How upset would you be if someone said you were boring!

Chestnut I mean adults repeatedly telling other adults the same stories from their past.
Children love to hear things over and over, that is different.

We have a few friends who can be boring. If out for a meal with them we try not to sit near them. One in particular turns every conversation into something similar he has experienced. Being hard of hearing, he speaks over everyone else. . Sometimes we just have to carry on talking and hope he takes the hint

NotAGran55 I do tell my grandchildren stories from the past but they always seem quite interested! In fact they have been known to quote the story back to me or ask me to tell it again later on, so it can't be that boring. I always make the story 'child friendly' so it's something they can relate to.

I become boring if I’m with people I dont like or don’t know, but get me next to someone who has the same interests as me and all is well.

I don’t think people are boring, it is the subject matter in many cases that they talk about endlessly .
Old stories from the past , health problems which we know about and don’t need reminding of daily ....etc etc

My boyfriend, although very nice and easy-going, can be very boring. He either talks about football or how many varieties of
potatoes he has grown. I change the subject as soon as I can.

I’m a teacher. I suspect a fair proportion of my students would call me boring if they dared. I’m everyone’s favourite teacher on exam results day, though.

The most boring woman I even knew was a near neighbour who often stopped me for a chat when she saw me at the weekend. She was a nice lady but she bored the pants off me by talking about her son who had emigrated for a brilliant job in New Zealand. I used to let her talk for a while then find a reason to disappear.

Just before I moved another neighbour told me that her DH had died of cancer a few years earlier and her son had died in NZ in a car accident some 20 years before. Left me feeling bad that I had never found some time for her but glad that I had let her talk so much and stayed friendly.

The thing is we don’t really want to meet up with her because we can’t have a chat together. It’s been a long time since we’ve met up. We want to enjoy it. She turns everything into the thing she wants to talk about.

And in the weekly phone call I have with her she’s been saying that other people only phone her now and again. I said soothing things like oh none of us have got anything to talk about anymore. But would it be kinder in the long run to say - I don’t know how to put it- it’s because you only want to talk about X?

I am more of a listener and interested in what people have to say. I hope I am not boring but probably am sometimes.

I can’t say that I’ve come across many out-and-out boring people, although we did start avoiding neighbours, the chap who constantly told us about how he learned to rewire a house from a book and his wife who only ever talked about their daughter. The two other daughters never got a look in. Luckily, they eventually migrated to Australia.

I find certain topics boring, namely golf, curling and horses. I can feel my eyes glazing over when they come up.

I have never been told I am boring I know it wouldn’t be said directly to me. I don’t think anyone who knows me would be that rude. It’s about tolerance isn’t really if there isn’t a lot going on in someone’s life it could make them boring. But they don’t deserve to be told that would be very hurtful.

I had a neighbour who would come over for coffee and talk non-stop for an hour about her family in America and how awful they were, people I'd never met. She wouldn't pause for breath so you couldn't change the subject. Now that is boring!

Older people who talk endlessly about every detail of their medical problems and nothing else. Now that is boring!

I can tolerate most chit chat however trivial, but the key to being popular is to find their hot button. What are they really interested in? If you find that and then ask them lots of questions about it they will go away thinking what a wonderful, interesting person you are!

I worry ( a lot) that people may find DGS’s conversation difficult ( boring ?) as he grows older. He is on the Autistic Spectrum and so has passions, mainly maths and astronomy, that he can talk about at huge length , and be unable to pick up on when someone has lost interest. He is only 5 so maybe this will be a skill he can learn in later life, or , when he finds his ‘tribe’ he’ll be able to talk to his hearts vontent.

No one has ever said that to me,and tbh it wouldn`t bother me if someone did because i know i`m not.

I have no doubt I am boring to those who don't know me well - can't do small talk to save my life, have zero interest in most of the things that seem to be so interesting to many people, and since being on GN have stopped asking people questions about themselves because it is seen by so many as nosey. Fortunately every now and again I meet someone I have lots in common with that I click with who don't appear to find me boring.

Having said that, who cares if people you are not interested in find you boring?

My next door neighbour can only talk about herself. She never wants to know what I'm doing or where I've been. Sometimes I ask her a question and it's as if I haven't spoken. She just carries right on with what she's talking about! I just let her prattle because I know she's lonely and just probably glad of a chance to talk.

As I get older I even bore myself by recycling the same old anecdotes. I hear myself saying to people "Sorry, I think I've told you this before...." then launching straight into some saga regardless. Nobody's told me I'm boring yet but I bet they think it.

Sometimes I'm the boree. I discuss books we've read with one friend. She has amazing powers of recall and will regurgitate the contents of a book for at least an hour unless interrupted. Her secret is to take breaths mid-sentence so that I can't get a word in edgeways. I retaliate by faking a coughing fit or jumping up to visit the loo!

oh yes, dieting, her cat and her house, soooo boring is the girl from work

I've just set some dates to meet up for lunches with friends for the first time since lockdown. I'm already worrying about being boring because I've not done anything worth mentioning. I don't think I used to be boring but now?
Years ago a friend told me that her husband thought I was very 'refreshing' in conversation. I'm still pondering that.

I'd be really upset if someone told me that although I suspect they might have a point. I actually think it would be mean to say that they were boring. There are other ways of dealing with something like this which are kinder.

What is really boring is when someone's conversation is basically a monologue so there is little opportunity to steer the conversation round to another topic. I call my sister, who lives abroad, to make sure she's OK but I always have a magazine to hand to keep me interested whilst she drones on, usually about her health! She's the same face to face. She just doesn't pick up the body language or verbal cues. I am never boring though!

I would never say to someone’s face that they were boring, but would probably try and avoid them if it were a regular occurrence.

I’m sure we all bore others occasionally, you sometimes realise they have glazed over or are looking over your left shoulder for an excuse to get away. Hopefully not too often !

Yes, afraid so.
I don’t mean to be rude to you Peasblossom but do we - all of us - become less tolerant of things as we age?
I think I do.

As FIL got older he lapsed into war memories more and more just like the uncle in 'Only Fools and Horses'. He was totally deaf so couldn't hear if anyone changed the subject, or joined in!
We also used to have a neighbour who would always repeat herself. On one occasion my youngest piped up 'You've already told us that'. Her reply was 'Well now I'm telling you again'.
In answer to the OP - well I think I'm boring so I can't get annoyed if anyone agrees!