Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Warning: Rant Ahead


There are a couple phrases that really irritate me beyond believe. Two of them are, "In all do respect," and "No offense...."

They seem like excuses for the speaker to say whatever he or she wants to say without getting in trouble because the statement was prefaced with "no offense....."

If you are concerned that what you are saying is going to offend me, and you don't want to have a dialog with me if I am offended, then don't say it.

Those are NOT magic words that take away any hurt feelings or pointed fingers. They do NOT soften the blow. In fact, they often make things worse. They make it so that I'm prepared to be offended or disrespected.

Very, very rarely can someone start at statement out with either of those two phrases and I am not upset, hurt, distraught, offended, etc.

No offense, but I think your hair is ugly today.
No offense, but your breath stinks.
No offense, but you're wrong in what you think and how you raise your child.

The third one is the gist of the statement I got today.
Basically I was told that I am overprotective, silly, my doctor is wrong, and I don't need to listen to him. And I'm supposed to be OK with being told all this because it was all prefaced with, "In all due respect."

Ummm ... telling me that I'm overprotective in raising my daughter is disrespectful. Telling me that my doctor is wrong without knowing my doctor is disrespectful.

GRRRRRR..........

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