Hey everyone, I have a Miss Manners type of question and would like your honest input. Here’s the situation, I am about to be going on a 9-10 hour car ride with my brother in law, he is driving me from the DFW area across Texas to my home, he is coming to stay with us to decide whether or not he would like to live out there. Here is the quandry, I know we will not be talking solidly for the whole time, I’m not much of a talker and neither is he, oh we will talk, just not the whole time. I have a MP3 player, I don’t listen to music on it, I listen to talk shows that I have downloaded, things that I’m pretty sure he would have no interest in listening to, would it be rude to pop in my earbuds and listen to my MP3 player while we are traveling? I don’t want to exclude him or make him feel like he is interrupting something if he wants to talk, at the same time, it’s a very long drive and there will be gaps of time, where there will most likely be little chit chat and I would like to catch up on some of my shows. It’s funny, I would have no problem reading a book or working in my Sudoku puzzle book, but I can’t do that while riding in a car, it makes me nauseated. So what do you think? How would you feel if you were on a long car trip and your passenger was listening to their MP3 player with headphones, would it bother you?
I suppose I’ll just play it by ear (pun intended) and see what happens, I’ll have my MP3 player ready, I have no idea how much chit chat will be going on, and if there are long pauses and it’s clear we will not be chatting, then maybe I’ll just ask if he minds if I listen with the understanding that I can turn it off any time…
Wretha
4 Responses
rlrueter, Nope, wouldn’t have worked, there is no way he would want to listen to what I listen to. :)
Wretha
Well, everything turned out OK, I had my mp3 player ready, but I never had the chance to even think about using it, we TALKED nearly the whole time, about a variety of things, interesting things. I have known my BIL since ’99, but we have never really sat down and talked for more than a few minutes. I have always considered him an intelligent person, but never had the chance to really talk to him for any length of time.
I want to thank everyone who gave advice/opinions about this, fortunately I really didn’t have to worry about it.
Wretha
Get a set of ipod speakers and let him listen too.
if the conversations are over, i would just say, “hey, i gonna listen to some music for a bit, if ya need something, holler.”, or whatever. Being a guy, i know i would welcome the end to an time of uncomfortable silence.