How do you respond to being ignored?

[Anonymous]

In any area of life, personal or professional. What strategies are effective? Especially when you can’t just walk away from the interaction/relationship, such as business partner or kid’s teacher.

[Anonymous]

I wish I knew. There is a mom I have to see frequently who does this to me a few times a year. I can’t wait until our kids aren’t on the same team and I can say bye biatch.

[Anonymous]

Do you guys mean like, in the moment someone is ignoring you? Or like, you feel they disregarded your opinion on something?

I honestly can’t recall feeling ignored by anyone I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys mean like, in the moment someone is ignoring you? Or like, you feel they disregarded your opinion on something?

I mean like when people literally don’t respond to something you ask them. Like, emailing a business partner or kid’s teacher, or sending a text to a kid’s team member’s parent and they don’t respond and it’s about something that affects your kid. Things like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In any area of life, personal or professional. What strategies are effective? Especially when you can’t just walk away from the interaction/relationship, such as business partner or kid’s teacher.

I ask myself why I need so much attention

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In any area of life, personal or professional. What strategies are effective? Especially when you can’t just walk away from the interaction/relationship, such as business partner or kid’s teacher.

I ask myself why I need so much attention

Good for you. I don’t need so much attention. I need people to let me know if they’re in the carpool or not. Please don’t write shamey responses. I’m a widow and not doing well at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In any area of life, personal or professional. What strategies are effective? Especially when you can’t just walk away from the interaction/relationship, such as business partner or kid’s teacher.

I ask myself why I need so much attention

Good for you. I don’t need so much attention. I need people to let me know if they’re in the carpool or not. Please don’t write shamey responses. I’m a widow and not doing well at all.

No response = no. If they are ignoring your request about carpool, move on without them. If they come back to you say sorry you didn’t respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In any area of life, personal or professional. What strategies are effective? Especially when you can’t just walk away from the interaction/relationship, such as business partner or kid’s teacher.

I ask myself why I need so much attention

Good for you. I don’t need so much attention. I need people to let me know if they’re in the carpool or not. Please don’t write shamey responses. I’m a widow and not doing well at all.

I'm sorry for your loss.

If it's an "are you in / do you have input" kind of thing, I give them a "Hey, I haven't heard from you so I'll assume you have other plans" kind of communication and then I move on.

If it's being actually ignored in person, I ignore the fact I'm being ignored. My mean-girl neighbor, whose kid is in my kid's class, will not speak to me. I smile and say hi every time I see her, because anything else would acknowledge whatever power trip she's on.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. These are helpful. What about the teacher who won’t respond to my emails asking about my kids? Do you just forward to the head of school after 24 hours (or what amount of time?)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys mean like, in the moment someone is ignoring you? Or like, you feel they disregarded your opinion on something?

I mean like when people literally don’t respond to something you ask them. Like, emailing a business partner or kid’s teacher, or sending a text to a kid’s team member’s parent and they don’t respond and it’s about something that affects your kid. Things like that.

With a teacher, assuming it's something important, I would elevate to the asst principal or whoever is next up the chain. "Larla is dealing with bullying and I'm having a hard time getting in touch with Mrs. Smith about it, can you help me?"

[Anonymous]

Does this happen to you often? Seems like an odd thing to ruminate about if its a one time thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. These are helpful. What about the teacher who won’t respond to my emails asking about my kids? Do you just forward to the head of school after 24 hours (or what amount of time?)?

I'm 22:32, but I think the timing depends on what you need. At some schools the expected turnaround is more than 24 hours, and of course you shouldn't be pestering them about unimportant things (I'm not saying you are!).

If you need to talk grades or behavior, you may want to request a phone conference or involve a counselor: those will get more attention than an email.

[Anonymous]

This might not be what you’re looking for, but once when DH was repeatedly ignoring me, I threw a small, cooked potato at him.

It missed and hit the wall. It is not an effective strategy.

Otherwise, for professional stuff I go up and down the chain. For personal stuff, I’m like the PPs who ruminate and fantasize about what I’m going to say one day. There are some days at school pickup and events where I’ve barely resisted doing jumping jacks right in front of someone while yelling “I know you can see me and you’ve been re-introduced to me weekly since 2018!”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does this happen to you often? Seems like an odd thing to ruminate about if its a one time thing.

A truck ran into my spouse while he was out for a bike ride, and he died. People don’t answer my emails or calls now. Teachers are ignoring my kids. It’s like we are evaporating. How do I deal with it? Why do people feel the need to say that’s odd? Is it odd to want to be answered?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does this happen to you often? Seems like an odd thing to ruminate about if its a one time thing.

A truck ran into my spouse while he was out for a bike ride, and he died. People don’t answer my emails or calls now. Teachers are ignoring my kids. It’s like we are evaporating. How do I deal with it? Why do people feel the need to say that’s odd? Is it odd to want to be answered?

OP, it isn’t odd at all and that poster is a gross ahole, and power-tripping because they lack character. Look at how weak and dirty they are with their response. You’re above them. They’re an internet nothing.

For the school stuff, push gently and in nonemotional language up the line.

For friends, hold onto the most empathetic and considerate ones. The others are worthless.

I am so sorry. I am hoping you’ll feel even just a bit better sooner than you think.