Overheard my neighbor telling his kid "I was wrong and I'm sorry" after a fight about a broken window and it hit me how rare that is

I realized last night that I've been avoiding a tough conversation with my coworker about her taking credit for my idea not because I'm scared of conflict but because I've never actually practiced owning up to my own mistakes first, has anyone else found that apologizing openly makes the next hard talk way easier?

2 comments

2 Comments

johnb956d ago

That neighbor moment reminds me how we treat apologies like weakness when they're actually the shortcut to trust. I've noticed most people are just waiting for someone else to go first.

jana_price5d ago

Is it just me or does that "waiting for someone else to go first" thing show up in the dumbest places too? Like yesterday I was at the grocery store and this guy's cart was blocking the whole aisle, and nobody would say anything for like five minutes. We were all just standing there pretending to look at cereal boxes. Johnb95 is totally right though, once somebody breaks the ice it's like a switch flips. I remember my neighbor and I had this dumb feud over a fence for three years, and then one day I just apologized first for my part in it, and we ended up having coffee that same week. People forget that an apology isn't about being wrong, it's about giving a crap about the relationship.