you can’t seem to connect with them.
The reason you feel this way is because you are in monkey chatter mode. Whenever you go to a party and people are talking about things in which you have no interest, what you do is get frustrated.
Instead of listening and enjoying the conversation, and waiting for something about which you do want to talk, you start crying like a baby in your head. You say to yourself, “Waaaaaaaaah, I can’t talk to these people!” or “Waaaaaaaah, I’m socially inept!”
In reality, though, this is one of the best times to grow socially. It gives you the opportunity to listen and to learn.
I guarantee that you’ll be at another party at which the same subject matters will come up in a conversation, except then you’ll have stuff to contribute because at the first party you listened and stopped crying like a baby in your head. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and start realizing that the more you learn, the better conversationalist you will become.
When you go home tonight after a night like this, and you’re laying in bed beating yourself up for not being able to impress anybody with your conversational skills, realize that you just learned things that you didn’t know before now. If you learned something during that evening then that, by itself, made it an amazing night.
so maybe we should change this whole thing to, “It’s 10pm, do you know where your monkey chatter is?” Have a great Saturday, and I’ll see you guys at the monkey cages at the children’s zoo tonight.
hahahaha! This is a funny and insightful topic today.
I’ve been doing this everyday and everytime with every conversation I encounter. But great blog nevertheless.
when I mean Everyday and everytime, I mean I listen and learn as David says here. Not cry like a baby every day.
Okay David,
All well & good what you said. Can’t really argue with it.
If you find a group of people you can identify with & respect and have some things in common with it’s easier. But realistically, it’s hard to connect with everyone and very often like at parties & bars/clubs,(which I hate quite honestly) I find the conversations I listen in on(when that’s even possible over all the loud ambient noise)often extremely shallow & trivial. I still find it difficult after all these years to stand around, sit around or lean around and chat(bullshit)about absolutely nothing of any importance for 8-12 hours straight. I’ll never understand how teenagers, and girls/women of any age for that matter can chatter nonstop on the phone at a million words per minute about nothing of any significance from sundown to sunup. With most girls aged 15-25 at least, their vocabulary consists at least 90% of the words “Like” , “Okay,” and “WhatEVER!” And the OMG phrase. Is the female gender even capable of carrying on a conversation about something more important than clothes, parties & Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse anymore?
Great article David, and on the right time, because I´ve just arrived home from a party in which I´ve finally met this awesome girl I´ve been talking to for a while.
And even though we didn´t had the greatest of conversations, because we were both tired, I´ve managed to leave the Monkey Chatter out and talk to her with no problem.
The only thing I think that I´ve failed to, was to close her in a good way, I was tired and that didn´t crossed my mind, but after it did. I know that I´m going off-topic here, but for you guys and David, how can I close this girl for example, the next time I meet her??
Anyways, great articles as always David!!
This is a great blog. I always feel sorry for Saturday blogs because they hardly ever get more than 4 or 5 comments.