Lately I've been doing a lot of gossiping, and I can't stand myself for it. There's nothing worse than a gossip. It started when my girls were a couple of months old, and it was a terrible winter so I was shut in my house with little adult communication during the day except via telephone, and any information gleaned from a phone call was front-page news to me. Luckily, I realize what I'm doing when I gossip and that's half the battle.
I think I'm particularly cognisant of gossip because it's not something I heard too often as a child. I never heard my own mother utter a word about another person unless it was relevant in some way. In retrospect, I was always able to keep other people's secrets, I considered that part of being a good friend.
I once read something that said people who talk about other people are uninteresting themselves, and interesting people talk about events, topics, interesting things. I'd truly become a bore with nothing to talk about other than other people's news and baby-stuff. I can't make it through an entire novel, newspaper, or news program without being interrupted. I don't go to the movies, theater, or concerts. I barely even go shopping anymore!
Things I am able to do regularly is go out to dinner with my husband and friends, lunches out because my children love to eat at restaurants (for now), go on many walks, find and cook new recipes, and do my best at raising two little girls, which brings to another reason why I don't want to be a gossip.
It seems that children and young adults are becoming mean. This winter there were headlines about teens and/or tweens harassing classmates on Facebook, MySpace, sending mass text messages trying to destroy reputations, and clearly causing a lot of anguish. If memory serves, I think there was at least one case that resulted in group violence against one young girl. I'm concerned that this mean spirit is coming from their mothers. Children learn what they see and hear, and I'll bet there were some pretty gossip-y, unkind, sarcastic, and cruel mothers who never curbed their behavior in front of their children.
So I'm attempting to put an end to unnecessary talk about others so that I can regain some self-respect and set a good example for my daughters. I don't know if I'll be 100% successful, but it's worth a try. I plan on retaining the guilty pleasure of watching the show Gossip Girl because I can't quit gossip cold turkey.
