Recently I've been involved with or have talked to people who have run into a "long goodbye" situation. Two nights ago we went to a family friend's house for dinner and two of their family members weren't there when we arrived. Twenty minutes later, they showed up and the wife told me, "we've been next door saying goodbye...for twenty minutes."
She said she wasn't accustomed to a goodbye and departure taking that long. She didn't say it with any frustration, just a difference in how people take their leave of each other. I'm more of the "see you, bye, <car door shuts>, <car drives away>, wave" type of person myself.
I would rather spend the time together not focusing on the leaving component of the visit. Is it manners that cause people to spend such a protracted amount of time on the good bye phase? Is it that they really hate to see the time end? Is it that they're not sure when they've been gracious or friendly enough to just turn and walk away?
If you're ever visiting me and you need to take your leave, know that I won't ever be upset when you say a sincere goodbye and then go your own way.
The Big Boy Update: "What number is that?" I asked my son as he looked at a big red button with the number three stamped on it. "Three," he said. I didn't know he knew the symbols. Was it a lucky guess? I will have to do more asking.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: Light switch infatuation. She loves to turn them on and off and look around to see what happened. Yesterday at my parent's house she found a switch she could reach and kept turning it on and off. As long as the lights on the stairs kept changing state, we didn't have to worry where she'd gone.
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