Pet peeves. Everyone has them and they vary greatly. I find it amusing how we train our own households to avoid our personal pet peeves, without really thinking about it. I think this training mainly comes from an attempt at harmony within a household. My brother doesn’t like it when I smoke while he is eating – even though it sometimes takes him hours to eat. He doesn’t say anything, but out of respect for his comfort I will go to another room to enjoy my after dinner cigarette, while he enjoys a second or third helping of dinner. Then we end up carrying a conversation across several rooms, which annoys me, but you can’t make all the people happy all of the time.
Variations in pet peeves became quite obvious during an extended visit with friends. Her kids use words and mannerisms that I broke my kids of because such behavior gets on my nerves, such as calling each other dorks, or putting each other down in other ways, even though they are just playing. My daughter used phrases that my friend thought was inappropriate. Although, when I was younger, we used to go camping in Hell, MI every summer so I see it as more of a geographic location as opposed to a mild cuss word.
One of my biggest pet peeves is having a cluttered kitchen counter. I don’t have much counter space in my kitchen and I just cannot function in a kitchen that I can’t find counter space for a work area. While my friend hates to have dishes stacked in her sink, so will stack them on the counter next to the sink instead.
I personally find it appalling when cats are on the kitchen counter, which may be linked to my cluttered counter pet peeve, while I know people who put their cat’s food dishes on the counter because they see it as unsanitary to have their cats eating from the floor.
What are your different pet peeves or other people’s pet peeves that might baffle you?
