When you aren't interested in a certain area...

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Miyah
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13 Mar 2010, 4:51 pm

I have a friend who is a lower functioning than I am and she still lives with her parents and used to work in a sheltered work shop. Anyway, she keeps begging me to go camping with her and her family but I told her no since camping is not one of my interests yet she can't seem to get it through her head. She says things like, "But why don't you like camping?" I have tried telling her that it's just not one of my many interests.

What do I do?



League_Girl
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13 Mar 2010, 5:53 pm

Ignore her.

No wait, ask her to do something with you you enjoy doing and if she says no, ask her the same thing and keep doing it to her and then tell her "See how it feels when you keep asking me to go camping?" Maybe that will teach her.



Miyah
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13 Mar 2010, 6:00 pm

Thanks, because she kept asking me to get together with her over Memorial Day Weekend and I had already said no. I always have something that I like to do in Atlanta every year which included going to an arts fest. Yet, she keeps whining at me to come when I really don't want to since camping isn't really up my alley.

Otherwise, I love this girl to death it's just that I feel like she needs to learn that not everyone is going to like what she likes.



ursaminor
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13 Mar 2010, 7:13 pm

It is probably important that you say this is how you feel when she wants you to go camping, because I doubt she will be able to understand it without being explicitly told.



sefer
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13 Mar 2010, 9:32 pm

What's not to like about camping? :(



ebec11
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13 Mar 2010, 11:49 pm

sefer wrote:
What's not to like about camping? :(
As a girly girl myself, I can understand not wanting to camp. Some people are into it, but some people aren't. Be blunt with her, the truth stings a little but she needs to learn this. What if you weren't as understanding and she lost out on a friendship because of that?



Miyah
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14 Mar 2010, 11:52 am

ebec11 wrote:
sefer wrote:
What's not to like about camping? :(
As a girly girl myself, I can understand not wanting to camp. Some people are into it, but some people aren't. Be blunt with her, the truth stings a little but she needs to learn this. What if you weren't as understanding and she lost out on a friendship because of that?



I don't want to loose her over not being interested in camping because I have other interests with her that we both like. However, emotionally, she is a little kid who doesn't quite grasp the fact that grown-ups have and share different interests.



Janissy
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14 Mar 2010, 3:24 pm

Part of being a friend is making compromises. Here is a suggested compromise: rather than actually camping, why not come visit her when she is at the campground. Spend a couple hours there and then drive back home.



auntblabby
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15 Mar 2010, 5:51 am

sometimes friendship entails stepping out of one's comfort zone, just to be kind.



Keeno
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15 Mar 2010, 11:38 am

I have the same struggle because of my lack of knowledge especially regarding films/actors/music/TV/anything else to do with showbiz - which seems to make up a great deal of people's conversation. But because it does, I'm effectively ruled out of huge chunks of conversations. I don't really know what to do about it.



Taupey
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15 Mar 2010, 6:22 pm

If I do not want to do something that someone keeps insisting I do, I just will not do it. Maybe you could suggest doing something special with her that you both like to do instead of doing something you just do not want to do.