Her friend forgot to hang up the phone after their chat, and Emily learned a lot more about her family than she ever bargained for
After I heard this tale from my friend, I completely changed my perspective on people, as did my husband. We started to spend less time with our acquaintances and shared far fewer details of our lives with others. Not that we stopped trusting them altogether were still on good terms but I now keep my personal life much closer to my chest. And all because of a rather cringeworthy incident that befell my friend and her husband.
They used to have some very close mates. The two couples had been friends for ages. The husbands worked together, the wives had studied at uni side by side. Eventually, her friend tied the knot and, a year later, welcomed a baby. She then introduced my friend to her husbands workmate, and lo and behold, they paired up too.
But then, her friends husband landed a much better job, and she did spectacularly well herself, getting a high-paying position. Slowly, the two couples saw less of each other. My friends mate ended up ping-ponging from one sick leave to another (understandable, as she had a parade of children in the meantime), which didnt exactly endear her to her bosses. Eventually, they found a flimsy excuse to give her the boot.
Her husband knuckled down at work, with four kids and a wife to provide for. Still, they werent doing badly they bought a big house and kept things ticking over at home. Their incomes eventually levelled out, though they were far from rolling in it.
The second couple, meanwhile, had no children and were carving out impressive careers, jetting off on frequent holidays and generally living the high life.
One lovely afternoon, my friend and her husband decided to invite these old pals to their cottage in the countryside. They thought it would be just the tonic for the urban hustle and bustle a bit of a barbecue, a dip in the brook, a stroll through the woods. The weather was splendid, too. My friend rang up her old university mate, who was over the moon but said shed check things with her husband and call back.
Well, she set her mobile down on the kitchen table and failed to hang up. And thats when my friend got an earful, discovering more about what her mates *really* thought of her and the family lets just say she was floored.
Turns out, these so-called friends reckoned my friend and her husband were dimwits who hadnt a clue about life. According to their expert analysis, having four children had left them scraping by from paycheque to paycheque. Their big house was apparently a crumbling hovel not fit for polite company. The children were unruly, and as for having a small tribe of them well, half of them belonged in foster care. My friend herself was, they said, a bore who could only talk about her offspring.
Her husband, apparently, was a boorish lout with nothing interesting to say about as fun as a wet weekend in Blackpool. Soon after, the line finally went dead, leaving my friend and her husband in total shock, tempted to barge over and give these two a piece of their minds. But just then the phone rang again it was her friends husband, confirming theyd pop round at the weekend. Her own husband replied rather stiffly and hung up.
They talked it all over and decided to play it cool and see what happened when the friends arrived. When the weekend came, their guests rolled in with a basket of budget chutney and equally unimpressive sweets for the children. Without missing a beat, the visiting husband said:
So, you must be on a shoestring, judging by these bargains. Well, never mind! Weve laid on quite the feast for you. Fill your boots well have you help out after, theres plenty to do.
My friend and her husband sat in stunned silence as his wife pitched in:
So, you two still dont have kids?
Were in no rush, really. Plenty of time for that later, my friends old uni mate replied breezily.
Of course! Only plebs have children. The clever ones know to live for themselves, she declared, radiating self-satisfaction.
At that, the shock was palpable. It was glaringly obvious that their friends knew everythingbut they didnt have the foggiest idea how. So, rather than trudge through the evening, they concocted a perfectly polite excuse to see their friends out the door as swiftly as possible.
What do you make of all this? Did the couple handle it well? Should they have been warmer hosts, or perhaps less polite? What would you have done in their place?
