How Get Out of Awkward Situations

There are occasions in our minds we wish we could forget. For the most part, these are awkward occasions where you aren’t really sure how to act, or what to say, and nothing you do seems to ease the awkwardness of the situation. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to make some situations a little less awkward and a lot more bearable – even if that means simply removing yourself from these awkward situations.

Boring Conversations

If you get stuck conversing with someone boring, or someone who just isn’t your cup of tea during any social gathering, you may find yourself wishing for an escape route. Fortunately, you have one. To be polite, give the bore three to four minutes of your time so as not to come off rude, and then make an excuse to get away. You need to help the hostess with something, or use the restroom, or eat, or get a new drink. Just be sure to do what you say you’re going to do so you don’t offend the bore.

An Unanswerable Question

Nothing more embarrassing than being asked a question you don’t know the answer to. In this situation, you have two choices. You can tell the person asking the question that you think it’s a great question, but that you’d like more time to research possible answers. Or, you can employ a different tactic, which is diversion. When someone asks you something you cannot answer simply say, “That is a really great question, but an even better question is….” and ask a question you do know the answer to.

The Same Story Twice – Or More

My mom is bad about this; she likes to tell the same stories over and over again, and we all want to just roll our eyes and ask her to please stop torturing us with stories that were not even that interesting the first 10 times we heard them. However, in the interest of not being rude, we will politely interrupt her and say something like, “Oh yes! When we talked about this last week, it reminded me that….” and move on into a related subject.