Too Much Information

I've been working for the past few years to be more guarded with the information I disclose. I actually do well on my blog and keep personal things to a minimum, but I still have some issues with e-mail. I sometimes disclose too much personal information via e-mail. Since I'm so very busy, I have little time for personal e-mails, so there isn't much chance that I will say too much. Recently however, I think I shared too much information to a new acquaintance and may have made them feel uncomfortable.

I hope not. But if I did, I apologize.

I inherited this tendency to blab from my dear mother. The pastor of my youth (we were involved in a cult-like situation when I was young) was a firm believer in the Code of Silence and my mother was often harshly chastised for freely sharing personal information. "I could NOT believe what your mother did today! She told a lady in her doctor's office that she..." I personally couldn't see what the big deal was. If my mom chose to share personal information, that was her choice. It's not like she was giving the stranger her social security number and checking account information. It was probably something like my mom was pregnant with her sixth child and asked the other lady about her pregnancy and the lady said this was her first and my mom probably said something like, "Oh, I remember my first pregnancy. I lost the baby weight fairly quickly, I think it is because I breastfed my daughter. I didn't breastfeed my second daughter and it took me a lot longer to lose the weight."

In my teens I lived with our pastor and I was soon to discover that much of her reason for practicing the Code of Silence were because she had financial problems. More than once we moved during the middle of the night because she had been unable to pay the rent for several months. Back in the "olden days" you could call up the local phone company and have them turn on the phone with just your name (any old name you might come up with, I might add) and address and voila. That was another thing that happened, she had the electricity and phone turned on in different names each time because she hadn't made the payments. I was asked to call the utility companies and lie about why we needed to have the service remain on for one more day. Once she made me practice crying and saying that I was home alone with my baby brothers and my parents were in another state for some important reason. One time a man walked up and asked, Does Mrs. So and So live here?" I answered, "Yes" and he handed me an envelope. I ran in to give it to Mrs. So and So and then we found out it was legal material and she had just be served. OH, did I get in big trouble for that little bit of honesty! How was I supposed to know? How could I have known?

I don't really like the Code of Silence anyway. But I realize that there is a time and a place and disclosing personal life information to brand new acquaintances can be overwhelming.

I will continue working on that blabbing thing.

Until next time.