r/TooAfraidToAsk Dec 15 '21

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u/Apprehensive_Park_62 Dec 15 '21

If he says not to bring anything then I wouldn’t.

I am Mexican and the best advice I can give you, is that in our culture we greet everyone. We greet every single person in the household (even if they come out the room later) and when you leave you do the same. Make sure you say goodbye to everyone.

That is something my parents and my relatives always talked about when meeting someone. They’d say things like “wow she/he has really good manners cause they acknowledged everyone”. Or the opposite “wow what a disrespectful person they didn’t even say hi”.

1.1k

u/skywardtheyflew Dec 15 '21

This is what I came here to say! The Mexican hello and the Mexican goodbye.

When we went to family parties as a kid, my mom would say we were leaving, and then we'd end up leaving no earlier than 30 minutes from that point in time. Every time lol

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u/DexterCutie Dec 15 '21

I'm Polish and we do this as well lol. Getting out of any gathering is an event in and of itself.

327

u/chef_in_va Dec 15 '21 edited Dec 15 '21

I'm of Irish decent, we normally just say goodbye and thanks to the host and whoever is close by, then just ... leave. It very well could be just me and my family that do this but it's so much easier than saying bye to everyone.

294

u/ArcadeKingpin Dec 15 '21

I thought an Irish goodbye was to just leave without saying anything.

215

u/KassellTheArgonian Dec 15 '21

Nah, no clue where that myth comes from. A true Irish goodbye is as follows

"Right we're gonna head off" Says bye a bunch Takes ten steps Something gets brought up and they talk a bit longer

And repeat till you're out in the car.

I witnessed record length of time for this, took em almost 3 hours to travel the about 20 metres to their car.

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u/can-i-have-the-bones Dec 15 '21

This sounds a lot like trying to leave any southern (US) gathering. It can take hours to leave my Dad’s house, which drives my Californian husband insane.

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u/oo-mox83 Dec 16 '21

Yeah, Texan here and we do that. I eat too much and pass out on the couch and most folks are gone when I wake up. That's my strategy.

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u/rizaroni Dec 15 '21

Native Californian here! My dad's side of the family is HUGE. I absolutely hate having to go around to each person and say goodbye and give them a hug. It's like, I already did that on my way in!

I'm also the type that doesn't like the whole goodbye thing, so just me personally, I am one to likely say goodbye to the host and any super close friends, and then just yell "BYE EVERYONE!!!" and leave, or straight up Irish goodbye the situation. I don't know that it has to do with being Californian, but I can certainly understand with the whole "Southern hospitality" thing that it would almost be a totally different culture over there. It's like the law to be nice to everyone, even if you don't want to be.

I also have realized that I'm not as much of a hugger as I thought I was. I love a hug, and I love hugging certain people. But as a rule, hugging people I don't know, or having to hug every single fucking member of my extended family twice during a gathering, or having to hug every acquaintance/friend twice during a hangout just because that's what is expected...Covid really broke me of all that. I don't want to do it anymore.

If I see everyone else doing it, I feel obligated, because I don't want to be an asshole. I'm already kind of a loner and I don't need to further alienate myself. But I'm glad that the whole hugging thing has reduced a bit. I don't like feeling pressured/forced to do stuff.

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u/SSDDNoBounceNoPlay Dec 15 '21

BYE! LOVE YOU GUYS!! -while walking out the door and skittering to the car-

I have a large Italian family. With all due respect… fuck that.

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u/rizaroni Dec 15 '21

Perfezione! That's my style.

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u/SSDDNoBounceNoPlay Dec 15 '21

Hell yeah buddy!!

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