Your comfort zone vs social etiquette

The neighbor’s kid has been hanging out with my son since his return from vacation. Which is good for my son. You know, socialization, bonding, learning boundaries and respect, etc. all that snazzy stuff that comes with human interaction.

So my daughter mentioned to me: “ You should have a glass of wine with his mother, you know..?”

Uhm, no. I don’t know. I laughed out loud and said just that to her. Her comeback was I should come out of my comfort zone. Yes dahlin, this is not about my comfort zone. This is about social etiquette. I can assure you, I can put forth all the effort it takes to display social etiquette. I simply choose not to because I don’t want to. I want to do other things. In life. In doing the things I want to is where I expand myself and come out of my comfort zone. Besides the fact that my daily life, interacting with all kinds of people, pushes me out of my comfort zone in any given moment.

I stopped conforming a long time ago. Or maybe I never quite did. It may be distantly related to the fact that I was raised by a father who informed me at around age 8 that there is no need to greet people with a hello since everyone is an a@$hole. So I have heard comments made to me before such as ” I wouldn’t want to take you out in public” or “ Did you forget to take your medicine today?”. All in “humor” of course. Again dahlin, no, I don’t find those (snide) remarks amusing, and it only shows how the person making the comment views me and their world. I have never associated myself outside of a cordial forum with anyone who has ever made any such comments to me. What am I supposed to be to someone? A well-trained pet that knows how to act in public?

I choose to spend myself on and with people with whom I connect. I don’t require anything else. I can easily be immaculate with my social etiquette and waste my limited daily energy ( physical, emotional, spiritual) in social settings that have absolutely nothing to do with my growth. Those matter of formality kind of encounters for the socialization process and nothing beyond that. It’s just not my thing. It never has been.